My mouth was open. What strange reality had I tumbled into where the Head of House Pacific was repeating our teenage camp cheer in my living room? “Did you sustain a head injury recently?”
“Finish the chant,” he said.
“We’ve got ruach, spirit through and through,” I said in a monotone. “We’re Camp Ruach, there for me, I’m there for you.” I threw the lamest jazz hands ever. “Put that online, Pri, and I’ll kill you.”
“Too late,” she said cheerfully, waggling her own phone. “Levi’s part already scored me 100 likes. Besides, I didn’t film you to protect your anonymity.”
I sighed. “What a waste of my spectacular Broadway moves.”
Priya tossed her phone onto the coffee table, resuming her search through Gavriella’s Android.
“Okay, now that we’ve gone through that call and response exercise, do you want to tell me why we’re doing our old camp cheer?” I said.
Levi leaned forward and the scent of his oaky amber scotch and chocolate magic that I was unfairly attuned to overpowered the lingering smell of Chinese food.
“It’s not just a cheer. It’s a sacred bond. ‘There for me, I’m there for you.’ This new complication with your father is awful, but you’re not alone. Just like Sherlock wasn’t.”
I made a raspberry at his earnest BS. Wow, these painkillers with the third glass of wine really made me floaty. “Levi, I appreciate it. I really do. But I also know where I stand. And if you were a true Sherlock fan you’d know that the only person going over the Reichenbach Falls to rid the world of evil will be me.”
“God you’re stubborn.” Levi took a fortifying drink. “I didn’t want to do this, but you’re making me pull out the big guns.”
Priya’s eyes widened. “You brought Talia?”
Levi shuddered. “God no. Ash’s mother wants to legislate me out of existence. I try not to get within ten feet of that woman. No offense.”
I shrugged. “None taken. What’s the big guns?”
Levi pulled off his sweater and my eyes practically bugged out. Under it, he wore our old blue camp T-shirt with the words “Camp Ruach” emblazoned in silver. This shirt had fit a much shorter, skinnier Levi. Now it was stretched tight across his torso and the discrepancy between the exquisiteness of his ripped body and the innocent camp shirt brought on a dull pounding in my temples.
“You’re ruining my childhood,” I groused.
Priya leaned forward to ogle a strip of olive skin between his hem and his jeans. “Feel free to ruin mine.”
I tossed a pillow at her, but my drugged-up aim was way off. It landed with a dull splat far short of its intended target.
“There are situations that as a Jezebel, only you can deal with,” Levi said, “but the fallout from Adam’s schemes doesn’t have to be one of them, okay?”
He’d come by my house wearing a ridiculously too-small shirt in order to boost my spirits because he’d heard about my dad being involved. Because he knew I’d be mad and sad or just having a lot of feelings to sort out.
Because he wanted to make me laugh.
Other than Priya, how many people would go to those lengths for me?
I nodded slowly in response to him, trying to keep gravity mostly non-floaty, and said the words in my heart. “I can’t believe you kept that shirt all these years.”
“It was part of some stuff that Mom had me come pick up the other week.” Levi shifted his weight like he couldn’t get comfortable, then forced himself to relax back against the chair cushions. That was totally unlike his usual self, but maybe that shirt was really too tight to move comfortably in after all.
Mrs. Hudson jumped off my lap and ran to him like she wanted to comfort him.
He absently patted her head. “So. Good job with the Weaver. I didn’t thank you yet, but I’m glad we learned who was behind the security breach. Each piece of intel is that much more illuminating. Who knows, maybe the magic on the dogs will even tie back to Chariot and not just have been a venture the Petrovs were engaged in.”
I’d known Levi for fifteen years. Most of them as nemeses, about a month as hook-ups, and maybe a week as friends. None of those versions of him involved the verbal diarrhea he now spewed.
Having examined all the photos, I flipped them over one by one to see if any had writing on the back. “Mrs. Hudson, do not cavort with him. He’s clearly stalling because he has something unpleasant he intends to dump on me.”
He tugged on his shirt. “Speaking of camp, I, uh—”
“Levi.” I motioned for him to get to the point.
“Mayan came to see me a couple weeks ago,” he said.
I cut him off with an exaggerated groan.
Priya made a face at the screen. “Gavriella spent way too much time playing Solitaire.” That was depressing. “Who’s Mayan?”
“My ex,” Levi said.
“An embodiment of evil.” I made a stabbing motion. “Quite the talent really, since she doesn’t even have magic.”
“She’s not that bad,” Levi said.
“No, she’s worse.” Even though he hadn’t dated her until they were both in their twenties, Mayan had gone to the same Jewish summer camp as Levi, Miles, and myself, all through our teen years. She’d elevated belittling me into an art form. Every summer had brought a new crop of rumors about my freak status—usually involving some form of Satan worshipping, because that never got old—cruel pranks, and on one memorable occasion, an accusation of theft, that only dumb luck and a witness willing to confirm my whereabouts had gotten me acquitted of.
“Admittedly, she wasn’t the nicest back then, but her mother’s death a few years ago changed her,” Levi said. “She needs help.”
“That’s why you came over, wasn’t it?” I said churlishly. “The camp stuff was bullshit to butter me up for this.”
“I was worried about you. It isn’t an either/or
