Hope.
Twenty-Seven
ANSEL
It’s four in the morning, the sky is the deep, predawn blue of Stevie’s eyes, and I can’t decide what’s more exciting—the prospect of a sunrise hike to my favorite place in the world, or the fact that Stevie accepted the invite to join me.
When she emerges from the Iron and Bone dorms without Baz in tow, my day gets even better.
“Where’s your slumber party buddy?” I ask, doing my best to hide my elation.
Stevie blinks at me slowly, still halfway stuck in dreamland. Her wild curly hair is pulled into a messy bun, her face lined with sheet marks, cheeks pink from the chilly air, and I swear I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life.
“Just me today.” She yawns and rolls her sleepy eyes, a sarcastic smile playing at her lips. “Don’t look so disappointed, Ani.”
“I get my favorite witch to myself for awholeday. You can’t blame a guy for being happy about that. We haven’t hung out in forever.”
“Forever, as in… a week?”
I press my hand to my heart and make gooey doe-eyes at her. “Starla Milan, even a day outside your enchanting presence feels like an eternity to my withering spirit.”
“A little too early for confessing your undying love, Sunshine.” She laughs, then smacks me in the chest. “But to answer your question, my slumber party buddy is still asleep. I tried to wake him, but he sleeps like the dead. Figured we’d be okay on our own, but if you really miss him that much, go ahead and try to get him up.”
“Hard pass. Let’s go.”
We head down along the pathway back toward Flame and Fury. At this hour, the entire campus is asleep, no sounds but the soft chittering of night birds and a gentle breeze weaving lazily through the flowers.
“So this sleepover buddy thing,” I say. “Is it just that? Or do you still have feelings for him?”
“Maybe? I don’t know. I’m still confused. Is confused a feeling? Because I’m drowning in it.”
“So Kirin’s out of the equation now?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But—”
“Hey.” She holds up her hands, fluttering her fingers. “You see a ring on this finger?”
I grab her hand, pressing a quick kiss to her palm. “Which one? You’ve got ten of them.”
“Plenty of room for everyone, then.” She laughs as we continue down the path, but she doesn’t let go of my hand, which is just fine by me.
“I have feelings forbothof them,” she says, “and they both know it, though we haven’t gotten into any details yet.”
“Does this mean you no longer think dating more than one guy is shady?”
“I never said dating more than one guy was shady. It’s the fact that you guys are all friends that made me feel bad about it.”
My heart quickens at the mention of ‘you guys,’ but I take a deep breath, let it get back to normal. Stevie’s not talking about all of us. She’s speaking in general.
“But I can’t stop my feelings from feeling,” she continues.
“True. Feelings gonna feel.”
“All I can do is be honest with them, see where this goes.”
“Hmm. Sounds like some advice a wise, dashing, incredible friend once gave you.”
