Luna was a little surprised even by her own abruptness, but right now she simply didn’t care. She was officially sick of witches, wizards, and curses of all kinds. And she wasespeciallysick of being dragged into other people’s romantic entanglements. As if her own weren’t complicated enough!
Well, not that that’s quite true,she thought, glancing up at Henry. The road there might have been a little winding, but now that she knew the full truth about what she and Henry were to each other, it all seemed remarkably simple.
Or perhaps, simple when compared with the ridiculous situation Sally-Anne and Dorian had created for themselves.
Dorian blinked up at her. “C-curse?” he said, as if he didn’t know what she was talking about.
This guy is unbelievable!Luna thought as she stared at him. But then, comprehension seemed to dawn on him.
“Oh – oh, I see. Yes, I do seem to have made some kind of blunder in the course of my romantic endeavors. Allow me to correct that at once.”
He made a quick gesture with his hands – it amounted to nothing more than a quick wiggle of his fingers, a little snap of his wrists.
“There. You have my apologies, madam.”
Luna frowned, before looking down at her own hands. “Is – is that it?” she asked, still looking down at her palms. She hadn’t noticed anything at all, and she didn’tfeelany different… but then again, she supposed that she’d never noticedbeingcursed, either.
She turned to look at Henry, who looked a little skeptical, but mostly relieved. He put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. “We’ll get Caleb or Gale to check your aura later. Hopefully he’s telling the truth.”
“Hmph.” While she was glad to – hopefully – be free of the curse, shewasa little put out that she didn’t get the whole magic show to go with it. Especially since this guy was such a show-off in every other respect!
On the other hand, shedidhave the world’s weirdest soap opera playing out in front of her, so that had to be worth something, at least.
She turned to watch, entranced, as Dorian wobbled to his feet and approached Sally-Anne, who was watching him as he came toward her, a strange mixture of trepidation and longing on her face.
“So, this is… Madame Fortuna?” he said dubiously. “A likely name.”
Sally-Anne’s lip curled. “About as likely as Dorian.”
Luna winced. This wasn’t going well! Obviously Dorian’s professed feelings had not been quite so pure as he claimed, if he couldn’t deal with Sally-Anne looking different than he expected. She could have understood it a bit more, if Dorian hadn’t pulled the exact same stunt!
“It’s an old family name,” Dorian sniffed. “I have merely revived it.”
“Uh-huh.”
Sally-Anne looked unimpressed, but Luna could hear the faintest waver in her voice, and see the tension in her jaw where she was clearly trying to keep her chin from wobbling.
As Luna watched, Sally-Anne’s eyes narrowed suddenly. “Hang on, I remember you. When you stood me up –”
Dorian bristled. “I did no such thing!Youstoodmeup!”
They glared at one another. A small, petty part of Luna wished that she had some popcorn.
“When you stood me up,” Sally-Anne repeated firmly, “I saw you – as inyou, how you look right now – sitting over at the bar.”
“I was waiting for you!” Dorian exclaimed. “I waited for an hour! My time is a precious commodity! How was I supposed to know that you looked like – likethat?”
“Me?! How wasIsupposed to know thatyoulooked likethat?!”
Dorian, at least for the moment, had the self-awareness to look a little abashed. “Well,” he muttered after a moment or two. “I am aware that I am, perhaps… not as ruggedly handsome as my forays into the televisual medium have led me to believe that ladies prefer. But I was hoping that, once you saw me, the true light of my affection for you would render outer appearances meaningless.”
Sally-Anne blinked. “Oh,” she said slowly after a moment of silence. “Okay.”
“Are they really this clueless?” Henry murmured.
“Apparently,” Luna muttered back. She was starting to wonder why they were helping these people at all… but, she supposed, everyone had to start somewhere. Maybe these two crazy kids could make it work. One day. After a whole bunch of therapy.
“Anyway,” Dorian huffed, “I suppose that these are for you.” He held out the flowers in a decidedly unromantic fashion, andSally-Anne took them with a sneer… though her face did relax just a little as she looked at them.
