Instead of dropping the subject she drops her voice. “He called out your freaking name while making love to his girlfriend, Cadence.”
“I’m sure that happens to lots of people.”
“Um,no. When you’re doing it with someone, you’re not thinking aboutotherpeople. Or if you are, you’re thinking about them silently. Totally silently.”
“He was probably inebriated or something. But can we just not talk about it?” When she lets out a puff of breath, clearly annoyed I don’t want to analyze every angle of Adrien’s mishap, I add, “We can dissect it when it’s just the two of us and everyone’s gone, all right?”
She glances over her shoulder. “Why is everyone coming to your house by the way? And what’s inside the metal pot? Please tell me it’s not an organ.”
How well do I know my bestie? Of course that’s where her mind went.
“It’s not an organ. It’s a gold leaf. One of the Quatrefoil’s.”
Her mouth rounds in a perfect O.
“And they’re all coming back to the manor so we can lock it inside the safe, because if anyone but Adrien touches it, that person becomes cursed.”
“I was hoping to get some action tonight. Didn’t realize just how much I’d get.”
“You and I both. So much for losing my virginity . . .”
“There’s still time. Plus you have two willing candidates.”
My cheeks go so hot that I’m tempted to fan myself even though it’s minus ninety-two degrees outside. “Oh my God, Alma,shh.”
Her lips close around the wickedest smile that stays in place during our entire slog through the snowcapped circles of Brume, Papa’s snowmobile rumbling softly behind us.
39
Slate
It’s one giant slumber party, except it’s all slumber and no party.
Adrien, Alma, Bastian, and I crash at the De Morel house. Alma with Cadence, Bastian with me, in the same room as last time, and Adrien in the suite off of Rainier’s that apparently his nurse-slash-physical-therapist-slash-dominatrix Jaqueline uses sometimes.
The minute we arrived, Adrien and Rainier locked the piece in the safe. Then Cadence set off to give Prof a proper buzz-cut, while the rest of us retired to the bedrooms, too beat and shell-shocked to do much of anything else.
I scrub up four times in the shower, but the stink of barbequed dragon and soot still clings to me. I have no idea how I got out of that whole mess unscathed. I mean, yeah, I hurt like hell and there are plenty of scrapes and bruises all over my already scraped and bruised body, but for facing a demonicguivre, I’m in damn good shape.
For being in Brume, I’m in damn good shape.
This town’s a killer.
I dress in the university-issued sweats and a T-shirt with the school logo De Morel’s house elf left out on the bed.
“You should have seen me face the beast down with Adrien’s sword,” I tell Bastian as I step out of the bathroom, water spiraling down the nape of my neck from my waterlogged curls. “I’m getting a plaque withSlate Ardoin, Dragon Slayer Extraordinairemade for the house.” I slash the air with an invisible sword to bring the picture to life.
Bastian snorts. He’s taken over the bed, he, too, in U of B’s gray uniform of sweats and T-shirt. “I’ll have to take your word for it. All I saw was fire and smoke. And the roof caving in like it was made out of Legos.” He straightens his glasses and runs a hand over his hair. “I was kind of busy comforting Alma.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah?”
Color rises in his cheeks. “Don’t get any ideas. I just put my arm around her and discussed magic.” He adjusts his glasses again. “She’s . . . nice.”
Now it’s my turn to snort. “Alma? Nice? I would put her more in thenaughtycategory . . . Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But you’re—” I shrug. I’m not sure how to say it without getting his hackles up. He’s a baby sparrow and she’s a hawk who could rip his head off with one snap of her beak. “You’retoonice.”
“There’s no such thing as too nice.” He fluffs a pillow. “Enough about me, though. I’d much rather discuss you and Cadence.”
My feet sink into the thick, ivory carpet. “Rainier told her I slept with women to steal their cash and jewels, so there really is nome and Cadence.”
