Page 150 of Sweet Nightmare

“And what exactly does that have to do with me?”

“You’re going to help me cook.”

I look around the room, just in case there’s another Artemis hiding behind a chair.

There isn’t.

Mrs. Han wiggles her eyebrows.

Oh, she’s serious.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you seem like a smart girl who enjoys learning new things.”

“Wrong.”

I’m brilliant and I do enjoy learning new things. What I don’t enjoy is cooking, especially for that man.

Mrs. Han folds her arms before unleashing the most terrifying weapon known to mankind.

Disappointment.

Not anger. Not frustration.

Disappointment.

She looks at me with those soft, grandmotherly eyes.

“You wouldn’t want to break an old woman’s heart.”

“I absolutely would.”

“Artemis!” Mika gasps.

I sigh heavily, summoning the kind of exhaustion usually reserved for people who’ve been pushed beyond the limits of human endurance.

I look between them.

Neither is going to let this go. They'll hound me until I surrender, and I’d rather not spend the rest of my morning being emotionally blackmailed by a woman in red polka dots.

“Fine.”

Mrs. Han immediately brightens.

Mika looks delighted with my suffering.

Meanwhile, I feel like a woman being escorted toward her execution.

I should have known nothing good could come from allowing golden retriever types into my life.

One of them is the reason I’m trapped in this snow-covered estate in the first place. Now Mrs. Han is apparently determined to make me do the one thing I hate almost as much as socializing.

Cook.

Twenty minutes later, I regret every decision that has led me here.

“To get what’s inside, you need to crack the egg,” Mrs. Han instructs.