Difficult Girl, page 1
DIFFICULT GIRL
A FANTASY ADVENTURE
THE CRIMSHADE CHRONICLES
BOOK THREE
MARY E. TWOMEY
MARY E. TWOMEY, LLC
CONTENTS
Difficult Girl
1. Sweetheart
2. Helping Felix
3. Connery’s Store Time
4. Swift Vengeance
5. Can’t Solve it All in a Night
6. An Imperfect Plan
7. Connery’s Plea
8. Reunited
9. Therapy Gone Wrong
10. Golden Scars
11. Non-Seasonal Christmas Elf
12. Harmless Walking Vagina
13. Moat Monsters
14. Pavma’s Death
15. Invisible Intruders
16. An Offering
17. Stolen Treasures
18. Surprising Love
19. Rogue Band of Misfits
20. Pastka Dushi
21. Nightmare
22. The Bad (and Only) Plan
23. One Less Traveler
24. Golden Girl
About the Author
DIFFICULT GIRL
Book Three in the Crimshade Chronicles
By
Mary E. Twomey
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2023 Tuesday Androsian
Cover Art by Crowe Covers
All rights reserved.
First Edition: August 2023
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
For information:
http://www.maryetwomey.com
DEDICATION
To Lorina and Barbara,
Who took the time to lovingly educate me.
ABOUT DIFFICULT GIRL
Storming the castle seemed like a good idea at the time…
When the only way to liberate the medicine for the masses is to break into the castle, Zara knows the odds are stacked against them. Even with Connery and Bodhi by her side, there is precious little hope that she will be able to get in and out of the guarded grounds unscathed.
Between slippery moat monsters and troublesome treasures, the right thing to do isn’t always clear. Going with her gut has served her well in the past, but this time, Zara is not sure if the road she’s chosen will lead her to deliverance, or if she is headed for a harrowing defeat that will take down everyone she loves.
This is the third in a six-part inclusive LGBTQ+ fantasy romance series written by USA Today Bestselling Author Mary E. Twomey.
1
SWEETHEART
Being dumped in a magical plane is nothing new to me at this point. After discovering Connery, my dog, with a horrible disease in an alley and nursing him back to health, I’d assumed any odd twists of my life would be over after that. But when my sweet enormous dog communicated that he’d escaped from another world called Crimshade, and that broken place brought itself thundering to my doorstep, I learned quickly that life is never what you think it is.
Especially when magic is involved.
I went from raising my sister’s daughter with my best friend, Jonathan, to leaving the two of them temporarily to remedy a wrong that grew out of control. It’s only been around a week that we’ve been apart, but my insides feel raw and exposed at the distance. Of course, I had little choice in the matter. The vonding charm that Bodhi performed on me to enhance his magic was supposed to have faded not more than an hour after he set it in motion. But here we are, weeks later, and we can hear each other’s thoughts if we want that sort of closeness.
Add that to the fact that I murdered a horrible thief who just so happened to be the Highest Mage (because he was stealing other mages’ magic to make himself more powerful, but whatever), and you get a woman who is accidentally left holding all the stolen magic. All of it is swimming around inside my body. It was given to me when Garlan’s golden ring that he used to steal and store magic over the years was melted into the side of my face. I still haven’t found a mirror to inspect the damage, but that’s all second to the priority of returning the stolen magic to the mages from which it came.
I suppose starting that journey by returning magic to a couple of high-security criminals wasn’t my best choice, but what’s done is done. Bodhi and Connery had their makeshift family taken from them for too long. Liberating Fritz and Felix from their prison on the V’Yazen Island was supposed to be the job. We accidentally ended up liberating the entire island of criminals.
Thank goodness most of them are content to keep on living here on the island, wanting nothing to do with the real world that cast them out so wholly from the mainland.
My head hurts as I wait on the shore of the island by myself, the freed prisoners celebrating in the background with jubilant song. Connery insisted I not be alone on the island, but after Bodhi teleported Queen Helena, Princess Dawn, Fritz, and Felix to the mainland, I told Bodhi to take Connery next.
I need a minute to myself to think.
To decompress.
To sit on the shore and watch the sun hang low in the sky over the glitteringly blue ocean.
To wonder how I got myself into this mess in the first place, and if there will be an end to the madness.
Or perhaps the madness travels with me, as I’ve often suspected might be the case.
The choir of voices in my head calls out to me. “Release me,” they beg, wanting to be returned to their rightful owners.
“I know, I know,” I assure the shiny globular orb inside my body that was not there a week ago. “I’ll set you free just as soon as I come across another mage. You know I will.”
