“Oh.” Maya’s knees wobbled. However long she’d overslept, it was clearly not enough. Or too much.
Her back garden wasn’t reallyhers.She shared it with the bed-and-breakfast next door, and it stretched the length of the whole building. Mrs. Hanson had planted part of it as a kitchen garden, and the rest of it was packed with flowers and a small paved area with outdoor seating and a firepit.
Felicity and Apollo were sitting on the benches.
Corin was kneeling on the pavers. That was cause for alarm in itself.
Tomás was in the firepit. It wasn’t lit, butstill.
“Maya.” Corin’s eyes found hers, the hint of something that looked likemischiefin them.
Surely not.
He was kneeling next to Tomás. When she heard Felicity, her first thought had been that Corin had called her friend to babysit. But from the particular pattern of stains and wrinkles on Corin’s clothes, she had to assume that her ex-boss had taken point on looking after her little boy.
Her ex-boss. Hermate. Looking after her son.
Her heart warmed.
And she still didn’t know what the hell was going on.
“Did you manage to sleep?” Corin asked, searching her face.
“Like a log. What time is it?” She glanced at the sky. Past lunch time, at a guess. “Can I get anyone…”
She trailed off as Corin took her hand. “Sit,” he said gently. “Your guests can fend for themselves.”
“Or, since you’re the one who invited us over,youcould play host?” Felicity suggested tartly.
Corin grinned at her.
Hegrinned.Not even ferociously. Almost … sheepishly?
Was she still asleep? Why were her best friends and her asshole ex-boss acting like they were all friends?
“What is going on?” she asked Tomás.
He giggled at her, clapping. “Fun!”
“Fun?” She leaned in, wrinkling her nose in a smile. “What sort of fun?”
“Hoo!”
“Here we go,” Corin murmured, and the hairs on her arms stood up.
“What—”
Tomás puffed his cheeks out and huffed out a breath like he was blowing out candles. Apollo’s fingers flickered; tiny golden sparks filled the air around Tomás, and everyone clapped and cheered. Tomás waved his hands with delight, cackling.
“He’s …notbreathing fire?” Maya asked quietly, while Tomás was still distracted trying to catch the flying sparks.
“We’re pretending he is so that he stops actually trying to,” Felicity whispered. “Corin says that’s what all his huffing and puffing is about.”
Corin leaned closer, his breath tickling her ear. “Better to play-act exciting new powers in human form, than discover what his power is when you were both already exhausted.”
Her hand found his automatically. New powers? The thought was terrifying enough when she’dhadenough sleep.
“Is that why you couldn’t sleep last night?” she asked Tomás. “You were too busy trying to figure out how to … breathe fire?”
