Right.
I hop behind the bar and grab two water cups, then pop the bubbly. I pour some into Lacey’s, then a teeny, tiny bit into Zixin’s, finishing him off with seltzer before dropping in the orange juice. I set the cups down at their table and step back, not sure what to do next.
I just called a demon my boyfriend.
A five-hundred-plus-year-old demon.
Seriously, what’s wrong with me?
The room is dark and quiet aside from the ruckus upstairs as Nai Nai digs through our half-unpacked boxes. Lacey picks up her mimosa and takes a sip, then decides a sip isn’t enough. She keeps drinking, her loud gulping the only other sound apart from Nai Nai’s curses.
She sets the empty glass down and looks at Rhaz.
“So, you’re Jade’s boyfriend.”
He turns to me with a pleading look. “Yes?”
“Yes,” I confirm, making it official-official.
There’s tapping on glass coming from somewhere and an anxious, “Hello? My book. I left my book!”
Deelia.
“We should probably limit the number of people who see you?” I ask Rhazan.
“For the best,” he says with a nod.
Smoke swirls around him and fire rips through the cyclone. All at once, the magic falls away and he’s human again.
“Lucifer be damned! You’ve got infernal drip!” Ace yells as he stands and points at Rhaz.
“Hello?” Deelia peeps again.
The blacked-out charm on the windows melts away and Deelia yelps when she sees us clearly. I grab her book from the table and jog to the door with it.
“Here you go. See you soon?” I ask as I pass her the book through a crack in the door.
Her huge eyes bounce between the others sitting around the table. “Mrs. Feng?”
“Upstairs,” I say with a smile.
She hums, then holds up her book to ensure she actually has it.
“I’ll be back for tea,” she says, then turns away.
She checks her pockets several times as she goes, mumbling to herself.
The stairs whine and Nai Nai shouts. “Wait for me!”
I lock the door again and return to Rhaz’s side, placing my hand on his shoulder. He sighs, smoke curling out through his nostrils as he does.
“This will be good,” Nai Nai says as she sets the tray carrying wine and several glasses down on the table.
I move to open the bottle to serve, but Nai Nai stops me with a stern look.
“Enchanted. Let me.”
She pulls a black string embedded under the wax seal and magic sparks. The top snaps off just like the champagne, but the fizzy steam doesn’t disappear. Instead, it multiplies and whips out of the bottle like a ghost. A howl sounds through the room as the smoke moves. Lacey yelps and reaches for the knife again.
