The room appeared to be up the elevator. The moment the doors shut, I rounded on Tate. "What the hell just happened?"

   Tate looked bewildered. "I have no idea. I asked about her species because I could tell she was lying about not being able to read the signature on the paper. I wanted to know why she would pretend to not be able to tell."

   "That whole conversation..." I shook my head. "I've met a seer before, but that something else. I feel like she was just messing with us."

   "I don't know how she could know all of that if she wasn't a seer," said Tate. "She already had our papers printed before we arrived. Why wouldn't she have just signed them too since she knew that we would be too distracted? She knew a lot of things that she shouldn't have but some of the pieces don't match up."

   The elevators opened with a ding. I stepped off, still trying to figure out what had just happened. The room that the girl had supplied us with was a little ways down the hall. A swipe of the card opened it. Inside, I let myself be impressed.

   There were two queen beds, both with thin films -- I didn't know what they were called -- hanging from the ceiling to cover them. A massive TV sat across from the beds. The window revealed the beauty of Anchorage's main road. Tate flicked on the bathroom light and grinned. "Dibbs on the first shower."

   "Hey!" 

   He jumped inside and closed the door. I huffed. "Stinker." I moved to the bed closer to the window and pushed aside the weird curtain-thing. Sitting down, I pulled off my new shoes and socks. There was a line of scars across my foot and it was pretty obvious to tell that it was an animal's bite. I wiggled my toes. Meh. They still worked. So what if they were a little scarred?

   Flopping back, I rolled over and opened the drawer on the bedside table. Inside was a map, phone book, and TV remote. Who even uses phone books anymore? I sat up and flicked on the TV. Within seconds, I realized what I was seeing.

   "There's a magick version of the Bachelor?!" My jaw fell. That had to be what I was witnessing. The shower in the bathroom turned on. I flicked through a few channels before deciding that the magick Bachelor was definitely going to be the most amusing to watch.

   By the time that the shower turned off, I'd picked up on most of the plot for this particular episode. The Bachelor was a fae with bright white hair and yellow eyes. The woman he seemed to be leaning towards was an elf, of course. These shows always managed to have some massive drama. The bathroom door opened and Tate walked out, toweling his hair. Apparently, the hotel had spare clothes, because he was wearing pajama pants and a t-shirt with the hotel's logo on it.

   "The Bachelor?" He asked, incredulous. "Don't you know that show is scripted?"

   I spluttered, sitting up to gawk at him. "It is not!"

   "It is," he chuckled, sitting down on the other bed. His hair, when wet, almost reached his eyes. He wrung it out again. "Besides the fact that nearly all romance dramas with that scenario are scripted, the main love interest is another fae that's been dressed to look like an elf. Just another actress."

   "You brat," I scowled. "Ruining the ridiculous drama of this show. Though I have to admit, when the shows are magick-oriented, the guys are so much hotter."

   Tate shook his head, amused. I tossed the remote over to him as I got up. "Okay, Mr. Picky. You get to pick a show then." He caught the remote without looking. I grumbled. "Show-off." His lip pulled into a smile as I went into the already-steamy bathroom.

   It was massive. The bathtub could probably fit five people and they wouldn't even have to touch. The shower could fit twice that many. I closed the door and noticed that the lights could change colors. I messed around with them for a bit before turning them back to white, examining the free goodies the hotel offered. A bag of clothes, toiletries, and even a robe.

   I turned the shower back on and stepped out of the way to get out of my clothes. Luckily, the shower was one of the ones where it was designed so that I could turn on the water without getting wet. I pulled off my shirt and frowned at the blood stain. Already? I'd bought it maybe an hour ago. I stripped off the rest of my clothes and checked the mirror to see where the blood had come from.

   There was blood on my face from the fight at the mall. Some was dried around the bottom of my chin. A small cut in the vein on my temple had been bleeding slowly for a while. That side of my face had a faint streak of blood. No one had even mentioned it to me. I'd had no idea that I was actively bleeding when confronting the Council. No wonder Lila had gone so pale. The remains of the fight on my face was pretty obvious. One of my eyes was slightly black from the punch to my nose. Not to mention my nose itself was bright red and swollen.

   There were a few other streaks of red on my arms from when the fae had exploded with electricity. I examined my arms and my eyes landed on the most eye-catching feature: the black mark. It was easily five inches across, now: extended from my wrist to over halfway to my elbow. There were four slashed scars directly through it. Even if the mark disappeared, I'd still have the scars from the crythal slash on my left arm.

   Not to mention my leg. I finally got a good look at how it had healed. The calf muscle of my right leg had healed a little disfigured. The skin itself was a mess of lines and pale, uplifted skin. I flexed the muscle and watched as it pulled in a funny way. It didn't hurt, though. I tested my weight on it and noticed that my dad had been right: I had a small limp, now. The muscle damage had been too great to avoid all side effects. I knew I was lucky to still have my leg.

   It took roughly half an hour to get my hair clean enough to brush. I sat on the ledge in the shower for ages, dragging the hair brush that the hotel had been kind enough to supply through the long strands. Mud and blood swirled down the drain. It took another long time of rinsing until the soap lathered. I spent some time scrubbing my skin until it no longer sent murky water down the drain.

   I finally turned off the shower and snagged the towel. Wearing the fuzzy robe with my hair up, I carried the bag of toiletries into the room. Tate was sitting with his back against the headboard and watching the TV. I walked past him and sat down, digging through the toiletries. My eyes flicked to the TV. "Is that Wipeout?"

   "The magick version." He grinned. "It's nice to see that even magicks can fall because they can't balance on a large ball covered with soap."

   I snickered, untying the towel from my hair and wringing it out again. Tate returned his attention to the screen as I started to brush the hair out again. We watched as a shifter attempted to grab the top of the wall on the platform and get shoved off by a twisting spinner. He plunged into the muddy water.