De'Vas Chronicles Book 3: Chapter 8

Bo walked into Ash’s office and tossed a box of donuts onto the desk. Ash finished sending the text message he was working on to Selena before putting his phone down. He grabbed a chocolate one, while Bo snagged a blueberry donut before taking a seat on the sofa.

“You get your ass chewed?” Bo asked.

Ash washed down his bite of donut with coffee.

“Oh, yeah. Due to how much I’m in the doghouse, Silver is bringing the photos of the brass ball to Raina herself. I don’t think Faylen’s going to let me out of the district anytime soon without her or Naomi accompanying me.”

Bo devoured half his blueberry donut, before taking a swig from his paper coffee cup. Ash glared at it, figuring it was some butchering of coffee with cream and sugar, but said nothing.

“Jacklyn said next time I go to District 208, Ella’s in charge of watching me as soon as I step through the portal,” Bo said ignoring Ash’s glare at his coffee cup.

Ash shook his head at the orc.

“How the hell is that a punishment? What other reason do you have to go to District 208 except to see your girlfriend? Hell, it’s why you agreed to go with me there the first time.” Ash said.

“Not my girlfriend,” Bo said pointing a finger at him.

Ash rolled his eyes.

Bo looked like he was about to say something, but he stopped to pull out his phone and read a text message. Bo started texting on his phone with a huge smile on his face and Ash knew exactly who he was messaging.

“Ah, young love,” Ash said sarcastically.

Bo froze and scowled at him.

“There’s no way you know it’s Ella,” the orc said defensively.

Ash laughed.

“I’ve been texting Selena for a good part of the morning. She wants to come examine the fish farms as part of the trade deal we’re working out. I figured if she was coming to District 114, so was Ella,” Ash stated before grinning at Bo. “So where are you taking Ella on your date?”

Ash ducked as the throw pillow from the couch almost hit him in the head. He just laughed more.

Twenty minutes later, Bo and Ash stood by the portal waiting on Selena and Ella.

“Asshole,” Bo said to him as they waited for the stone doorway to shimmer blue.

“Don’t get all frumpy, it’ll give you wrinkles before your big date,” Ash chuckled.

Before the orc could retaliate the portal whirled to life. Ella was the first one to step through. The normally tomboyish bodyguard of Selena looked very different today. She was wearing a colorful sundress and makeup. Bo’s jaw was practically on the floor.

Yeah, it’s definitely a date.

Selena walked through the portal next and Ash felt his eyes widen at her. She looked stunning. She was wearing a black jacket over a cream color sweater. Her golden hair was in curls that seemed to dance in the wind. Ash’s heart raced as her violet eyes met his. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Selena was just here for business, he reminded himself. He did his best to push memories of the kiss from his thoughts.

Ash put on a professional smile.

“District boss Selena, it’s good to see you,” he greeted.

“District boss Ash,” Selena said with a nod. “It’s good to see you as well.”

She stood rigid with her hands in her pockets, almost as if she hadn’t wanted to come here. She probably didn’t and just wanted to ensure the trade deal with the fish farm would be beneficial to her District. This was purely business.

“You two have fun!” Ella said as she grabbed the stunned Bo’s hand and led him away from the portal.

Selena and Ash looked at each other for an awkward moment before he broke it.

“The fish farms are this way. It’s a short walk,” he said.

They walked through the District and he saw Selena looking around curiously at the buildings. Her eyes lingered on the school building. A group of children played outside of it under the watchful gaze of their teacher. He figured it might be a good icebreaker.

“The school still needs more work, but we’ve started doing half-day classes,” Ash said to Selena.

Selena looked at him in surprise before stopping and watching the children for a moment. Ash joined her and couldn’t help but smile.

A young orc boy dressed as Superman raced around the schoolyard followed by a group of other children dressed as various superheroes. Even the hero of De’Vas, Madem Vines, was there as Ash noticed a catkin girl with paper black flowers in her hair and a belt with small potted plants holstered on it. She saw them watching the group of children.

“Hi, District boss!” she said with a gap tooth smile as she waved.

Ash waved back to her.

Selena turned back to him with a stone face.

