Fantasyland: Midnight Soul Part 7

Apparently they grieved.

But they were the only ones.

Jesus, this place was f.u.c.king crazy.

It was also crazy interesting.

But it was still f.u.c.king crazy.

The woman sitting next to him had to seriously love her man to give up their world to live in what seemed to Noc like a Renaissance Festival run amuck. A really good one. But with all that snow outside, a really cold one.

Though Cora had told him Bellebryn, where she lived, was much farther south and had a different climate.

"We have weather like Florida. Cool winters, warm summers, suns.h.i.+ny days," she'd said then shot him a huge smile. "Without the humidity, which makes it totally perfect."

Noc shook himself out of his thoughts and carried on the conversation.

"She's not that girl," he stated as to the reason of why he was "brooding."

Cora's beautiful face got even more beautiful when she openly showed her concern.

"I don't know her, but from what Frey and Apollo say, she is, as in she really is," she replied. "And Maddie told me the story of what she'd said to her, right to her face, and, Noc, it was not nice."

"It's an act, Cora. All a big show," he told her.

"Maybe so, but if it is, from what I've heard, it's a good one." She leaned his way where she was sitting beside him at the dinner table. "And Noc, okay, she helped save the world. That was a big deal. But Frey explained to you what they gave her in the queen's study. In our world value, it's worth millions." She leaned closer. "Maybe even billions. No joke."

"She put her a.s.s on the line, babe," he returned. "And maybe she needs it."

"Perhaps the furs, some coin." She shook her head, moving away and tipping her eyes back to her plate. "But all that?" She kept shaking her head, speared a b.u.t.tered, herbed new potato and looked back at him. "She's a member of a House. In Lunwyn, they take care of each other in aristocratic families. She'll have an allowance. And that allowance will be handsome. You can't know this, but her clothes are of superb quality. She clearly has more than one maid, the way she's tended to. She wasn't hurting before. Her taking all that, well, I don't need to know her to know it's greedy, Noc."

"I'm a cop, Cora, I read people for a living. And I'm tellin' you, that woman who walked into that room today is not the woman that woman is."

"I know," she muttered, lifting the potato to her mouth. "You told us all that before she showed."

She ate the potato, and Noc looked to his own plate to spear one too because this world might be crazy, but they had great food, and he didn't know how those potatoes were made, but they f.u.c.king rocked.

"Maybe she was, I don't know...playing you," Cora suggested softly.

Noc turned his eyes to her. "I don't get played."

"From what I hear, she's a master."

"I don't get played," he repeated.

"Okay, then maybe she's more likeable when she's drunk," Cora tried.

Noc chewed and swallowed his potato then turned fully to the gorgeous princess at his side, his dinner partner, as Cora explained, something that was important in any seating arrangement in this world.

Crazy.

"There's more to that woman than meets the eye," he stated.

Her head twitched. "Are you...I mean, I thought...uh, well, you know, you and Circe seem like...are you...do you...?"

He put her out of her misery by sharing, "Circe and me, that was what it was, and what it was was between us. She's an amazing woman. We'll keep in touch when we go back to our world. But she doesn't want that and I'm not looking for it either. We both knew that going in. We both knew what we wanted going in. We both got that. And that part's done."

"I don't actually get any of that," she admitted.

Noc gave her a grin that he hoped took any sting out of his next words. "Not yours to get, babe. That's what I'm tryin' to say."

"Right," she replied.

"And straight up, different time, different world, I'd be into Franka," he glanced up at Cora's phenomenal, thick, s.h.i.+ning, dark-brown hair, looked back to her and winked. "She's my type."

And she was.

He'd dated gold, and Circe was a blonde.

But he knew the one he'd pick in the end would be a brunette.

Cora had great hair, but Franka's was even more thick and s.h.i.+ning and a deeper, richer brown.

Not to mention the woman's eyes were f.u.c.king amazing. That deep blue. G.o.dd.a.m.ned gorgeous.

She also had a beautiful neck.

No, not beautiful.

Slim.

Delicate.

Elegant.

But it was her mouth that drew him. She was what a cosmetic surgeon would use to create a million different sets of lips. Pink. Full. They looked soft, even pillowy.

Noc had to admit it'd suck, leaving this world and not being able to put his mouth to those lips.

But he was not going to kiss those lips.

He wasn't about to get in deep with a woman from this world and he knew himself; the way she looked, her manner, the way she was both before and after they got drunk last night, she'd draw him in.

But he'd already done that and it got his a.s.s in a sling in a variety of ways, including him being magicked to a parallel universe, dropped onto some remote island in order to face down three witches who wanted to take over the world and wouldn't have hesitated to wave their wands or snap their fingers (or whatever witches did) and waste him like blowing out a match.

He wasn't going to go there with Franka.

That was why he knew they were all wrong about her.

It wasn't her playing him. It wasn't her being drunk.

It was that she loved the man who'd been killed by those witches and she'd done it deeply.