There’s also the small matter of the prisoners on the mainland, who are slowly decaying and dying from a very curable case of leprosy, which in this world has been dubbed “the traitor’s disease”. The king is so insecure that he’s made a disease about him, throwing anyone in prison who contracts it. King Artifice assumes that they only succumbed to the sickness because nature sensed disloyalty to the throne in them.
Bodhi and I stole bags and bags of antibiotics, steroids, and vitamins from pharmacies in my world, hoping they would safely make it to his world to cure the people in the mainland prison from their leprosy. But nothing ever seems to go to plan in Crimshade. Minutes after the medicine made it to the world that needed it most, it was seized by the king’s men and taken to part of the castle we cannot reach without some serious help.
Which, it looks like now we might have, thanks to us having freed Fritz and Felix.
I hug my knees to my chest with one arm and let my bloodied free hand drift to the sand. I love the calming feel when the granules sift through my fingers. This place that used to be a symbol for doom is now the most joyous space in all of Crimshade.
Finally, I exhale a portion of my stress. I need to get back to my daughter. As soon as Bodhi is able, I need him to take me to my world, so I can be with Seven.
“She’s fine,” I tell myself. “She’s got Jonathan, who has been like a father to her from the beginning.”
The very real insecurity that reminds me I don’t know what I’m doing as far as parenting goes is no small thing. Seven is my sister’s child. When my sister passed, Seven went to me. I’ve always known I would be a terrible mother, which was why I never attempted the feat. But I am nothing if not a judicious student, so I do my best, which is hard to remember when I am a whole world away and have to justify to myself why I am not with her.
I don’t have a choice, I remind myself. I have to stay near Bodhi because of the vonding charm that still tethers us together. And Bodhi is needed in his world every bit as much as I am needed in mine. Fortunately, we don’t have to be right near each other, as we did before, but neither of us are willing to be worlds apart and trust that there won’t be dire consequences to my health.
When the dapper man in fitted trousers, dress shirt and a waistcoat appears before me, he is winded, but looks ready for the task of taking me off the island. I might have buckets of magic inside of me, but that doesn’t mean I know how to use it. Thank goodness Bodhi is linked to me and happens to know what he’s doing with his restored magic. It’s strange (because I have so few people in the world that I trust) that I trust Bodhi implicitly to always do right by me.
“Miss me much?” he asks with a crooked smile on his angular features. He looks like a handsome fairytale poet come to life. His black hair is styled to stand up to the left, the perfect mixture of windblown and immaculately styled.
“Always.” Instead of standing, I pat the spot of sand to my right. “Sit with me for a minute.”
Bodhi obliges. Even though we have only known each other a month or so, Bodhi doesn’t leave a polite two feet of space between us. He plops down right beside me, his arm curving around my shoulders so he can kiss my temple. “I hope you know I’m risking Connery’s wrath, sitting here with you like this. I was given strict instructions to waste no time returning you to him.”
I lean into Bodhi’s half-embrace. “We’ll get back to him. But for a minute, could we just sit and watch the sun? It’s pretty like this, and I know that when we get off the island, it’s going to be nonstop movement.”
I love snuggling i
“Whatever you wish, Goddess of Vengeance.” Bodhi addresses me with a slight tease, using the title by which the liberated criminals on the island started addressing me.
I roll my eyes. “Ha, ha. I swear, I didn’t tell anyone to call me that. I don’t even know who she is.”
Bodhi stares out on the open water beside me, allowing himself to be mesmerized by the sight of the waves lapping at the shore. “The Goddess of Vengeance is a tale meant to give the people hope if they’re ever under a ruler who doesn’t appreciate the balance of power that needs to exist between a king and his people. After Dub created Crimshade in an explosion of black glimmering light and promptly abandoned it to ruin, the story goes that Dub left a Goddess of Vengeance to watch over us. While Dub is made of darkness, the goddess is made of pure gold. She wields a rusty sword and takes down foul rulers in the name of the people who call upon her.”
I motion to the melted gold from Garlan’s ring that’s embedded onto the side of my face. “I can see why they got us confused. I tried to set them straight, but no one’s listening. Maybe I’ll try letting them down gently with an off-key song. Then they’ll really know I’m not a goddess.” I smirk at my friend.
Bodhi squeezes me to him. “Let them have their fantasy come to life. They’ve had little cause for hope or dreaming. Now that they birthed the goddess to their very island, we shouldn’t deny them their celebration.”
I can still hear the chanting of joy and freedom coming from behind us. I’m relieved for them, glad that they aren’t being abused in their small cells any longer.
But I want to get back home.
My thoughts are all over the place, and my emotions just as chaotic, but I keep my mouth shut while the sun watches us in our friendly cuddle on the beach, because as much as I feel like I know Bodhi, I truly don’t. I am new to this world, and new to him. Even though being able to read each other’s minds gives us a fast track to deep connection, I’d rather keep my crazy to a minimum.