“You built a school,” Selena said while clenching her fist. “And I can barely keep my district running.”

Ash froze, unsure how to respond to that. Selena looked at him and a sigh escaped her.

“I apologize,” Selena said as she deflated. “Those are my troubles, not yours. My father might have been a king, but he didn’t raise me to rule.”

Her violet eyes seemed to dim as she said those words.

“I can help you if you want,” Ash offered, he saw her grimace at his words. As if they were salt in an already deep wound. He needed to explain this better.

Ash sighed and scratched the back of his head.

“You said you weren’t raised to rule. Well, I was,” he started and Selena gave him an odd look. “My mother is Vivian Grayson, CEO and owner of Grayson Industries. She tried to raise me to take over the family company since I was a kid.”

 Selena’s eyes widened at his words, but she said nothing. Ash reached into his pocket, pulled out a card, and wrote down an email address.

“Here. If you don’t want my help,” he said as he handed the card to Selena. “That’s my mother’s email address. Message her about your district’s troubles and I’m sure she can consult you on how to fix it. I’ll let her know I gave her email to a friend.”

Selena looked at the card for a moment before carefully slipping it into her pocket.

“Thank you,” she said.

***

Lilly sat at the small table in the greenhouse and poured another cup of tea. She stirred five sugar cubes into the small cup. Then lifted it and took a sip before turning back to her guest for this tea party.

“I can’t get him out of my head,” Lilly said before taking another sip of her tea.

She thought of Ash when he brought her rolls before the slumber party. The smile he gave her made her heart flutter.

“I’ve always found him interesting. Ash was never afraid of me. That interest grew quickly to attraction. I was jealous of Ember when he started talking to her, and almost killed Faylen when I thought she hurt him.”

 Lilly let out a small laugh and shook her head.

“It’s a really good thing I didn’t. That would have been a mess, and I would have lost two of my best friends.”

Lilly ran her finger along the rim of her cup.

“He cares about me and goes out of his way to do things for me,” Lilly bit her lip. “And I know he’s attracted to me. Why am I so hesitant?”

Lilly let out a sigh.

“He has a lot of women interested in him. Faylen and Naomi are already Ash’s lovers. Haylee has a crush on him, but Faylen says she won’t make a move until she’s stronger. Naomi has hinted to me that there’s something with the grumpy unicorn and I have my suspicions about the bitchy bunny.” Lilly twirled a lock of her hair, she would need to get Ash to braid it again. “I know why, at least why originally.”

Lilly closed her eyes and took another sip of the warm tea, her mind racing with everything. Hope, fear, desire. The memory of her father flickered in her mind. The man he was and the husk her mother turned him into. She felt a knot in her gut as the image was replaced by one of Ash as a dryad husband.

“But I shouldn’t let that stop me,” she said firmly. “I’m not my mother.”

Lilly opened her eyes as she came to a decision. She had been fighting with it for some time, debating if she should or shouldn’t. All she needed was someone to talk it over with. Someone to listen to her as she came to the decision she knew in her heart she would always arrive at.

“I’m going to ask Ash out,” Lilly said as a weight was lifted from her shoulders. “Thank you for listening.”

 Lilly looked up at the goblin, bound and gagged by vines, sitting across from her at the table. He stared at her with wide eyes as he trembled in the chair. Lilly was surprised his heart was still beating as fast as it was. They’d been having this little tea party for at least half an hour, she figured he would have passed out by now. She happily munched on one of the cookies from the snack platter as she thought of how to ask Ash out. It would need to be romantic.

“Oh, it should go without saying, but you tell anyone about our talk and, well did you ever see Treemagddon 2?” Lilly asked.

The goblin tried to say something but was muffled by the vines. Lilly wasn’t sure what he was trying to say, but she wanted to talk about Treemagddon 2 now. So she took it as a “no”.

“Oh! It’s so good!” Lilly said excitedly. “So it starts back up where the first movie left off. Trees have taken over the planet and humanity only lives in small pockets scattered in the deserts of the world.”

She could see the excitement in the goblin’s eyes at the plot. Mostly fear, but she was sure there was some excitement as well. Maybe she could bring a laptop in and show the movie to him.