“Bones is making you take a final?” she scoffed.
I rolled my eyes, lifting my coffee to my lips.
“Of course he is,” I said, quirking an eyebrow. “Did you doubt he would?”
She sniffed disdainfully.
“Prick,” she declared.
Thinking, she added, “Anyway, hybrid or not, youcouldhave a boyfriend, if you wanted.” She gave me a reproachful look. “You know Draken is pining hard. And he’d be anamazingboyfriend. He’s definitely the spoil-her-rotten and treat-her-like-a-princess type of mage, and he’d be that for you a thousand times over. He’s positively smitten.”
I thought about Bones, and how he’d looked that morning when I first found him hanging over me, eyes glazed as he’d lowered his mouth for a kiss. Remembering the things he’d said to me, especially when he climaxed, and right after, I bit my lip, fighting to clear my mind.
Gods, I couldn’t think about that now.
I had to remind myself what I was dealing with here. I couldn’t forget everything I knew about Bones, just because both of us were confused, and the kind of sex we were having was definitely confusing. Given everything on his end, I had to be the rational, semi-clear-thinking adult between the two of us.
It really probablywasjust the sex.
Bones was enthusiastic about finding someone he could finally fuck. That’s all it was. I couldn’t read too much into it. I was setting myself up if I let myself make more of it than it was. He was a twenty-two year old mage with a healthy libido who’d been holding back since he hit puberty, worried he’d actuallykillone of his lovers by accident.
Of course this was going to be confusing for him.
I really needed to not go too far with things in my head.
He’d wanted me to be exclusive with him because I was the only person he’d found that he could shag at all. If he found another witch who could take his magic, particularly one whowasn’thalf-human, he’d likely change his mind in a hurry.
“You really can’t see yourself with Draken?” Miranda pressed.
I sighed internally, and met her gaze in the mirror.
“You know that’s not wholly in my control,” I reminded her, rubbing Wraith’s ear. “I love Draken, but I just don’t see him that way. I can’t even explain to you why not, because I honestlydon’tknowwhy. But it wouldn’t be fair… to him, especially… if I pretended to feel something I don’t.”
Some of the tension left Miranda’s face.
“I know,” she said, apologetic. “And I get it. I just really love you guys. I can’t help wishing for it, and not only for him. For both of you.”
I smiled at her in the mirror. “We love you, too, Mir. And believe me, I’ve sometimeswishedI could see Draken that way.”
Silently, my mind added,It would certainly make my life less complicated.
Miranda decidedto dress me up as Persephone.
It was classic for the holiday, she’d argued, and, she was quick to point out, relatively easy on me, as it wouldn’t require a ton of transmorphing spells, or body paint, or an elaborate headpiece, or much more than Ancient Greek-style clothing and a few spells.
She still managed to make it elaborate, of course.
She did my hair up in classic Greek style, all piled on my head in curls, with tendrils hanging down, a large Greek braid in the back, and gold chains adorned with pomegranate seeds wrapped into multiple, smaller braids around the larger one. She also fitted me with gold armbands and gold, knee-high sandals. The toga she found was off-shoulder and form-fitting on top, with a number of colored drapes, half of them the same, blood-like color of pomegranate juice, the other half bone-white. She charmed me a wedding band with the symbol of hades on it, and long earrings and a necklace to match.
She also did my make-up, making my eyes stand out with glittery gold and red.
After that, I helped her and Jolie put their own costumes together, which ended up being Kali, the Destroyer, in Miranda’s case, and a faun in Jolie’s. Both of which were, I can say in all confidence, a lot more interesting than mine.
I was completely fine with that.
I still hoped to make a fairly minimal appearance, then leave.
By six o’clock, I was already yawning, even with all of Mir’s high-octane coffee in my system. Poor Wraith meowed plaintively as we were going out the door, and I promised her I’d try to be back veryverysoon.
