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She watched him for long quiet moments before carefully asking, “Are you—do you feel better now?”

“I’m fine.” Oleander sighed. “How did you know who it was that breached our wards?”

Wisteria shrugged and walked over to hop onto his bed. “The bracelet, you idiot. How did you know who it was?”

He refused to say that it was just a feeling he had, an odd sort of premonition. Wisteria hated such nonsense. “I have my ways.”

She rolled her eyes. “Scoot forward and let me braid your hair.”

His eyes stayed on his knitting needles. “No.”

“Please?” Her voice remained playfully teasing, but she was looking at him with concern. Her gaze fixated on his eyes, in particular. He thought he’d hidden the dark clouds that had sometimes appeared without warning… apparently not well enough.

He gripped the needles tighter. “No! Go away.”

Wisteria crawled next to him and shoved him on the shoulder. He remained where he was, but shot her a glare before returning to his knitting.

She huffed, “Oh fuck off, and let me do your hair already. I need to look busy when they get here.”

“You’re going to snag your jacket—which would definitely put me into a rage since I spent weeks knitting and then reknitting it for you until it was flawless. Go stand over there and stare at the window broodily if you are going to be here. You can yell at her again the moment she enters if you like. She’ll love it, I’m sure.”

“Hey! That was before I remembered she had a hellcat!” She wedged herself between him and the headboard. “Scoot forward already! I promise to make you look amazing.”

“I already look amazing.”

Wisteria wiggled her body down and used her legs to push him forward. “There,” she huffed. She moved around until her knees were underneath her and she could partially loom over him. “Now, lean your head back a bit… a bit more.”

Oleander finished the row he was on and dropped his needles with a sigh. He tipped his head back so that Wisteria could start braiding his hair. As loath as he was to admit it, braiding his hair was one of the few tender things Wisteria ever did for him. He secretly cherished being one of the very few to see this side of her. Yet, if she’d known Oleander enjoyed her doing his hair, she would never do it again out of embarrassed spite.

She pulled his hair tightly and started braiding one side. “Also, I just got back from having this jacket enchanted against all sorts of mishaps, so it’s basically a protection suit by this point.”

Closing his eyes, Oleander felt his lips tug into a smile. “What did you mean about knowing it was Perine because of a bracelet?”

Wisteria scoffed. “I gave her that bracelet the last time she was here. It lets me know when she crosses wards surrounding any of our family’s homes. Luckily for you, I still live nearby so I could dash right over here to greet her.” She yanked slightly too hard and Oleander elbowed her in retaliation. Still, she continued braiding. “Also, I saw her flying around our home looking for your window. Doesn’t she know that if a hellcat crosses our borders, we’re supposed to confiscate it for our own nefarious purposes?”

“Are you going to confiscate it?”

“No,” she said cheerfully. “I’m here to manipulate it into being best friends with me. You never know when you’ll need a hellcat as a friend.”

When Perine finally alighted on his balcony, Wisteria had finished the braid on the right side of his head and was already working on the other side. Her fingers moved briskly and confidently, and she pretended not to notice when the large windowed doors on the left creaked open, and Perine tiptoed in.

His eyes were half-closed as they slid over to her, and he forced himself to sound arrogantly bored when he asked, “And what are you doing back in my room, Perine Wilder?”

Her brilliant lavender curls were windswept and thrown up haphazardly into a bun between her horns. She looked tempestuous—and, for the first time, unsure. He wanted to hold her hand or maybe run his fingers through her soft curls… to reassure her.

To be friendly.

Thoughtful.

Instead, he fisted his hands behind his back.

“Well, I—” Perine began nervously. “I wanted to see if you were feeling alright.”

His head tipped forward as Wisteria finished the last braid. “Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked cautiously.

Since his forced cohabitation with the shadow, his memory had grown more and more hazy. But he had a vague recollection that he’d seen Perine almost every day. Now, slightly more clear headed he wondered what he could have done to cause her to worry.

Only, Oleander would die before vocalising any of these thoughts. He fixed her with a sceptical glare instead.