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"My dear October," Tybalt said, which were not the words I wanted to hear.
Granted, it wasn't quite the 'no way, no how' I'd been half-afraid of hearing, but it wasn't the 'why, yes, Toby, I'd be delighted' I'd been hoping for, either.
"It'll be fun," I said.
Tybalt looked politely doubtful.
"Well, May says that it'll be fun," I amended.
"Ah." His expression brightened. "All becomes clear. You wish for my company, not because you believe I will enjoy myself, but rather because you want an ally by your side."
I considered denying it, but I really didn't want to talk about this any longer than we had to. I wanted him to agree to come; if he'd do so under the impression that I wanted him to tag along because I needed him to do so, then where was the harm? "Basically, yes."
"Then, of course, I should be delighted." He almost sounded like he meant it, too.
"Great." I knew how he felt about cars, so after a moment, I said, "Thank you."
No good deed goes unpunished, as the saying goes, and apparently, the same went for giving someone a piece of good advise.
I'd been the one to tell Etienne Chelsea might enjoy a trip to a rollercoaster park. Naturally, he invited me along and, equally naturally, he only did so after having already invited Quentin and Raj, both of whom had agreed to come.
Quentin was my squire; Raj was a nice young man whom I didn't want to see get hurt, and while a trip to a rollercoaster park sounded harmless enough - well. We all have moments in our life we look back on later and wish we could take back.
May was coming because she'd never been on a rollercoaster ride before, and Jazz was coming because May was coming, and so our merry band of wide-eyed tourists consisted of six more-or-less responsible adults and three less-or-more responsible kids.
Etienne didn't even flinch as he paid our entry fees.
Given the usual state of my bank account, I wasn't sure if that warranted envy or admiration.
"I believe Bridget and I will sit down for a cup of coffee, first," Etienne said. If he'd made his announcement before getting within a hundred meters of the first rollercoaster, I might have respected his priorities; as things stood, I threw him a look that suggested he was a wuss.
Etienne gazed back at me peacefully, his expression suggesting that as he was still in my debt for rescuing Chelsea, I was free to call him whatever I liked, and also, he'd gladly take being thought of as a wuss by me over actually getting onto a rollercoaster ride.
Possibly, I only imagined the second part. I've faced down some scary things and people over the years, so really, a rollercoaster shouldn't even make it into the top ten. People rode the things for fun, so presumably, it was all perfectly safe.
"You can hold my hand if you wish," Tybalt said, softly enough that probably only Raj could have overheard. (If he did, he did a good job of not letting it show on his face.)
"If you're trying to annoy me, it's not really working."
"Oh." He sighed. "Then, may I offer the observation that according to the map, there are only thirteen rollercoasters in this park? Moreover, the closing time is in three hours." Like most amusement parks, Great America's opening hours didn't take into account that some visitors might be reluctant to get inside before sunset.
Of course, maybe they just accurately assumed faeries weren't as keen as humans on visiting.
"Three hours can be a pretty long time," I said. Three minutes can resemble a small eternity, under the wrong circumstances.
"Perhaps they will not wish to stay that long." Tybalt's tone implied he wasn't particularly hopeful.
"Yes, well." May and Jazz and the others were already standing in line for something called 'The East River Crawler'. "Maybe we should just get this over with. I mean, how bad can it be?"
I'm an official Hero of the Mists; I get to say that sort of stuff. Famous last words, and all that.
"That," I said, a very long seven minutes later, "was not my idea of fun."
Quentin looked a little pale; Raj looked a lot inscrutable. Chelsea and May did look like they'd actually enjoyed themselves, while Jazz just looked like she didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about. I guess that when you're a Raven Maiden, rollercoasters don't let you experience much you haven't experienced before.
"That was awesome," May said. Of course, May is practically indestructible; unlike the rest of us, she doesn't need to worry about going splut when dropped from a great height.
"It wasn't so bad," Quentin said. I wasn't sure who he was trying to impress, really.
"We could go again," Raj suggested immediately, not to be outdone by his friend.
"Or we could try another one," I said. Preferably one with a longer line. Tybalt threw me an amused look, probably because he knew the way I thought by now.
People don't spontaneously fall out of rollercoaster rides. If they did, places like Great America wouldn't be called 'amusement parks'; they'd be called 'come here if you want to risk death or permanent injury parks'.
