“Relax,” she said. “I’m not going to murder you. Besides, you could probably murder me back with your weird magic.” She wiggled her fork at me. “Is that why Daniel was into you? Your powers?”
Oh, no. Not boy talk. I wasn’t good at it. Strenuously avoided it, in fact. No one needed a play-by-play of the whole pint of ice cream I ate last night, either. Mistakes and pleasure should be private—especially when they overlap.
“Your silence is confirmation.” She smiled wickedly. “Is he always so stuffy?”
“Not always,” I said, feeling my face heat up.
“He reminds me of Prospero that way, actually,” she mused.
I gazed under the bed to see if there was room for me to crawl in and hide. What did Inotwant to hear? How Daniel was like Prospero, how I was like Jessica, or any other combination that had all the appeal of a pickles and peanut butter sandwich. “Were you and Prospero… uh…”
Jessica coughed. “Together? God, no. I mean, not that I wouldn’t have considered it…”
I squeezed my eyes shut. It didn’t help, so I opened them again.
“But it was strictly business.” She went back to the omelet.
I reached for my phone. “My, look at the time—”
“Are you seeing anyone?”
I considered jumping out the window, or possibly texting someone and saying I’d been attacked by a werewolf.Send help. “No, not currently.”
“What about Mr. Gentry Prince? He seems like your type.”
“Mytype? We’ve known each other forhowlong, mostly atknifepoint, and you think I have atype?”
“Sappy,” she said. “Like you.”
My jaw fell. “I’m notsappy.”
She shot me a dubious look. “You’re, like, a serial puppy rescuer. You can’t help yourself.”
“Berron is—I’m not—you—”
“Except you can’t actually go for your type because then you’d have to admit you were sappy, too.”
My mouth was open yet no sounds were coming out.
“That’s why it didn’t work with Daniel. He’s a lot of things, but sappy isn’t one of them,” she said, blithely taking another bite of the eggs. “Are you all right? You look funny.” It was almost sincere, but the wide-eyed look of concern was ruined by the mischief etched across her face.
“I’m fine,” I said, standing up, hating how stuffy I sounded.
“Aren’t you having fun? Isn’t this what friends do?”
I was almost through the doorway when the silverware rattled on the plate and Jessica was right behind me. Grape soda and cinnamon mingled with cheese omelet when she laid her hand on my shoulder.Poison omelet, I thought.
“You’re not mad at me, are you?”
I turned. What a weird little cat she was. No wonder I was a dog person. “No—” I started, but was interrupted by another key hitting the lock.
“Ssh,” Jessica said. “Not a word to Lord Daniel. Just between us girls, right?” She winked, and I was reminded of Poppy, if Poppy were an unreliable American vampiress.
“Right…” I said.
She giggled madly, turned me around by my shoulders, and pushed me out into the hall, following right behind me.
“Hello?” Daniel called.
