Page 127 of Jinxes and Drumsticks

“All of it,” I say. “I wish I knew how to do some.”

“Do you really want to learn?” she asks as I continue driving. “You do have some of my power now, remember? I can teach you some smaller workings.”

“Really?” I ask. “Like what?”

“Want to learn some love magic?” she asks. “It can be helpful for shows—maybe make audience members more likely to post about seeing you guys play? Sort of like a glamour, but not?”

“Sure,” I say. “Sounds sick.”

“Cool,” she says. “When we have some downtime later, we’ll have a lesson.”

I stop myself from asking if we can have downtime now as I pull into the parking lot for our next destination. It’s a restaurant—specifically, a tofu house Lillith has been missing. I can tell by the surprise in her expression that she doesn’t remember mentioning it to me, because she looks at me with shock.

“Oh my gods, I LOVE this place,” she says.

It’s not very fancy. Honestly, it sits sandwiched between a dry cleaner and a dental office. We’re wildly overdressed for this place, but that’s okay, because the surprise I have for her inside will be more than worth it.

“I know,” I say, parking the car and sliding out of the seat. She stays put in the passenger seat, just like I trained her, and I smile as I open the car door and offer her my hand. “I know we’re kind of overdressed for this place. But I wanted to get you something you were craving.”

“I’m going to give you amazing head later,” she says.

I inhale tightly as I close the passenger door and draw her against my side. “You’re making it very hard for me to keep you out of the house,” I say.

She waggles her eyebrows. “Who says we have to go home for that?”

I lose a little bit of my soul in the process of trying to come up with something to say that isn’t, Dinner later, babe. Public head, now.

Luckily for me, the surprise is blown before we even get inside. A squealing voice pealing through the parking lot before a gleeful Naomi careens into my girlfriend and steals her from her spot against my side.

“OH MY GOD. Lillith, girl, I have MISSED YOU.”

“Naomi?!” She balks after a breathless few moments. “What are you doing here?”

“Your boyfriend called me and told me to bring everyone after you’ve been bed-bound for a while,” Naomi cried. “By the way, good job, girl. He’s handsome.”

Binx appears in the doorway. His hair is longer than when we last saw him, and his glasses are pushed up crookedly into his hair. “Naomi. Damien said to wait at the table.”

“I don’t care!” Naomi calls without looking at him. Then she looks over at me, a challenging glint to her eye. “I don’t care.”

“Yeah, I’m getting that,” I say, smiling.

“Binx is here?”

“Hey, Lil,” he says a little sheepishly. “I finished my sketchbook, so I brought you some goodies.”

“Can we go inside?” Lillith asks me.

“I think we should; the staff is starting to look a little cranky,” I tease with a wink.

Naomi doesn’t let her go, just turning them both toward the door and walking with her inside while talking her ear off about some rare tomes she’s been squirreling away. Binx waits for me by the entrance until I’m almost side by side with him. He offers a hand, which I clap with my own before pulling him in for a hug.

“Thanks for calling us out,” he says.

“Hell yeah, man. I know she’s been missing you guys. Thanks for coming so short notice,” I say.

“She looks really happy,” Binx says. “I won’t lie, I was a little worried after meeting you a few weeks ago. But you seem even more besotted with her than she is with you.”

“Yeah, sounds about right,” I say, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him inside with me. Raina is still at the table where Lillith and Naomi are settling in. The table is already laden with about half a dozen small plates, each person with a whole fried fish in front of them. As I sit with Binx, the waitress brings out two more of the small fish.