No polish.
No talking points.
Then he spent an afternoon lost in the old worlds he’d let slip away from him, having adventures, seeing the good guys be tested but prevailing.
And the thought that came to mind as he walked out later?
He wished he could tell Iris about those stories, knowing from her book selections that she enjoyed a good action plot.
He wanted that. He wanted to share something with her, to relate to her, to show her that maybe they weren’t so different after all.
It was with that thought in mind that he walked into a building and signed up for a class.
If she’d given up the sea to stand beside him, the least he could do … was learn to swim.
14
Iris
“Look, I’m not claiming he’s your soulmate,” Arden said. He opened the door of Selene’s bookshop. “I’m saying I ship it so hard that the postal service is going to file a complaint.”
Iris rolled her eyes at him.
He’d been like a dog with a bone since he’d shown up at her doorstep with cut-up pictures of her kiss with Finn all glued together into a collage on the front of a thick red binder.
And he absolutely would not listen to her insistence that the kiss was just for the cameras.
“It wasfake,” she insisted once again.
“Oh, please. You two have so much unresolved tension, it’s giving me chest pains. And I don’t even have a heart.”
“Wait, you don’t have a heart?” she asked, gaping at him.
“Nope.”
“Is that why you’re so obsessed with heart-shaped things?” she asked as they stopped just inside of the door.
“Fun fact,” Selene said, coming up from somewhere in the back of the store. “The modern heart shape we see all over is actually the shape of a woman’s butt when she’s bent over.”
Selene seemed even more ethereal than usual. The air seemed to sparkle around her. Like she was, Iris didn’t know, recharged.
It took her a long moment to realize that the late-night howling from the werewolves wasn’t the only thing that happened on a full moon. All across the surface, covens and solo-practicing witches alike gathered under the moon to dance, to sing, to set intentions.
Iris had no idea what kind of magic Selene had been working on, but the witch was glowing. Even her hair seemed shinier.
“Well, what’s not to love about that?” Arden asked, eyes sparkling as he shot one of those devilishly charming smiles in Selene’s direction.
“Oh, don’t bother with that,” Selene said, waving at his face. “I’m immune to your charms. Tried, tested, andvaccinated.”
Arden was unfazed.
“That’s not immunity, darling. That’s denial with extra sass.” The charm was practically oozing off him. Iris wasn’t even in the path of it, and she could swear she felt some of it clinging to her.
“Who is this?” Selene asked, nodding her chin at Arden.
Was it just Iris’s overactive imagination, or was her witchy friend staying a deliberate distance from the demon?
“Arden. My demonic wedding planner. Arden, this is Selene, my co-conspirator.”
