I shared all my letters from Arcturus and Valor. I told them about my years growing up in that Victorian house in Southampton, with no adult supervision and nothing but the occasional envelope of money left on the counter to let us know whether my aunt was even alive. I told them storiesabout Overworld, and the dance clubs I’d gone to with Alaric in London. I helped Mir with her Numerology and Symbology revisions, her Ancient Languages exam, and her personal Theurgy project.
I showed them some of the more interesting spells I’d learned from Bones.
But that distance only seemed to grow wider.
I’d obviously known tonight wouldn’thelp,but I hadn’t realized the depth of this particular screw-up. I hadn’t even noticed Mir getting all excited about Halloween after I’d told her how it got celebrated in the human world, or how I missed it a little.
“I’ve beendecorating,”Mir pouted, staring at me in hurt disbelief. “Draken got us a spooky carriage to ride around in between pubs, and we were going to cover it with cobwebs and magical jump scares and spirits. Luc worked out this whole illusionary environment, something in the Bonescastle graveyard. He won’t tell us what it is, but he’sreallygood at chimaeras, so I’m sure it’ll bespectacular––”
“I just thought we were doing it all on Friday,” I said lamely, and only half-truthfully, as I hadn’t realized the full extent of her plans at all. “I really hadn’t thought we’d be doing all of that before the weekend. Doesn’t Friday make more sense, really?”
Mir blinked at me, her mouth pursed, outrage in her eyes.
“It’s yourbirthday!”she exploded.
“I know, I know… I’m sorry.”
“Wetalkedabout this,” she added, her voice dropping its dramatic flair. “Leda, Iknowwe talked about this.”
I felt my face heat as I bit my lip. “I really am sorry. But I can’t change this now. Professor Forsooth has three of us coming to his office for independent study. I made a big deal about wanting his help, and he’s moved things around for me––”
“On yourbirthday?You made study plans with your professor on yourbirthday,Leda?”
“I really thought we’d be doing the actual celebrating part tomorrow.” I winced at her hurt look. “I’m really sorry. But I can’t cancel now––”
“But whycan’tyou?” she asked, exasperated. “Do you really think Forsooth is going to throw some kind of fit because you want to go out with your friends on yourbirthday,Leda? A birthday you somehow completely forgot, despite my yammering on about it for weeks?”
I didn’t have a good answer.
Worse, I could only keep saying no, even as she got more and more agitated.
In the end, she left my bedroom altogether and slammed the door, making me wince. She said she’d talk to the others about moving everything to the following night, or possibly next weekend, as she was pretty sure Luc had to go home for a few days, but I’d ruined it for her, and I knew it, and I couldn’t even take it back.
I was still standing there, in the middle of my bedroom, when a cautious knock reached my ears. I cleared my throat, wiped my eyes, and summoned the person in.
It wasn’t Miranda, as I’d hoped.
Jolie walked in carefully, glancing behind her the whole time, and shut the door without making a sound. She walked over to me with her sashaying step, and I felt my gut start to hurt for a different reason.
“Draken’s talking to her now,” she said quietly, once she got close enough. She glanced back at the door. “I’m sure we can do it next weekend. Luc won’t mind, he’s already said he can set up the cemetery and break it down pretty quickly and I’m sure Nyx and Darragh won’t care, either.” She hesitated, watching my face. “But you really hurt her feelings, Leda. You should try totalk to her again, when she calms down. She’s been planning this for weeks. She has little party favors, spells she’s been working on, presents. She was thinking of you the whole time. She wasstillupset you didn’t tell us about your birthday last year until weeks after, and she feels like you just stomped all over her attempt to make it up to you.”
I nodded, feeling numb.
“Leda,” Jolie began, exasperated. “I know you didn’t do it on purpose. I know that, I can see it all over your face. But you have to understand, from the outside, you’ve been acting odd for weeks. Months, really. This is kind of the icing on the cake, I think, for Mir, at least. We’re all trying not to push, but that’s harder for her than it is for the rest of us. You’ve got to know that.”
She laid a hand on my arm.
“Give her this. This silly party. It’s one thing.”
I nodded again. Guilt closed my throat, making it hard to think. A part of me wanted to blurt out where I wasreallygoing, that I wasn’t just blowing off my closest friends to attend an academic tutorial with Forsooth, one I definitely could’ve rescheduled. I wanted Jolie and Mir to know it was more important than that, that it actuallymattered.
Gods, maybe I needed to find some way to tell them.
But tell them what, exactly?
That my aunt hadn’t died from “a ritual gone wrong,” but had been murdered right in front of me, primarily to save my life? That I’d been hunting Dark Cathedral all summer with Alaric Greythorne? That I’d had an on-again, off-again partnership with Caelum Bones to track down dark magicians allied with his father? That I’d spent the night inhisroom after Strangemore attacked me at the party?
What part ofanyof that could I even begin to tell my friends, who would be horrified that I’d go anywhere near DarkCathedral, who hated Caelum Bones, and who barely tolerated my friendship with Alaric?
