“Mm-hmm. What you’d call a glamour. Yeah, that exists, but it’s not really good for prolonged exposure. It makes it so humans don’t really notice you and forget about you more than anything. Those two uber-dads downstairs took it upon themselves to homeschool me. Now they’re on my case for not being home often enough and living a nomadic lifestyle between worlds. They’d probably love it if I found myself a set of several bagua to move in with me and help around the house. Fucking empty nester syndrome.”
I looked back at the moon. “My parents handed me off to the next best au pair as soon as I was weaned, basically, and I can’t really say we grew any closer during the apocalypse. I think you got lucky with those two.”
That shut Vergis up for a solid minute. It got so quiet that I looked up again to check if he was still there. He was looking at me like he’d never really seen me before. After a moment, he fished for a bag by the leg of the chair.
“So I guess we’re jealous together.” He pulled a small plastic baggy out, and I recognized the dried white flowers in there from my first trip to Aër. He waved it at me. “Wanna get high together?”
I looked over at where the roof ended. There was no railing, and the balustrade only went up to my hips.
Vergis rolled his eyes. “I promise I’ll tie you to the hammock the moment you mention flying, Princess.”
I scratched the back of my head. “Okay, fine, but just one, and you make sure I don’t do anything stupid.”
“Dude, remember how I valiantly saved you from a bloodworm when we were high together the last time?”
I snorted and sat in the chair next to his. “We were not high together. It was just you being high and me being there. I’d almost been eaten?—”
“Again, that happens to you a lot.”
“Whatever. Give me that.” I snatched the little baggy from him. The flowers actually looked candied, not just dried. After some last-minute consideration, I popped one into my mouth and started chewing. It tasted like violet and candies. It couldn’t possibly be all that bad.
Chapter 20
The stars were really pretty when you looked at them from the Astroturf. “Hey, Vergis, look! The stars are really pretty.”
“Stop grabbing my horns, you ass. This mattress isn’t big enough for two.”
“But you need to look up.”
“I’m looking. Damn it, will you keep your hands to yourself? You don’t go around grabbing people by the horns.”
There was a funny noise. It was me snort-giggling. “Lissir grabbed you by the horns. When you told me I should just date Ink. He grabbed you like a bull! By the horns!”
“Yeah, because Lissir is an ass who likes to have the last word and pimps me out to your brother in-law’s entourage like nobody’s business. You know what? Fuck it.”
“Aww, Vergis, don’t leave me. I’m lonely. Loooonely!” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the hammock swaying pleasantly, and the stars above me swayed with it. The night was so pretty.
“God, you’re so weird when you’re high.”
I was snort-giggling again, but louder this time. “Did I ever tell you Ink is my weirdo husband? He’s a great big weirdo who doesn’t mind walking around naked and talking about pleasure play out in public.”
“Hate to break it to you, human, but you’re the weirdo in that particular relationship.”
“Nuh-uh. Hey, you said I could have the hammock. What’re you doing climbing in the hammock?”
“Well, I have the hammock now. What? Why’re you looking at me like that? Oh no, don’t you fucking dare, you can’t?—”
I was nimble like nobody’s business. “See? It’s big enough for the both of us. Because of my soft human frame.”
“I’ll throw you off this roof myself if you don’t get off me. See how your soft human frame holds up when it meets the cold hard ground.”
“Nooo, you promised. I’m no pigeon. You can’t murder me on your man cave pigeon murder roof.”
“The fuck is wrong with you? You’re not ever getting drugs from me ever again. Fucking human weirdo.”
“I really like you, Vergis. I think you and Nokim should totally get together. He’d bake you flower brownies, and then we could all have brownies together.”
“He already suggested that.”
