“What’s this?”
He rested his chin on his crossed arms. “Call it a consolation prize,” he said. “Or maybe a trade.”
I snatched my hand back from where I was about to flip open the first book. It was one about forced summonings. “A trade for what?”
“You said you could raise the spirits of my family,” he said. “Was that just talk?”
With some practice, I was confident I could do it. But I also wasn’t in the business of doing favours for psychopaths either. “No thanks.”
“It’s a consolation prize then,” he said.
I didn’t know what he meant by that. But by the end of class, I had read the spine of those books and knew that I wanted them.
“See you around, squirt.”
I wasn’t sure, but I thought I had just come to a truce with Andrei.
27
Thanks to the looming meeting date with the Human League, Sophie and I were given special permission to leave the Academy to go shopping. That Saturday morning, she cracked open her ingredients chest where we kept our stash of manna.
“I don’t know why I’m even bothering to count this,” I said. I knew exactly how much, or in this case how little, I had. Sophie’s pile was decidedly bigger than mine. That’s what happened when you managed to get steady work. I was starting to become annoyed at the idea of being broke. It had never bugged me before. But even Nanna was being paid more than I was. When she’d offered to buy me a dress, I had declined. With the rapid plummet in my popularity, who knew how long it would be before we were kicked out of supernatural society? We needed savings.
Being broke didn’t dampen the spirits of the Evil Three. We trudged to the portal field. I hung back with Astrid. She was escorting us because Kai was busy. Because Kai and Max wouldn’t let Sophie and me off the grounds without protection. But most importantly, because Kai despised shopping and didn’t want to go.
I found myself rubbing my arms as we got closer.
“What’s the matter?” Astrid asked.
I pointed to the portal that was being manned by Bran today. “I really don’t want a repeat of last time.”
“Fancy seeing you here,” Andrei’s voice called out as we approached. I thought he was speaking to me but when I looked up, he was watching Astrid.
“Hello, Andrei,” she said, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Up ahead, the girls had stopped to watch the exchange.
“Shopping?”
Astrid just nodded. She didn’t seem all that keen to ask him where he was going. So I did. He smirked at me before stepping through his own portal.
I let out a breath. “Don’t tell me you know him socially,” I asked Astrid. She was still watching the spot where he’d been.
“I used to know him,” she said. “Before all of this happened with his family.”
I took that to mean they might have been friends before he went cuckoo. Astrid touched my arm. “Ready?”
No. But I nodded anyway. The last thing I saw on this side of the portal was Bran with his jaw locked, making sure we crossed through to the other side safely. I held my breath until my feet hit the paved streets of Rivia.
The magical town was bustling as usual. The Evil Three wanted to see everything. We had time so we agreed to indulge them. I was waiting outside the candy store with Astrid when I noticed I was being watched. It wasn’t the first time that had happened this morning.
“Is it just me or are there a lot more guards here than usual?” I asked Astrid.
“With everything that’s been happening, I’m not surprised,” she said.
Now that they were on my radar, it wasn’t hard to spot other Nephilim guards as well as the Fae of the Iron Court. I swore they were following us. It was precisely the reason why I was scowling when we walked into Madame Familiar.
“What’s that sour puss for?” the Madame herself said. She walked out from behind the counter wearing a vertical-striped cotton dress over black leggings and kitten heels. Her blonde hair was artfully hand-scrunched and kept out of her face with bobby pins.
“Oh nothing,” I said. “My life is just a complete mess at the moment.”
For some unspeakable reason, she smiled widely. “I have something that might cheer you up.”
I didn’t think so, but she disappeared into the back room before I could comment. There was only one other person in the store. It was gratifying to see the looks of utter amazement on the faces of the Evil Three.
“There’s a black rose growing out the front of the store,” Winnie said absently as she traced her fingers along the skirt of a stunning blue dress hanging suspended in the middle of the store. Her eyes lifted to the ceiling to see whether there was some kind of wire holding the dress in place. The answer was a resounding no. It was all magic. As was the way the hem of the dress fluttered in the non-existent breeze.
“I don’t know how I feel about this,” Diana said. “On the one hand, I’m so jealous I’m not buying a dress. On the other, I’d be paying this off till the day I graduate.”
“How much are they?” Harlow asked.
“Not everything is about price, my dear,” Celine said. She came out of the back with a piece of black material draped over her arm. It looked like tulle but was so delicate I wasn’t sure how it would hold its shape. Wisps of fabric fell like a waterfall over her arm. I should have been able to see her skin through the ephemeral material, but it seemed to shift before my very eyes.
“Umm...did you forget the rest of it?”
Her eyes crinkled. “I’m glad you haven’t lost your sense of humour,” she said. My attention was too transfixed to the dress
