Fairest 02 - The Frog Prince by Adrianne Brooks Page A

fire.”
    She laughed, but it was more as if she were trying to appease him than expressing true amusement. They continued onwards, but Chris found himself watching shadows more closely. Stiffening when the wind shifted the foliage as if preparing for attack from some unknown adversary. He was unsurprised when his heightened attention had his head aching even more than before. Though the day passed without him catching a glimpse of a single thing, that didn’t stop him from looking. Chris had learned a long time ago that just because you couldn’t see an enemy didn’t mean that there were none around.
    Some called that “paranoia.”
    He called it hindsight.
    ***
    Mara had been working for the demons for as long as she could remember. Her average work week had long ceased to impress her and she sighed as the phone rang yet again.
    “Hello,” she said, false cheer in every syllable. “Welcome to the seventh level of hell, how can I help you?” She eyed her nails critically before applying another coat of red nail polish.
    “Mara.” The woman on the other end of the phone sounded irritated and Mara rolled her eyes. “Put Zaran on the phone.”
    “Ma’am, please state the nature of your sin, and I’ll be able to connect you to the proper demonic department.”
    “Dear Lord, girl.” Mara winced, ears stinging. “If you don’t let me speak to Max, I will rip out the stinking strands you call hair extensions and strangle you with them.”
    Mara sighed. Some days you were the plague, and some days you were the Egyptian.
    “Fine,” she snapped. Mara put her on hold and called Zaran’s office. “Sir,” she began, “Danielle is on the other line.”
    He sighed. “Put her through.”
    Mara transferred the call obediently, but rather than hang up, she placed her hand over the mouthpiece and listened in.
    “What do you want, shrew?”
    “You’re especially handsome when you’re spiteful, darling.”
    “I’m a little busy, Danny. What is it?”
    “I need a favor.”
    “The answer is no.”
    “You don’t even know what it is yet.”
    Mara heard a squeak as Zaran leaned back in his seat.
    “You want Fairy Dust.”
    “How did you-?”
    “You’re not my only customer, love,” he said sweetly. “In fact, you’re not my customer at all anymore.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “I have other obligations.”
    “I doubt that.”
    “It’s true. I have a Toadstone to find after all.”
    There was a moment of silence before Danielle spoke again, voice growing tight with rage.
    “You don’t want to get on my bad side, Djinn.” There was a dark quality to her tone that had Mara shivering and pulling the phone away from her skin. Hearing her speak, hearing her hiss the ancient name of genies over the phone as if it were nothing more than an endearment, made Mara feel dirty, almost violated. As if there were worms crawling beneath her clothes. “Test me and I’ll have you back in a bottle before you can blink.”
    “I love it when you talk dirty, Danny.”
    “Do you want to die? I’ll make it slow,” she snarled, and Zaran moaned in pornographic exaggeration.
    “Say it again, only this time make sure you moan my name at the end.”
    The line went dead as Danielle hung up.
    Zaran chuckled darkly. “Mara?”
    Mara jumped guiltily. “ Ye-yes sir?”
    “Screen the rest of my calls, won’t you, love?”
    She blushed. She couldn’t help it.
    “Yes, sir.”
    ***
    Rachel couldn’t stop her mind from racing. Instead, she lay beside the makeshift fire that Chris had managed to build with a few loose vines and some sticks. She was starving. She hadn’t eaten since before she’d been cursed. The magic had been the only thing that had kept her from starving to death, but now that she was awake, she’d lost that protective layer. It had been so long since she’d felt hunger that she’d forgotten what the twisting agony in her belly actually meant. When the dragon fire had been the norm, nothing