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So I did.
“Perfect,” Claire said. “Now let’s work on our disillusionment spells.”
We kept training for the entire day, and by the end of it I was weaving illusion spells and keeping them up even through Claire’s distractions.
I left the beach thinking a simple, but life-altering, thought.
Damn. I know my brother’s proud of me.
The night was alive with the promise of a great time as we approached the Abbey for the pregame to Starlight’s Walking on Water party. It felt odd being out and about after having locked myself up either inside the castle or inside The Magic Box ever since we had gotten back from the Center. It had been a long few weeks, not only having to learn how to use my powers, but also coming to terms with them. It had been a draining process, leaving me with very little mental capacity to handle much of anything by the end of the day. It helped that my case load at the agency was now effectively zero, but I still had the crushing weight of knowing what we had to do.
We had the keycard, we knew where the painting was likely to be, I just needed to feel confident enough in my powers to do it.
And it was coming. I was close to mastering the illusion weaves we would need to get us into the Ruby Room. While I’d been studying, Maddox did some recon work and found two high-ranking C.O.B. officials we could disguise ourselves as. So long as they didn’t have any wards in place, I felt like I could do it, especially after this week’s progress with Claire. I could get Maddox and I into the Glass Auditorium, we could snag the last remaining painting, then bring them all together for Amelia before we destroy them for good.
The only catch was, Madds and I both decided that regardless of my skill, the heist had to happen within the next few days.
Which meant that tonight, I was going to party as if it were the end of the world.
We stood in the long line waiting to get into the Abbey, Dawn and Claire sitting on the swings of a tiny playground, neither of them happy wearing heels, no matter how many compliments they were given. Meanwhile, Damien and Xavier were getting into a heated discussion about the quality of the burger joint right across the street.
“It’s some of the best burgers I’ve ever had,” Xavier said. He looked just as good as his sister and Claire, wearing dark black jeans cuffed at the ankles and a designer V-neck shirt that was a deep red color and made the golden scales on his biceps pop even more than usual against his tan skin.
“Because you were drunk off your ass,” Damien countered.
Robby chuckled and nodded in agreement with Damien. “I remember that night. You couldn’t stop talking about how good the burger was on the Uber ride home. And then you proceeded to throw it all up in the bushes.”
“Ah, damn,” Xavier said, cracking his knuckles and shrugging.
Maddox jumped into the fray. “For once in my life, I’m going to agree with you, Xavier. Drunk or not, those are damn good burgers.”
It was nice seeing the family out and hanging together. Reminded me of the times I used to do the same with mine. It seemed like those memories belonged to someone else, to a different life, they were so long ago and so completely opposite to how I remembered seeing my family last. With my father breaking everything in the house, my mother crying so hard she popped multiple blood vessels in her eyes. I was kicked out of the house for something I could never control. I lost any semblance of a family unit I had that night.
But now? I was slowly regaining it, and that filled me with a joy I almost forgot existed. I smiled as the battle continued, different burger places being thrown into the mix. We slowly made it past the wrought-iron fences and stoic gargoyles that guarded the entrance, reaching the bouncer and handing him my ID. Walking through the gates of the Abbey felt like stepping through a gateway to another world, a world where the ordinary faded into the background, replaced by a blast of gay and chaotic energy.
Maddox, in a tailored dark floral blazer that seemed to challenge the darkness of the night and the twinkle of the stars, looked like a supermodel as he walked past a seating area dripping in supermodels.
The Abbey welcomed us with its usual gay grandeur, the outdoor patio filled with people chatting and drinking, music from inside spreading outward. The covered bar area was a spectacle of allure and charm, the bottles glowing in different colors under the blue and pink lights. I couldn’t help but notice the admiring glances Maddox received from the shirtless bartenders and the bra-clad women behind the bar.
