The Wish Granter (Ravenspire #2)(69)

This was a disaster. If Maarit thought Ari was spying on Teague, she’d tell him, and then Ari would lose everything. Desperately hoping her story would hold up, Ari started talking.

“I’m cleaning,” Ari said in the most matter-of-fact voice she could summon with her heart pounding and her knees shaking. Marching back to the desk, she picked up the rag and lemon oil to prove her point, trying hard to move without making the parchment hidden in her chemise rustle.

Maarit’s eyes narrowed. “I do the cleaning.”

That was debatable.

Ari gave her a little smile. “I know you do. But you were nice enough to go to the market for me. I wanted to do something nice in return.”

“This door was locked.”

Ari frowned. “It opened right up.” It really had. Teague should invest in better locks.

Maarit furrowed her brow and turned to examine the doorknob. “It was locked. I’m sure of it.”

Ari shrugged. The parchment in her undergarments rustled, and she quickly reached to straighten a stack on the desk, making plenty of noise as she did so. Maarit looked up. “Get away from those! You aren’t supposed to be here.”

Ari took the rag and the lemon oil and stepped away from the desk. “I’m sorry. I started in the back parlor and thought I’d dust the entire main level, one room at a time. The door opened for me, so I thought it would be all right.”

“Empty your pockets.”

Ari blinked. “I’m wearing a dress. I don’t have pockets.”

She just had her chemise and a desperate hope that Maarit wouldn’t think to check it.

Maarit went toward her—the woman could move quickly when she was angry—and said, “You were told never to come in here uninvited.”

“I was?” Ari tried for her best I-am-so-confused expression. Maarit didn’t look convinced.

“Your first morning here. I told you the rules. I was very clear.” Anger lent strength to her papery voice.

Thank the stars Maarit had given Ari the lecture about off-limits areas after she’d nearly knocked her unconscious with the magic fae tea. It was the only scenario that would lend credibility to the princess’s story now.

Ari shook her head, her pulse pounding. “All I remember is drinking that tea and everything getting hazy, and then I fell asleep. When did you tell me any rules?”

Maarit stared at her for a long moment and then mumbled, “After you drank the tea.”

Ari bit her lip. “I’m sorry if I wasn’t supposed to come in here. It won’t happen again. Do you want me to finish dusting since I already started?”

The older woman glared. “I want you to get out.”

Ari complied, and Maarit locked the door behind them.

“Are you going to tell Teague?” the princess asked, her voice trembling.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Maarit snapped as she brushed past the princess. The faint scent of overgrown forests and sun-warmed soil followed her.

Ari had a sudden, sickening fear that Maarit was fae too. Either that or the woman needed a drink of magic fae tea now and then just to keep her (seriously old) self alive.

Choosing her next words with care, Ari said, “Because I’d like to tell him myself. I have nothing to hide, but I have plenty to lose. I want a chance to explain myself before he decides to just end my life over a misguided attempt to help you with housework.”

Maarit shrugged and walked away. “Dust if you want to. Come bake a cake if you want to. Might as well do it now since you’ll most likely be dead before morning.”

“That’s not very reassuring,” Ari muttered.

Whatever reply Maarit might have made was cut off by the sound of someone pounding on the villa’s front door.

Maarit stiffened, and Ari glanced out the nearest window as if that would tell her why, after five days of absolutely no one but Teague, Maarit, and the villa guards coming and going from the house, someone would be on the porch.

“Where are the guards?” Maarit whispered, flexing her wrinkled hands as though she could somehow stop someone from getting into the villa.

“Are we expecting someone?” Ari asked, as wild hope tangled with fear within her.

Maybe Sebastian had finally found her.

Maybe it was an enemy of Teague’s.

Maybe it was—

“No, we aren’t.” Maarit’s voice shook as whoever was on the other side of the door pounded on it again. “Curse this body. I can’t fight, but—”

“Stay here,” Ari said as she pushed in front of the housekeeper and ran down the long hallway. “Or better yet, hide.”

“Don’t open that! No one was invited. We wait until the boss returns, and then—”

Boom, boom, boom. The pounding reverberated throughout the main level.

Sebastian would be subtle. Careful.

That meant whomever was at the door wasn’t a friend to Ari and wasn’t a friend to Teague.

The irony of having to defend the home of the monster she wanted to kill wasn’t lost on Ari.

“I’m not going to open it.” Ari rushed down the hall and skidded around a doorway into the library. “I’m getting a weapon. We have to assume the guards are out of commission. We also have to assume that whoever wants in badly enough to batter down the door won’t hesitate to rip off a shutter and come through a window.”