Perigee [bxb] | Bad Moon Book II

Epilogue

An; unedited, but I want to get this last part to you guys before I get busy with querying. This chapter officially marks the end of Perigee and the beginning of our next adventures! Think of it like a post-credit scene.

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Drew had all the makings of a fairy—soft, round face, black jewels for eyes, and hair that couldn't be mistaken for anything but an opalescent rose. Sadie had expected her assigned Councilman to be older, wiser. The kind of old fart she could really get her claws into when things went haywire. Instead, she was given a small, effeminate boy. Tiny and lanky from his shoe-size to his fingers. He was cute, though, and it seemed the young Councilman knew it. Often, she saw her wolves glow red at the sight of his soft etiquette and his china-doll smile.

If only there wasn't a devil beneath that velvet pelt.

"Do you know how much money you've spent?" Drew squawked, papers flinging from his clipboard and scattering about the ballroom. "A wood-iron stove in the kitchen, a fireplace in the throne room—" he paused then, to gesture at the blazing fire, setting the room aglow in a glaze of sunset, "—air conditioning because the fireplace gets too hot? And now you want a dungeon? What in the hell are we going to use a dungeon for? I've got the feeling you're taking your title of Queen too seriously."

Sadie sipped at the aged wine welling within her glinting new golden chalice. Releasing her bendy-straw and tipping back her crown—custom designed with a plentiful of fiery garnets and zirconium diamonds—she lifted her chin to Drew. "I don't know what you mean."

Heat flared in Drew's cheeks—but the rosy tint only made him softer. Instead of looking properly angry, the rage on his face made Sadie wanted to paint him up in lace and ribbons. "Ziya's fortune may have been built on the bones of lies, but you're wasting it away none the less!"

"Relax," Sadie said, admittedly a bit drunk on wine. "I re-invested in pharmaceuticals. And anyway, we're not just selling placebos this time. I have fifty more recipes for homeopathics and herbal supplements that'll actually help people. And once they realize it's helping them, they'll come back for more!"

Drew gaped at her, an irritating twinge in his brow as he watched the way she searched blindly for the straw with her tongue until she eventually lassoed it into her mouth. "You have no idea how business works."

"I'll look into classes," she replied her over straw.

"Have your fun, Queen," he grumbled. "Your constable comes today and I highly doubt they'll allow anymore of this nonsensical spending."

"I don't need a constable," Sadie groaned, stirring her straw in her near-empty chalice. Your right-hand, was the way Drew had defined the constable. Your first defense and your required chaperon. "I'm not a child."

"No," said, Drew, taking a glance at his clipboard. "You're a grown woman who ordered an... industrial-sized chocolate fountain for her inaugural party. You know it won't happen until next Perigee, don't you? It's going to sit in storage for months, taking up the space we could be using to store all the excess furniture you ordered. 'Fourteen shag carpet rugs'," he read, immediately chucking his clipboard to the floor. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean shag!"

Sadie slunk down on her throne, sipping on her wine while Drew went on about her frivolous spending, only removing the straw from her mouth when a wolf scurried into the throne room, a basket of fruit in her arms.

"My queen, a gift's arrived," she said, placing the basket in Sadie's arms.

Gifts came often—usually things like fine dresses and French wine. This time, though, Sadie found herself staring into the sleek reflective skin of assorted fruits.