Unfortunately, I didn't seem able to convince my body of this simple fact.
To add insult to, well, a certain amount of frustration mixed with utter terror, Quentin and Raj seemed to be beginning to enjoy themselves. I couldn't quite decide if that made them more sensible than I'd have previously given them credit for, or less, but I was pretty sure that it annoyed me a little to feel like I was the only one not getting into the spirit of things.
Telling myself that it was just because I still possessed some common sense didn't really help.
"Perhaps we might join Etienne and his lady for a cup of coffee," Tybalt suggested blandly, with two hours and six unridden rides yet to go.
Etienne was a polite, well-mannered sort of guy. He probably wouldn't look too smug if I admitted he'd had the right idea all along and showed up in an unvoiced admission of defeat.
"No," I said.
"Are you kidding?" May said. "We haven't even been on the best one yet."
"That'd be the one with the really long line, wouldn't it?" At least my stomach would get some much needed time to settle down.
"Yeah." May scowled. "The wait's at least ten minutes, but right now, it's probably more like half an hour."
I tried to check my watch without being too obvious about it.
"That doesn't seem to leave us much time to enjoy the rest of the park," Tybalt said.
Quentin, Chelsea and Raj all looked varying degrees of disappointed.
"Oh, don't worry." May beamed at us all. "I told Etienne to get in line, like, twenty minutes ago, so if we go over there right now, we should only have to wait a couple of minutes. We might even get to ride it twice, if we're lucky."
I spotted a glimmer of hope. It wasn't much, but riding this rollercoaster of rollercoasters only once surely had to be better than riding it twice.
"Maybe I could - "
Tybalt gripped my arm firmly enough to hurt and glared at me. Raj blinked; Quentin and Chelsea were too busy staring up to notice anything.
"We'd be delighted to lend luck a helping hand by settling in at the back of the line, rather than joining Etienne and the rest of you," Tybalt said smoothly. "Truly, it is a sacrifice we'll be happy to make."
"Sorry." I rubbed my arm. "I didn't think ... well. Sorry."
Tybalt shrugged. "There's hardly anything new about your being incapable of rational thought. It can be charming, on occasion, although usually, I find it more vexing."
"But you love me anyway, right?"
"Yes." He said it simply, like it was no big deal.
It wasn't as if he'd never said it before, obviously. I suppose I'm still not quite used to it, though; being loved by Tybalt, hearing him say that he loved me, made me happy - and happiness wasn't something I've quite gotten used to, either.
"If the two of you are going to suck faces now, maybe you could do it somewhere a little more private."
I turned around and stared. Tybalt tensed, then relaxed again.
"Differently put, if you're not here to ride the ride, get out of the fucking line and stop inflicting your sappy romance on the rest of us," the Luidaeg said.
"You - "
"This is an unexpected pleasure," Tybalt said.
The Luidaeg glowered at him. "If you believe watching you and Toby make kissy faces at each other is fun, Toby's not the only one with some deficiencies in the thinking department."
"I didn't think this would be the kind of place you'd like visiting," I said.
"That's still a piss-poor excuse for not inviting me, but I guess I'll have to let it go," the Luidaeg said. "This time, at least." I'd saved her life, not so long ago. It had made things ... a little strange between us, for a while. The Luidaeg was used to threatening to kill people, not owing them her life. "But next time ... "
I sincerely hoped there wasn't going to be a next time.
"Next time, we will of course be glad of your company," Tybalt said, with a smile that made my knees go a little wobbly.
"No, you won't." The Luidaeg scowled. "Pair of wusses like you. Go on, sit down with a cup of coffee or something. I'll tell your friends you roped me into saving them a spot."
"I appreciate this," I told her. "Very much."
She sighed. "I suppose you'd be completely insufferable if you didn't have any fears, but really, Toby. These things can actually be lots of fun, if you let them."
"Now you sound like May." And there was a scary thought.
"Don't think you can get away with anything just because you saved my life once."
I know a warning when I hear one. "Sorry." This did seem to be my evening for apologizing to people I loved. "Me and Tybalt will go get that coffee now."
"And make some more kissy faces at one another." Tybalt smirked.
On that happy note, I decided I'd suffered enough for one night. Now, I deserved some coffee and a bit of 'sappy romance'.