"Fuck off with that shit."
Darius snorted. "Has anyone ever told you you're prickly?"
"If they did, they would be dead."
"If you kill me, the wards fall. You're out of luck on that one, porcupine."
"No. Call me that again, and I'm leaving."
"I could go with cactus."
"Easy. Your magic is firing," I murmured, slipping off my chair, slowly. "I'm going to change."
"Sorry." He glanced my way.
"It's fine." I headed toward the spare room, taking tiny steps so the overstimulation wouldn't send me spiraling into a panic attack.
"What does your magic do?" Rae asked Dare.
"It's hard to say."
"Fine, don't tell me." Rae rolled her eyes.
Darius snorted. "You really are prickly. Who knew shadows could be sharp."
"Anyone who knows a damn thing about demons."
"My magic is complicated. It makes people feel good, like they’re getting off. It feels like pleasure, but the intensity is different for different people. All of them are drawn toward me, but not in the way they’re drawn to a siren. They don't wantme. They just want whatever feelings my magic gives them."
"That sounds awful," Rae said bluntly, as I walked slowly toward the spare bedroom.
"People usually ask if they can feel it." Darius sounded amused. He agreed that it was awful—he just wouldn't admit it. Not to someone he barely knew. He'd only confessed it to me once, a few decades earlier, when he was in a particularly low place.
"No thanks."
Dare chuckled. "Alright. What's Mer planning this time?"
I closed the bedroom door behind me.
It took longer than it should've to change, and I had to breathe through the overwhelm as the unfamiliar, uncomfortable fabric clung to my skin.
My plan was going to be more difficult than I had realized, if my overwhelm continued to ride me this hard.
Shit.
"I kind of wish I could be there to see it," Rae agreed, as I opened the bedroom door and slipped out.
"You could. It’s not like anyone can keep you out, and I doubt Darke is the one hiding you away," Darius said.
"Of course not. I just don't like people, and going to that thing would require being around them. A lot of them."
"My magic catches everyone's attention. Sit with me, and they'll be too busy trying to touch me to bother you," Dare offered.
Rae made a face. "I don't know..."
"If he's offering to help you without a bargain, I'd run with it," I said quietly, my hands tucked in the pockets of the soft, oversized cardigan I'd pulled on over my clothes. "He doesn't really do that."
"He did ask me to bargain with him already." Rae rolled her eyes toward me again like it was an inside joke between us.
