She hadn’t wanted it. Hadn’t chosen it, and if she had any kind of agency in this situation, she would shed every characteristic that made her so dreadfullyunique. Angela wouldn’t get it,exceptional as she was, but there was nothing Maya wouldn’t do to be just another face in the crowd. To be normal again.
Maya was about to tell Angela just that, except in far terser terms, when her attention shifted. It didn’t happen consciously, or as a response to a strange noise or movement in her periphery. Instead, it was as though her gaze was pulled by magnets. An invisible force making her turn her head, looking through the crowd.
Harper. Standing just a few feet away, leaning over the bar, and with her platinum blonde hair turned colorful by the strobe lights. She was wearing tight, dark jeans and an oversized graphic t-shirt that had been turned into a cropped tee seemingly by attacking it with scissors.
She said something to the bartender, and he turned his head to hear her better over the music. He tensed, looking away as he pointed towards the end of the bar, and as Harper followed the gesture, her eyes found Maya’s.
The world stopped. The music dulled, the crowd froze, and the entire room faded away. All of it was reduced to less than background noise as Maya’s focus locked onto Harper’s beautiful face.
It had been days since she saw it last, at the Lotus, but it might as well have been seconds. Every piece of nuance had burned into her mind as Harper had gone from furious to shocked to holding back tears.
All of that uncertainty was gone. Now, she looked more determined than anything. Lips tensing and with a slight furrow forming between her brows, Harper pushed off the bar and started maneuvering towards Maya.
“Hellooo.” Angela waved her hand in front of Maya’s face. She flinched, turning back towards the witch she’d just forgotten existed.
Angela snorted. “Yeah, youdefinitelyneed to talk to Aleksander.” She gave Maya’s hand a squeeze. “Relax. Just be yourself. She won’t be able to resist that.”
Angela took a final sip of her drink before hopping off her stool and walking away from the bar. The crowd split, letting the witch of Chains pass by untouched and unbothered.
Maya wasn’t the only one around Court with a fearsome reputation, but Angela’s was self-imposed. She was wearing so many defensive charms that there wasn’t a supernatural creature alive who could harm her. That was why she had never had a problem with Maya. Angela had no reason to be afraid.
Unlike Harper. Harper, who had every reason to keep her distance. After everything she had seen and heard these past few days, Harper had countless reasons to be terrified.
But despite that, she showed no apprehension as she broke free from the crowd. She glanced in the direction Angela had vanished, eyes narrowed. Then she walked towards Maya, climbed onto a barstool, and crossed her arms over her chest.
“We need to talk.”
This was thelastthing Maya had expected. She had assumed, hadaccepted, that the only way she would ever see Harper again would be from afar. That the conversation they’d had at the Lotus, if you could even call it that, would be their last. That the kiss she had stolen just a few days before would be the last time they touched.
But Harper was right there. Sitting with her back straight, eyes hard, and staring at Maya as though she’d shown up witha plan that involved both cursing and shouting. With no one in tow, either.
“You came here alone?”
Surprise briefly softened Harper’s hard gaze. “Yeah. Why?”
Maya almost asked her that same question. Harper would have been told everything by now. Every shade of darkness that made up the world she’d been thrown into.
Knowing all that, she should have stayed away. Or at least brought someone along, for safety.
She should be scared. Instead, she just seemed confused.
“I just… I figured you’d be…” Maya shook her head. “Never mind. Forget I asked.”
It seemed like Harper was about to insist on the opposite. But she’d clearly come over there with an itinerary and seemed keen on forging ahead with it.
She straightened her spine and jutted out her chin. “I’ve learned a lot since coming here, and despite everything I’ve been told, there’s still a lot I don’t understand. A lot that pisses me off the more I think about it. You knew Evie was alive, thewholetime, and you didn’t say anything.”
“I couldn’t.” Maya eyed the dance floor. People were looking in their direction. Listening.
“I had orders,” she continued, voice low. “I almost told you. If I thought you’d believe me, I would have, but there were… I wasn’t—”
“You weren’t allowed to tell me. I know. Evie mentioned. She told me about yourorders, which involved getting me safely to Chicago, no matter the cost. Something I would be far more okay with if it hadn’t involved seducing me into trusting you.”
“That wasn’t my intention.”
“Then what wasyour intention? You vanished without a word right after we got here, as though you couldn’t wait to get away from me. If I was never anything more than a job to you, making me care about you was a cold fucking tactic.”
Maya’s heart sank. Into a pit of needles, going by the pain piercing through it.
