Twice.
Which had given them approximately three hours of sleep.
And she was still fucking glowing.
Demon was smirking behind the computer monitor, likely talking to Midas back at the office, updating him on the change in status for the final deadman.
Midas was on the television screen, and he glanced behind himself at a whiteboard he kept there. On it were several columns of swear words, all in very small print because there were so many of them, and all with a varying number of hash marks next to them.
“Okay, ladies and jellyspoons, time to pony up your money.”Midas checked the bottom right corner of the board behind him. “Cough it up to God. Two hundred apiece.”
There was general moaning and groaning, but the hazing was good-natured. Daleyza looked around the room, mystified at the money changing hands. “What’s going on?”
Steel hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand.
“They’re paying their wagers.”
“Wagers?”
“I should have known.” He groaned. “Look. It’s a terrible habit we’ve had for years. We bet on everything. Like how long it takes before TB can make one of us talk, or how many marshmallows Flame can stuff in her mouth at once. It’s… stupid, juvenile shit. Just ignore it.”
“What was the bet?”
Nemo had at least four pieces of bacon he’d shoved into his mouth, and he talked through them on his way back to the couch, where he’d been on his tablet talking to Cerberus. “On the two of you.”
Daleyza frowned in confusion.
Gem punched Nemo in the stomach as he bent over to sit down, causing the man to grunt in pain. She said, “These idiots were betting on how long before you two got back together.”
Nemo had finally swallowed the food in his mouth. “Don’t act all innocent. You placed a bet as well.”
Impishly, she grinned. “I figured with the way he was playing all ‘brooding Heathcliff,’ it would take at least another week. Happy to be wrong.”
The look on Daleyza’s face was still one of confusion, but something else lurked there as well. “Leeza?—”
“There were a lot of bets on when people would have sex, too, or where. Ask him.” Nemo motioned to Steel.
“Ildefanso!” She gasped, half shocked, half laughing.
“Told you it was stupid,” he muttered.
“Ask him who won all the time.” This time, Nemo was talking around a piece of toast he stole from Gem’s plate.
Daleyza’s eyes found his.
He rolled his eyes.
“You did, didn’t you?” Now there was genuine mirth in her eyes. “You never told them about your mother?”
He made a motion to be silent, looking sheepishly around the room.
“Tell us what?” TB asked, suspicion rife in his tone.
“Livia Ortiz has the glimmer,” Daleyza told him.
“The what?” Menace loomed in the question.
“The glimmer. That’s what she called it anyway. She often seemed to know things before they happened. She said she’d get this shiny aura, and she could see what was going to happen. A glimmer of truth.”
