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"Exactly. In fact, I'm going to start saying you're off your rocking horse. Would you prefer that?"

I snort. "And what do you mean, 'what is Kirk?' I just—you know, he's one of the animals on the floors. I just wanted a companion. I always wanted a cat, and I was lonely."

His pupils dilate at the word lonely, and for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, I feel like I've said the wrong thing again. Maybe I should pick up a book on fucking etiquette at the bookstore. In fact, I very much think I will. And I'll make sure it's one that doesn't require a goddamned blood ritual to open.

"Alright," he says, sighing heavily, and whatever it was I thought was in his eyes disappeared. "We go to the market, we pick you up a nice ritual dagger that's magically cleansed, right? What kind of jewels do you like? You're wearing red. Is that your color?"

"I like red and blue, they're my favorites, which the house knew," I say slowly.

"Aye, it's going to respond to what you like and change based on your feedback, which is, I imagine, how you got the cat. Although I've never seen a cat that didn't have skin."

"So you mean none of the other heads of houses were able to pull animals out of the floor?"

“They didn’t deign to tell me what they could and couldn’t do in the house, but if they did, I never saw it.”

I briefly wonder if I should tell him about the owl, but based on the concerned look on his face, I think it's better to keep that little secret for now.

"Alright, okay, so we'll go get the fancy dagger and then we'll go to the bookstore if that's what you want, milady."

There's no doubting the sarcasm in the way that he pronounces milady.

I glare at him for a long moment. "If you call me 'milady' or anything like that⁠—"

"'Mistress?" he says, waggling one eyebrow at me. "Would you prefer if I called you my mistress?"

"Absolutely not," I snap. "Just call me by my name."

"Vivienne," he says.

Goosebumps run across my arms at the dark music he's made of my name.

"Yep, that's the one," I say as breezily and nonchalantly as I can manage.

"So after the bookstore⁠—"

"After the bookstore, we need to get you some armor and supplies. There's things that the house can't make for you that are much better quality elsewhere."

"Armor?" I say. "Please tell me you mean leather and not plate."

"Lass, if you needed plate armor, we'd be so fucked that there'd be no point in taking you shopping today."..."Are you ready?"

"I'm ready," I say.

"Then let's go."

He stares at me expectantly. I stare right back at him.

"What do you mean, 'let's go'? Where? Like, do we have a car? Is there a garage? Horseback?"

"We're taking a Pegasus."

"Oh yes, a Pegasus! That will definitely not get anybody's attention. That's how we should probably go, is by fucking Pegasus! Listen, I just got out of a real fucking shit relationship. If you're gonna talk to me like that, we're gonna have problems," I tell him.

His gaze softens slightly. "You're right, lass. My apologies. You got to understand that I haven't been around anyone soft like you in a very long time." He steps closer, tucking a stray strand of my hair behind my ear, then dropping his hand heavily at his side. "I'll try to do better at not offending ya. But where I come from, this is how we show we like someone—by treating them like family."

"Family that you say 'fucking' a lot to and make fun of?" Then I stop hearing myself. "Yeah, okay." I nod. "That does make sense." I loose a deep sigh."Alright. Are you ready now? Are you gonna make me guess where we're going?"

"No, I'm gonna ask you to take my hand and I'll take you there myself. I've got a few spells that the house gives me, and this is one of them. I can portal us away from the house and to the house, and the market has a set location for all house portals. So," he says, leaning forward, extending a large, calloused hand—one I know can turn into a massive killer paw with shredding claws. "Do you trust me?" he asks, looking directly into my eyes.