“So, does this mean it went well?” Alina asks. “Oh, do you want one of these?” She points to the platter of muffins, then loads two onto a plate when I nod.
“Thanks,” I say when she crosses the room and hands the plate to me. I take a bite of one, and it’s still slightlywarm—they must’ve gotten them in the dining hall this morning. “Mm, this is good.”
“As good as last night?” Lyra asks, flashing me one of her mischievous smiles.
I take another bite, then shake my head. “No. Last night waswaybetter.”
Lyra laughs, then flings herself onto the couch next to Poppy, making the book bounce out of her lap.
“Hey!” Poppy says as the book thumps to the floor, the page she was on getting lost in the shuffle.
But Lyra just plops her head into Poppy’s lap, like a cat demanding attention with no regard for what you’re doing.
Poppy sighs, but her lips pull up into a smile. She picks up one of Lyra’s bouncy red curls and twirls it between her fingers. “You’re a nuisance, Lyra Wilder.”
Lyra grins. “But you love me anyway.”
Poppy shakes her head, but her smile gets a bit bigger.
“So,” Alina says as she takes a seat next to me on the couch and pulls her knees into her chest, her bare toes peeking out from beneath her long skirt. “Is there anything you want to share?”
I feel all their eyes on me. Hesitating, I take another bite of the muffin.
I’m not shy—talking about sex isn’t uncomfortable for me—but for the first time, I’m feeling a bit unsure about it, like if I share everything that happened between me and Severin, I might somehow inadvertently curse it.
And Ireallydon’t want to curse it.
But with the way they’re all staring, I can’t give themnothing. So Isettle for, “It was... amazing.”
The girls give one another suspicious looks.
“Who are you, and what’d you do with the real Maeve?” Lyra asks, pointing a finger at me. She’s got a small smudge of dirt of the side of her hand, probably from caring for that moonflower. When she first planted it with a seed Cairn gifted her, I thought it’d be dead in a week. But she’s somehow managed to keep it alive for a whole year.
I suppose even fire witches can sometimes be gentle.
“Maybe she doesn’t want to talk about it,” Poppy says.
Lyra’s lips pull into a pout, and her forehead furrows. “Why?”
Now they’re all back to staring again.
“Because,” I say after finishing off the first muffin, “I’m afraid I’ll hex it.”
Lyra rolls her eyes dramatically, and Poppy gets that glimmer in her gaze that means she’s probably about to teach me something. But I quickly hold up a hand and say, “I know, I know, that’s not really how hexes work.” I sigh, setting the plate with the leftover muffin onto the side table next to the couch. “It’s just...” I pull my legs up and draw my knees into my chest, like Alina. “I don’t want to mess this up.”
Alina tips her head, looking thoughtful. A small smile crosses her lips. “You really like him.”
I nod once. “Yeah. I think I do.”
Something cool brushes my skin, and I look down to see Isis making her way across the couch and up my arm to my neck.
“Welcome back,” she says as she curls around my throat, where just last night Severin’s lips were. The memory makes me swallow hard.
“I’m gonna go take a bath,” I tell the girls.
They let me go without more questions, but I can tell they have them. In time, maybe I’ll share more. But for now, it’s like I want to keep Severin close to my chest, where only I can know him.
Up in the loft, as I gather what I’ll need for a bath, Isis hisses, “You are unsettled. I feel it on your skin.”
