Page 45 of Vengefully Matched

“Lex gave me some advice about letting her blow off magical steam.”

Azrael’s cheeks pinkened, and Prissy smirked at him. Her brother had a crush on that devil. She worked hard not to wonder if Lex and Azrael and Vickie had all been a thing at any point.

She gagged a little at the thought. The thought of her brother and Vickie, who was like a sister, doing things like that was not something she wanted to spend any mental space on.

“Did it work? The advice?” Az cocked his head.

“Yes, and also no. She hasn’t had any more big blowups like the incident at the grocers, but she did have an episode with a customer where she went into a trance so intense, talking about devils and bargains and wishes and soulmates. It freaked out the couple who went in for the reading so badly that they called the EMTs, who I guess assumed that it was drug-related.”

“Shit. That must have been a nightmare. A drug test would show that it’s not.”

Prissy grinned. “Well, the good news is that the prophecy may not have been drug-related, but Connie Witherspoon had plenty of psilocybin in her system. It turns out that she’s a recreational mushroom and marijuana user. It was the perfect cover to explain the fit and the prognostication.”

“That’s a relief,” he mused. “I know she used to deal—just pot—and that she’s sworn that off after the whole almost dying after being soul-sucked by that asshat not even worth naming from the Brethren of One Love megachurch, but I didn’t realize she used recreationally.”

“She swore up and down it’s legal, from the dispensary. It’s a good thing she does, or we would have a time explaining her outburst to the cops, but we also want to see if we can figure out what tips her over the edge. She’s got a reading this afternoon. Agatha and I are going to supervise.”

His eyes lit up. “You’re going to spy on mundanes while Connie tells their fortune? How scandalous!”

“It’s not spying; it’s Council oversight.” She grinned at him, wanting to see his reaction to this. “And it’s actually not going to be a mundane reading, because as it turns out, I have a more-than-willing devilish volunteer.”

Azrael’s face remained impassive, but the tips of his ears went red. She put her fists on her hips and raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t realize that you and Lex were friendly.” He sounded nonchalant, but she saw through it.

“Why?” she asked innocently. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” he mumbled.

“You’ve been blushing since I brought him up, and now your ears are bright red.”

“I am not. They are not,” Azrael insisted, which of course made them redder.

“Someone’s got a crush. Shall I tell Vickie?” Priscilla tapped her fingers together, cackling.

He winked at her. “She’s already well aware of our crush.”

That took Priscilla aback enough to leave her speechless, and having regained his composure, her brother leaned in to pat her shoulder, earnest enough to hide that he was bringing his fingers together.

Snap.

She was coated in some of the residual pink glitter, both of them looking sparkly enough to have just emerged from a faerie strip club.

“Gotcha,” he said, ducking out of the room. “You better hurry up. Wouldn’t want to be late for your hot appointment!”

He was gone before her second glitter-bomb prank could hit, and Priscilla resented that.

They stood outside the shop, an odd trio of preppy, smoking—literally, shrouded in purple smoke—and formidably goth formal. “You know,” mused Lex, “she should advertise on Dreaddit.”

“I thought that website was kind of over?”

Lex looked affronted, and even Agatha joined him in glaring.

“What? I thought that was for olds?”

“We can’t all be twenty-six and too cool for useful internet forums,” said Agatha frostily. “Just wait until one day you need a good homemade solution for a droopy monstera.”

“Who are you calling ‘old,’ pet?” Lex added silkily. “I’m ageless. Timeless as the rocks, the mountains themselves, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.”