Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“Hi,” I said, blinking out at her.
“Hi. Look at this!” She shoved a piece of paper at me.
I took it, reading down the list of products and then the large numbers next to them. “What is this?”
“This, my dear, is a summary of all the merchant orders for Red Lupine. Word got around that Granny’s original drugmaker was working for the dragons now, and they all flocked to our product. No sickness, no deaths, no danger. That’s what we advertised, and it was exactly right. But guess what else?”
She stepped to the side so I could exit. We began walking down the hall.
“What else?” I asked.
“People who would never normally touch that kind of stuff were recommended certain things from the medics—since, you know, we insisted some things be treated like medicines. Hitting that market opened up a whole new income stream for your product. You put things out there that didn’t exist before, and the need for some of it is high. And you know what else?”
“Not a clue.”
“The product design worked like a charm. Like a fucking charm, Aurelia. Sales are up across the board. You nailed that.”
“That was Granny’s idea. I just applied it to your stuff.”
“You created the look of it. People love it.” She dug in her pocket and pulled out my Moonfire Lily branding with the two wolves and fuchsia coloring. “They get a kick out of this one in particular.”
“Why is that?”
She gave me a flat look. “Don’t play coy with me. You pointed out the little heart you worked in there, but you failed to mention the other hidden gem you put in the picture.”
I twisted my lips, trying to hide a smile. The negative space between the wolves created a heart, somewhat apparent but not terribly obvious. Weston had really loved that branding. In the corner of the image, though, I couldn’t help creating another image in the negative space, one that was small and difficult to notice.
“A flying dick, Aurelia?” Finley said. “Really?”
I busted out laughing. “That branding is Cecil approved.”
She looked at it, shaking her head. “I can’t believe nobody noticed.”
“Vemar noticed. He’s good at keeping secrets.”
“Fucking Vemar. Of course he noticed. He has that painting you created on his wall, front and center. Hadriel gave it to him as a joke. He gets a good laugh out of it.” She shoved the wrapper back into her trousers. “Well, I guess a few other people noticed and absolutely loved it. Now they are looking closely at all the packaging for other little hidden images. I think we should try to incorporate that idea. Maybe have a few different ones released every so often, I don’t know.”
I kept looking at the sheet. Finley grabbed my arm to stop me abruptly, pushing me toward the wall.
“What’s the matter?” I asked in alarm.
“There goes the nanny with Tabitha. She’s going for her nap. If she sees me, she won’t want to go down.”
I longed to peek around the corner to get a glimpse of the little cutie but resisted. Instead, I ran my hand along my belly, hardly able to wait until I had one of my own.
“Okay.” Finley jerked her head toward the hall. “Coast is clear.” She noticed my hand, and a little smile played across her lips. “Is Weston overbearing yet?”
“No. Whenever he steps in about something, he’s right. He’s not rough about it, either. Most the time he doesn’t bother to say anything. Just gives me a look.”
She shook her head slowly as we made it to the back door. “You guys are too easy to manage.”
“It’s too much effort to argue.”
“Effort? Fighting about it is half the fun!”
“What’s the other half?”
Her eyes sparkled with mischief when she said, “Making up, obviously.”
I looked at all the numbers. “This is a lot of product. If Granny had given me this list, I think I would’ve hyperventilated.”
“Granny could’ve given you a list like that if she hadn’t fucked up your product with that coating and started addicting and killing people. Or even if she’d heeded your direction and treated some of it as medicinal, like we’re doing. She was greedy and shortsighted, and now we are going to shove her out of the market altogether.”
I nodded and knew I should’ve felt satisfaction over that; it was what I had been trying to do, after all. The idea of it, though, made me feel hollow. Vengeance had been a great motivator early on, but now that I had a life I loved, a mate of my dreams, and a baby on the way, vengeance just seemed like a poison I didn’t want or need.
“This is just the beginning, too,” Finley said as we pushed through the door. “The other kingdoms will catch on. The orders will pour in. Nyfain has offered the fairies a cut of the proceeds from the product you drew a fairy on, plus acknowledgment that you have fairy blood, in exchange for that training. Once they see how well it is doing over there, they’ll up the percentage of the cut and want to know how you make it. We’ll show them some things, but the Moonfire Lily will remain a secret. Given they don’t have wolves in their kingdom, they probably have fuck-all growing in their wilds. And even if they do, fairy vision is different than a wolf’s night vision. They won’t be able to find it. Suck on that, fairies.” She glanced at me. “No offense, Aurelia. Anyway, hopefully that’ll finally end the negotiations. They really fucking wanted you. Bad. It makes me giddy to see what your magic can really do.”