Zabby exhaled. “He does that.”
Curiosity replaced the heaviness in my limbs. This was Grim’s sister. She grew up with him. Sheknewhim.
“What was he like?” I asked. “Growing up?”
She stood up on her knees, suddenly animated. “Well, one time when I was in grade school, I asked a boy to be my Valentine. He said yes, but the day came and he completely forgot about me. Laughed at the present I got. I came home crying. Weirdly,” she continued, “later that night, the boyshowed up with a dozen roses and two boxes of expensive chocolate.”
I bit my cheek to stop my smile. Grim was always protective, even then. For the next hour Zabby told me all kinds of stories about Grim.
How he used to let her fall asleep on his shoulder during cartoons. How he was never mean like her other friends’ brothers. How he would read to her, doing all the voices. How he slept with a light until he was twelve?—
“No!” I interrupted. “No way.Grimwas afraid of the dark?”
She nodded excitedly. “Our life was totally different before Vander.”
There it was again, that name.
“Who is Vander?”
A look clouded her features, like she’d said too much, and she quickly changed the subject. “Aren’t you afraid?” she asked. “Being, you know, claimed. People will want to hurt you. To kill you. Just to make a point.”
Was I afraid? Maybe. Deep down I knew Grim would never let anything happen to me.
But also, deeper down, a part of me didn’t care if something did.
“Kind of,” I lied, and took another swig from the bottle. “But I don’t know if it matters. I don’t know how it’s going to work. This thing. Obviously I can’t stay here. I don’t know why they’re keeping me here.”
“It’s not up to them, you know. They have to report to someone.”
“Wait, wait, wait—they report to someone?”
“It’s more than that…they’re captive.”
I choked on my liquor. After a good minute of Zabbydrunkenly slapping my back, I sputtered, “The fuck did you just say?”
She looked startled, like she’d let something slip she shouldn’t have. “I thought you knew! It’s because of you.”
“Me?”
Because of me? How could it be because of me? I barely knew them. I said as much to her, confusion making my throat hot. She stayed quiet, that look still on her face, like she’d just revealed my aunt was my mother.
“Look,” she said. “I don’t know much. I just know they were almost free of their debt, then Grim took yours. I think it’s even more complicated now that he claimed you. You’re not…really supposed to do that with someone in your debt.”
That wasfiveyears ago. He was almost free?
I took another drink, willing the room to dissolve.
After a few more, it did.
Somewhere in our drunk logic, our clothes came off. Zabby said something about her being a witch, and that if we wanted to get rid of the negative energy of the day, we needed to burn it. So we tossed them into the fire.
Itdidfeel good.
Now we lay naked on the soft rug, staring at the swirls of the ceiling’s intricate crown molding. Only in America were people weirdly prudish. No one batted an eye in a Japanese onsen.
There was something…grounding about it. Like beneath the clothes, inside the flesh, we were the same fucked-up pieces of stardust.
Zabby swished the bottle around. “Aw, empty?—”