The woman they all described didn't feel anything deep, except for herself.

But the pain behind those blue eyes of hers, she could try to hide it, but it was so immense, that was impossible.

The thing was, Noc didn't get why he cared so much what they thought.

They'd talked about how much they were giving her, doing this way overkill because they wanted rid of her for good and sneered at the fact she'd take it.

He'd told them she wouldn't, and the way they'd been when they disagreed was not ugly or mean, just definite.

Then she'd taken it.

He was not that guy who always had to be right and he'd only spent a few hours with the woman.

But he'd felt like she'd personally slapped him in the face when she'd accepted all that treasure from Queen Aurora. He'd been certain, and shared it with Frey and Apollo, after their time drinking whiskey, after she'd admitted how she felt guilt about what she'd done to betray her country, she'd decline.

He didn't feel like the a.s.shole who had lost a bet. That moron who was in the position to take the hit of I told you so.

He'd felt like she'd betrayed him by not being who he was certain she was by doing what he was sure she wouldn't do.

All of this meant it was probably good she was leaving tomorrow.

First, she needed to get away from folks who didn't like her and didn't mind in the slightest sharing that with her. No one needed that.

And second, Noc needed her away from him.

He was going to go to Apollo and Maddie's wedding.

After that, he was going to sail with Frey and Finnie as they took Cora and Tor back to Bellebryn.

When they'd offered him his own chests of jewels and gold, he'd bartered instead for that. A few months in this world, taking it in, seeing as much of it as he could see.

Before he'd come here, discussing his involvement with Valentine, he'd already put in notice at work.

And then Valentine had a.s.sured him she would find him a position in New Orleans and he was all for that. A big adventure where he didn't have to worry about reporting for duty, any cases he'd left open, nothing.

Then afterward, a new place, new job, new start.

And the good news was, Circe would be there because she lived in New Orleans, so he'd have someone to hang with.

Valentine lived there too but Noc didn't see that woman hanging with anyone. Though he suspected if they found a place that made good martinis, she might stoop to throw a couple back with them.

Queen Aurora (and Frey, and when Noc kept refusing, the kicker, Cora) had insisted he take a small bag of those ice diamonds and a small chest of gold. And with his adventure in this crazy place, that was all he needed. More than he needed (Circe had taken more but she'd had a seriously f.u.c.ked-up life, was trying to make a go of it in NOLA as an office manager of a towing company, and after all she'd had done to her, she deserved some cush and the means to spoil herself).

And that was what he was going to get, what he was going to do, what was up next for Noc.

The beautiful, but grieving, Franka Drakkar with her pretty mouth didn't factor.

"So she's your type," Cora said, taking him back into their conversation, "But you're not gonna go there."

Noc shook his head. "She's from here, I'm from home. I'm going home. But it isn't even about that, babe. Tor got you back. Frey got Finnie back. Won't go on because you were there, you know. Franka didn't get her man back."

"Don't say that in front of Apollo," she whispered. "Maddie suggested that and it p.i.s.ses him off. He thinks she's incapable of any emotion, much less love."

"You four couples aren't the only ones who've known love, Cora," he returned. "Not bein' a d.i.c.k, but that's the way it is. And she's stone cold on the outside, babe, but inside the woman is in some serious pain. She's capable of emotion, just like you and me, and I know that because I saw it."

What he didn't share was that Franka Drakkar might be capable of more of it, with the pain he saw in her eyes, the guilt that seemed to visibly weigh on her at what she'd done.

She just, for some reason, wouldn't allow herself to let it show, even maybe fully feel it.

That reason was a mystery and Noc was a cop. Cops were big on mysteries. Solving them, to be precise.

f.u.c.k.

Another reason he had to steer clear of Franka Drakkar.

Cora nodded. "I think your perception of her is right, at least the way she is with you, for whatever reason she gave you that particular Franka. What concerns me, honey, is that it seems to mean so much to you."

That was what concerned him too.

"Woman's in pain, she gave me that, she gave me time," he tried to explain it. "Tomorrow, she'll be gone and eventually she'll be just another memory of this place. But you spend hours with a woman drinking whiskey and watching her face light up, the pain she's trying to hide clearing clean away because she's never seen a phone before. We'll just say that'll be a memory I won't forget."

"I'll bet," Cora replied, the concern s.h.i.+fting out of her expression, understanding replacing it.

Noc grabbed his knife and started cutting into the tender, moist, perfectly-cooked steak on his plate.

Cora changed the subject.

"I can't wait to show you my world, Noc. It's gonna be awesome. You're gonna love it."

He looked to her, meat in his mouth and chewing and smiling he said, "Can't wait either, babe."

Her face lit up too.

And seeing it, Noc knew that'd be another memory he wouldn't forget that he'd take home from this crazy world.

There it was.

They were having dinner and Franka wasn't invited.

Tomorrow morning, she'd be leaving.

So she was a memory of this world.

A mysterious one.