“Complete nutter,” Draken snapped, when Bones resumed walking through the crowd. He raised his voice over the musicwhen Bones didn’t turn. “You should tell daddy to invest in a mind doctor, Bones. You’re absolutely fuckingmental!”
I only stared after him, trying to decide what to do.
“No,”I insisted, shaking my head. “Absolutely not. I’m going, Mir. I’ve already stayed far longer than I wanted to.”
Miranda made her pouty face, but I was completely unmoved.
I was exhausted.
I was done with the party, and strongly wishing I hadn’t come. All I wanted now was to go back to my room and collapse on my bed with my cat.
Moreover, Bones had pulled one of his vanishing acts, and I could feel that working on my paranoia, too, especially after what he’d pulled on the dance floor. My imagination seemed to function even more efficiently when I was tired, and I was just paranoid enough to be thinking up all manner of possibilities as to where he might have gone.
To make matters worse, Draken kept getting drunker as the night progressed, and I could tell from a few of the looks he aimed my way, he hadn’t entirely given up on trying to talk to me. He seemed determined, honestly, in a way that made me distinctly nervous. It’s possible the drinking was even some form of liquid courage.
Either way, I absolutely did not want to have that conversation tonight, even apart from Bones.
I needed to get out of there. I was done.
I clasped two of Mir’s blue-painted hands between mine, not knowing or caring if they were her real ones. “I’m going,” I toldher firmly. “You stay. Obviously. Tell the others I stayed as long as I could… and havefun,you maniac.”
Her pouty lip jutted more, but that time, she nodded.
When I released her hands, she kissed me on the cheek, then flounced away, her extra arms writhing sensually around her.
I could only exhale in relief. Before anyone else could notice my escape and try to stop me, I walked determinedly for the hallway that led to the main lobby. I was already dreading going back out in the snow, which I could see through the long windows of Worm Hall. It was now coming down in thick sheets. Over a foot already covered the ground.
I’d just have to grit my teeth and do it.
On the other side was a hot shower, fuzzy socks, a book, a fireplace, and my cat.
I might sleep all day tomorrow.
I’d nearly made it to the lobby, when strong arms wrapped around me, dragging me into the shadows. I yelped, fighting to turn it into more until a hand clamped over my mouth, and my back met the stone.
I found myself staring up at gold eyes. The irises rippled with fire, even as he brought them lower to stare directly into mine.
“Hello, Mrs. Hades,” he said, his voice dangerously soft. “Leaving so soon? And without giving your husband a goodbye kiss?”
35
Just Sleep
He pulled me with him further into the corridor, and I followed, glancing behind us when I heard laughter in the main hallway, and saw a group of witches, probably headed for the lavatory. Then I was standing at a heavy metal door.
Bones flicked his wrist at the handle’s lock, and I sucked in a breath, the hair on my arms and the back of my neck standing up at the charge of magic that left his hand.
Given how hard he hit it, I strongly suspect he broke the lock altogether.
He didn’t wait but pushed it open, catching hold of my wrist to drag me in after him.
I glimpsed a small classroom, a heavy wooden table near us that stood at the front of several rows of cushioned chairs. I’d barely focused on any of it when I felt an out of control, snaking charge leave his magic, slamming into mine, making me suck in a breath.
I caught hold of his fingers, holding them between both hands.
“Bones,” I said. “Calm down.”
He wrapped an arm around me and dragged me up to him. His fingers gripped my neckline and yanked it down. He kissed me before I could catch my breath, his hand massaging my bare breast outside the toga, and his magic flooded into me, slanting out my vision.
