The stretched cashmere slips through Alma’s fingers. “A d-demon?”
Bastian pulls her back, and she stumbles into him on those wedged stilts of hers.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” Cadence whispers beside me.
I glance down at her, my heart wadded inside my chest like chewed gum. She’s right. The fire’s out, and Charlotte’s terrified. Mygroac’hwas a lot of things, most of them nasty, but never panicked. There’s no seductive magic or eerie evil.
Cadence darts a glance at the ring, which has stopped emitting light and random bolts of pain. I extend my palm in front of me, closer to Charlotte. The Bloodstone doesn’t ghoulishly flare back, but a pin of bright scarlet remains in its center, and although my muscles are no longer seizing, they definitely feel a little crampy. But that could be due to the three-hundred pushups I did before coming to this rotten b-day party. I’d been trying to work out my excess . . . let’s call itenergy, and wine wasn’t hitting the spot.
Adrien snatches the salt and sprinkles some on Charlotte anyway. Nothing happens. No smoke. No screaming. No melting. Nothing.
Charlotte’s face is turning the same blue as his dainty kitchen tiles. Demons can’t suffocate, can they? Can they even breathe?
“Adrien, get off her.” When he doesn’t, I grab a fistful of gelled locks and yank with such force that he yowls. That split-second of inattention is enough for Charlotte to slither away from his grip.
Cadence helps her sit.
“Don’t touch her! She’ll curse you, Cadence. Don’t. Touch. Her.” Adrien breaks away from me, but I grab him again, this time pinning him in a headlock. The dude turns feral, growling and clawing at my sleeve with his buffed fingernails.
I like this untamed side of Professor Prickhead, because it’s got Cadence’s upper lip hiked up in disgust. Yes, I pushed her away, but I most definitely don’t want her to end up in Adrien’s lap.
In any man’s lap . . .
“She’s not the piece, Adrien.” Cadence’s voice is firm, her limpid eyes radiating both sympathy and repugnance.
Charlotte’s shaking and bawling. Through sobs, she shrieks, “What the hell’s wrong with you, Adrien?”
His body goes limp, the fight and conviction draining out of him. I release him, and he kneels on the wet floor beside Charlotte, who’s clutching on to Cadence as though she were a lifeguard.
“Merde. Oh,bébé, I’m so sorry. I—”
“You’re a fucking lunatic! A demon?You’rethe demon. I could press charges, you know? Assault. You weren’t trying to put out the fire. You were tryingtohurtme. Maybe even kill me.” Charlotte’s voice goes higher and higher with every word.
“No, I would never . . . I thought . . . I thought—”
Cadence helps her stand, then keeps an arm around her waist, because Charlotte’s like a kid after their first-ever beer. Wobbly legs. Swaying body. No sense of depth perception. Her heels skid in the foamy puddle, and although Cadence’s arm tightens, they both list and bump into the sideboard holding a hammered silver tajine dish. Adrien jumps back to his feet and reaches out to steady them, but Charlotte swats his hand away.
Cadence helps her toward the couch. “We need to get your burns treated—”
Charlotte’s sudden glare halts Cadence mid-sentence. “I get it.” She cackles, honest-to-goodness cackles. “You messed with the sparkler.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’ve been pining over my boyfriend, so you messed with the sparkler.”
“I was at the door when—”
“See. You’re not even contradicting the first part of what I said. You little jailbait whore.”
My gut tightens in time with my fists. “Watch your mouth,” I snarl, low and menacing.
Charlotte watches Adrien, her body quaking with adrenaline and anger. “You fucking called out her name once when you were balls-deep inside me. Pretended you were thinking of class and grading papers.”
“Char, that’s not true.” Adrien’s voice is thin, oh-so-unconvincing.
Unfortunately, I can’t see what the news is doing to Cadence, because her back is to me.
“Charlotte!” Her friend’s voice is muffled by the windowpanes, yet it seems to blare across the quiet house. “The firemen are here! They’re going to break down the door if you don’t let them in.”
