Excuse me while I go drown myself in the expensive crystal punch bowl.
“Notice, Warren, how the witch so deftly evades the topic,” Oliver says, his eyes sparkling with mischief.
“I was drunk! It doesn’t count!”
“Being drunk doesn’t turn an honest woman into a liar. It merely removes the filter. Which is exactly what I told Merri, but he?—”
“He’s going to bloody kill you, is what he is,” Warren says to Oliver, but he’s still got that tender gleam in his eye. “Let the record reflect that I kept my mouth shut.”
“No one is killing anyone.” Suddenly I can’t meet their eyes. I can’t even breathe.
Where is this all coming from?
Okay,fine, the Kettles night. There was maybe a moment. Or two. Including the one where he carried me home. And the one when I woke up in his bed, and he’d fallen asleep in the chair beside me, and he was all rumpled and sweet with his glasses askew and I really, really wanted to climb into his lap and run my hands through his hair but I didn’t because he doesn’t like touching.
But by the time he joined us in the kitchen, it was like it never happened. He never brought it up again, and neither did I, and we’ve spent the last couple of weeks business as usual, working on the portal and the energy stuff, preparing for tonight, trying to figure out how to get a lead on the grimoire and smush the chaos demons.
So why his besties are egging me on like this, I have no idea. But I need to put a stop to it before I completely lose my focus and fuck up our mission.
“There’s just no way Dr. Sutherland feels that way about me,” I say firmly. “The man barely even tolerates me. And that’s on a good day. When I nail every one of his portal drills, summon and bind without slipping up, and don’t breathe too close to his precious books. So whatever you two clowns think you know,guess again. Um… but not out loud. You’re getting me all riled up over nothing. Nothing, I say!” I smile and blow out a breath. “Phew! This girl needs a drink. Who’s with me?”
I take off in the direction of the nearest caterer, not bothering to see if the demon brutes are following. I snatch up the first glass of red wine I see, down it in one go, then grab another.
The demons are right at my side. Which is, admittedly, comforting.
I only wish Dr. Sutherland were here, too.
“This party reeks of corruption,” Oliver says, sipping on a martini as he stealthily tracks the guests. “You know all these pricks have skeletons in the closet.”
“Cemeteries’ worth,” says Warren. “And they’ve all amassed enough dirt on one another to fill the pits of Hell.”
“Can’t wait to rub their shit-eating noses in it.” Oliver clinks his glass to Warren’s. “Here’s to a night of blood of mayhem, brother.”
He turns to clink my glass, and when I tip my drink back, I spot a woman in a long white dress lingering on one of the balconies. Our eyes lock, and I realize it’s not a woman at all.
It’s a ghost.
“Calista,” I breathe. I haven’t seen her in weeks. The moment I say her name, I canfeelher—her emotions. Distress. Fear. Anger. They flood through me so quickly, my knees nearly buckle.
If anyone else can sense her, they don’t show it. Her eyes stay fixed on mine, blazing with some new urgency I can’t decipher.
And then, all at once, she bursts into flames, and vanishes.
I gasp.
“Lizzy?” Warren puts a steadying hand on my elbow. “Are you?—”
“Bathroom. Be right back.” I shove my wine glass at him and beeline down an empty-looking hallway lined with pottedplants, grateful to find an out-of-the way bathroom. I lock the door, splash some cold water on my face, and stare at myself in the mirror.
“Get your shit together, cupcake,” I whisper. “Now’s not the time to dissociate.”
My reflection wavers, and then she’s right here with me, staring straight back at me. Her eyes, so like mine we could be sisters, are pleading, but I don’t know what she’s trying to tell me, what I can do to help her. I watch, horrified and mute, as her dress burns to ash and her flesh blisters and blackens. Soon, there’s nothing staring back at me but those haunted eyes.
“What are you trying to tell me?” I whisper, tracing my fingertip down the glass.
Calista vanishes again, leaving the scent of fire in her wake.
I dash out into the hallway, scanning in both directions, but no luck. I’m about to head up to check the balcony when I’m hit with a wave of new energy.