I’m anxious to get back to my daughter. Seven needs me.
Bodhi kisses my temple again. “Give us a day or two to get on our feet, and I’ll take you back to Seven and Jonathan.”
It’s dysfunctional to wind my fingers through his and rest our joined hands atop his thigh, but there are moments when I cannot tell where Bodhi ends and I begin. We need to sever this connection, but I know that when we figure out how to do so, I will endure a hollowness I might never shake.
I didn’t realize how isolated I’d allowed myself to become until Bodhi crashed into my psyche like a rhinoceros, taking up space without permission, using only his grin as the key to let himself in where he pleases. Now that he’s here, I find I like him in my space.
“You’re not supposed to go poking around in my head without permission,” I remind him.
Bodhi sighs. “I hardly mean to do it.” He fixes me with a small smirk. “Do you think Jonathan’s been missing me?”
I chuckle at Bodhi’s blatant crush on my best friend. “I think he’d be a fool not to. However, he’s much like me, in that we don’t have time for relationships. I’d adjust your expectations accordingly.”
“You don’t have time for relationships? Do you truly not understand what it meant when Connery claimed you as his m’dolla?”
I shift uncomfortably in the sand. “You know I don’t know what that means. We don’t have that word where I come from.”
“It’s a shifter term. Connery is the only shifter left in the world, you know. It’s hard to define, but it’s permanent and it’s deep. So if you think you’re not in a relationship, you are most certainly mistaken.”
“I love Connery,” I tell Bodhi without caveat. “I told him as much today. It’s no secret. He’s my sweetie pie.”
Bodhi’s chortle holds a note of warning to it. “Well, I’m glad to hear that. When you’re ready to understand how strong his affection for you actually is, I hope I’m near enough to watch your pretty little head explode.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t make me overthink things, and don’t make it weird. I’m barely keeping up in your world of crazy magical terms and rules. Connery is my sweetheart. Nothing more and nothing less.”
I love how I can declare things like that with confidence, even though I know precious little about this world and its rules.
The two of us sit in the sand without speaking, listening to the waves and watching the sunlight sparkle on the ocean that seems to have no end. I love the peace that finds me when I am sane enough to sit still and let myself be found.
Bodhi’s voice is quiet. “Zara darling, we need to go. I fear your sweetheart will have my head if I don’t get you back to him soon, and my head is far too pretty to part with.”
“The entire world would dim if we were robbed of your beauty. I agree.” I love how easy it is to be with this new friend. It’s like we’ve known each other for decades, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
That’s a surprise to me, given how well I do on my own, with one friend and no desire for more.
Bodhi holds me tighter, and I can tell he’s getting ready to teleport me to the place where he’s stashed the others. “Oh, so much easier,” he murmurs. “Tapping into your well of magic is fantastic. I’m getting better at relying on my own renewed magic, but even when I tap into you, it’s so much better when we’re connected like this. I barely have to try.”
I focus on the sunshine, letting it warm me and burn away anything I don’t want to take with me on this next leg of the journey, that will hopefully lead me home.
2
HELPING FELIX
The glittery sunshine is merely a continuation of the place where Bodhi takes me. In one breath, we are on the beach. In the next, we are sitting under the fat tree outside of Garlan’s abode atop a mossy mountain.
Well, it used to belong to Garlan, until the jackass that was the Highest Mage attacked me, and I had to…
I can barely say it to myself. I don’t want to have murdered anyone for any reason. I should have asked where Bodhi was taking us, but this would have been my first guess. No one comes to Garlan’s home unless they have a superb bit of magic they want to show to him, asking for his help wielding it. That was our first mistake, making our way to him all the way up here in the middle of nowhere. However, it does make a perfect out of the way spot to regroup while our four liberated prisoners figure out their next move.
Bodhi helps me to stand, brushing the sand off us both. I’m not in the habit of holding a man’s hand while I walk, but with Bodhi, that simple action instills us both with a sense of calm, due to our psychic connection that has yet to be severed. His fingers twine through mine while we stroll to the gilded home that’s been carved out of a wide tree trunk—opulence smack in the middle of nature.
Helena and Dawn are sobbing on the stoop, refusing to go inside because they want to be in the sunshine together.
I wonder when the last time was that Dawn saw the sun or felt its rays on her pale skin.
Helena is seventy-five years old, and her daughter is twenty-six. They were sent to the island when Dawn was just a child. They were kept apart when Dawn turned eighteen, except for the narrow tunnel Helena dug through her cell so she could whisper reassuring promises to her daughter.
