“There are two boys who are vying for Rosemary’s attention,” Bay says.
I glower at her.
“Who? That Sage boy you mentioned a few times?” Mom asks.
“Let them continue to vie for your attention,” Dad advises. “You’ll see their true nature if you make them wait long enough. A healthy competition can’t hurt them any.”
“Unless they’re touched in the head like Thistle,” Bay says.
I grimace. That’s precisely the wrong thing to say after Mom’s addendum to that.
“Then they might kill each other over her. That’s how devoted they are to her,” Bay continues.
“Devotion is lovely.” Mom beams.
Dad purses his lips. “Why don’t you have something to say about all of this, Rosemary?”
“Because I… I don’t know what to think.” I bite my lower lip. “After everything with Thistle, I decided to spend the rest of my second year focusing on my studies.”
“Good.” Mom’s smile grows even larger.
“I just…” I shrug. “Is it too much to think that they might only like me because of the competition between them?”
Bay bursts out laughing. “Sage is an idiot. You might be right. He might only still be interested because he wants to keep you from Damon.”
I scowl. “Sage isn’t an idiot,” I say hotly.
Dad looks back and forth between us. “Why do you prefer this Damon character for Rosemary, Bay?”
“Because.” Bay says nothing more, but I remember what she told me last year.
“Because you pulled me out of some darkness, and if he needs that, who better to help him than the lightest fairy here?”
Damon’s half fairy, half demon. His mom’s the demon. His fairy dad used to supply fairy dust, a drug that Bay used to deal our first year. I don’t like to think about that, but I did ask Damon about it once, shortly before the end of the school year.
“You know about Bay and your dad, don’t you?”
“Yes.” He eyed me, his eyes darker than ever. “What about it?”
“You never…”
“No.” His nostrils flare. “My dad and I don’t get along.”
“No?”
“He wanted me to deal here. That’s some of the reason why he sent me here, but I refused, and he…” Damon wouldn’t say another word about it, and I almost caved and hugged him.
Why didn’t I hug him? Because I was afraid.
Not so much about Damon but because of me.
I’m worried that I’m the kind of person who likes to fix things. If I think Damon is broken, I’ll want to fix him, to change him. My heart will get all twisted up for all the wrong reasons, and I might use love as an excuse. If I decide to be with Damon, I want it to be because I accept him for who he is.
Which means accepting a half-demon into my life… and my heart.
Bay has no issues doing that with a flipping full-blooded demon. I don’t know how she does it.
“Damon’s a good guy. So is Sage,” I say easily.
Bay snorts. “Sage isn’t as good as you think.”
I glower at her. “Oh, and a—”
“But if you love Sage, you love Sage. Do you?” she asks pointedly.
I scowl. She’s refusing to tell them about her boyfriend, yet she’s grilling me about my guys? So not fair.
“I don’t know if we’ve flapped our wings long enough for us to know what love is,” I say sweetly. “They say love is blind, don’t they?”
“Oh, I see things clearly enough,” she says, her tone taking on an edge.
“Clearly enough because you’re single?” I ask.
“Single as a bud blooms.”
I gape at her. Does that mean she broke up with Zoth? Or did he break up with her?
Dad clears his throat. “So, what courses are you taking this year?”
I’m grateful for the change in topic, but as soon as dinner is over and we cleared off the table, I loop my arm through Bay’s and guide her into my room.
“Spill,” I demand.
“Spill what?” she asks lazily as she flutters over to look at herself in her mirror.
“Why didn’t you ever tell Mom and Dad about Zoth?”
“Oh, they don’t need to know every detail about my life.”
“And they need to know every detail about mine?” I cross my arms and huff.
“You know they leave you be because you’re the golden girl.”
“Will you cut that crap out?” I groan.
“Hmm.” Bay’s lips curl into a teasing half-smile. “Crap. I’m not sure I heard you say that word ever before. I must’ve hit a nerve.”
“My nerves are just fine, thank you very much. Are you with Zoth or not?”
“I am.”
"Well, then?" I demand. "You should tell them!"
“Why? It might work out. It might not. If it doesn’t, they don’t need to know. Rosemary, think about it. If Mom finds out, she’ll freak. Dad might too. And if it doesn’t work out, Dad might then take matters into his own hands. Why force them to go through the stress of my dating someone they might not approve of?”
“Might not approve of?” I roll my eyes. “You know damn well—”
“Damn? Geez, girl! You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
“Bay, I’m not playing.”
She shrugs and flies over to me, her hands resting on my shoulders. “Oh, Rosemary, all I want to know is when you’re going to be ready to double date Zoth and me?”
I swallow hard. “Never?”
Bay just laughs and pulls me close for a tight hug. A double date. As fun as that sounds, I really don’t know what I’m going to do with either boy.
Chapter 3
That night, I’m in bed, and I fall asleep quickly. A light rapping at my window stirs me, and I fly over.
Sage flies in. Before I can ask what he’s doing here, he sweeps me into his arms and presses his body against me. I’m so shocked that I can’t think, can’t breathe, can’t react. He chuckles against my lips and puts my arms around him as he kisses me again. This time, I
