Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(126)

Then she looked back to the sea.

Then she said softly, “I have work to do.”

“You do, indeed,” Lavinia agreed. “As do I.”

She did. Troubled times lay ahead and if Valentine was not taking back trunks of jewels and gold, she would have nothing to do with it.

Valentine did not have a good feeling about what was to come for this universe.

Not at all.

And she’d been trapped in that universe during war and she had not enjoyed it even a little bit.

That said, the work she had to do at that moment didn’t have to do with the troubles this world faced. It also didn’t have to do with Apollo Ulfr and his blind devotion to a dead woman.

It had to do with something else.

Something she was not doing for payment.

Something she was doing just for fun.

And also, since she seemed to be growing soft of heart recently (also unfortunately), something she was doing for love.

Then again, love was everything so she forgave herself her soft heart… this time.

Valentine turned back to her friend. “Until tomorrow.”

Lavinia lifted her chin and smiled.

Valentine lifted both hands then, moments later, in a mist of green, she disappeared.

She reappeared not in New Orleans, her home.

No, she reappeared in a living room in Seattle.

“Jesus, f**k! What the f**k? Who the f**k are you?” the man walking out of his kitchen carrying a bottle of beer and spying her in his living room burst out.

Valentine allowed herself an indulgent moment to study the extremely handsome Noctorno Hawthorne of her world.

Then she said words he would undoubtedly understand immediately.

“Cora needs you.”

His powerful body went statue-still and he glared at her but behind his blue eyes he was alert and he didn’t even attempt to veil his concern.

Then he transferred his glare to the ceiling.

Then he muttered, “Fuck.”

At that, finally, Valentine smiled her cat’s smile.