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“He’s not going anywhere,” I said with a mixture of confidence and exhaustion from the day.
They all filed out, including Karma. I ordered Orpheus to go to sleep until I woke him because his silent presence became unnerving after a bit. I curled up next to my traitorous sister and closed my eyes, wishing I could give my abilities up in exchange for a normal life where I didn’t feel betrayed by everyone because of them.
Chapter Eighteen
Fucking Men
I woke to Zoe squeezing me in a hug. I turned to look at her. It was hard to stay mad when she was like this.
“I don’t want to alarm you, Char, but there’s a bad guy sleeping in the corner.”
“Yeah. I’ll wake him when you’re ready to send him to Duluth.”
“Duluth?” she laughed.
I shrugged. “It’s the best I could think of off the top of my head where SHADE wouldn’t go looking.”
She sat up and stretched “I’m hungry. Using magic gives me an appetite.”
“Yeah, me too. But I want to discuss why you felt the need to call Julian in on our operation without informing me.” I glared at her.
“We’ll talk over a meal,” she said then declared, “I could use a banana split.”
“Sounds like dinner to me,” I agreed and headed for the freezer.
Once we’d set up at the table with the supplies, we went at it like we were ten.
“This is exactly what I needed,” I said, squirting chocolate sauce all over my ice cream and bananas.
“These fix everything. Even broken hearts,” Zoe agreed, shaking the whipped cream.
I froze. “I said let’s talk about why you went behind my back, not why Julian is an ass. Besides, I can’t believe you’re going there right now.”
“If I shouldn’t include one of the best resources we have on dangerous missions, then don’t you think it’s about time you leveled with me about what happened?”
“I don’t know what happened!” I threw my spoon down on the table as tears came from nowhere. “All I know is I can’t stand him.”
“Funny, he’d actually grown on me,” Zoe said calmly, taking a bite of vanilla. “He’s a decent guy who seemed head over heels for you.”
“Oh yeah? If he’s so decent then why did he crush the charm you gave me?” I challenged, sick of everyone defending him.
Zoe swallowed and blinked. “What charm?”
“My anti-glamour charm.” I let the sobbing start. “I think he glamoured me into sex.”
Zoe’s eyebrows shot up like a cartoon character. “Why would he do that when you were already sleeping together? A lot. You two were like a couple of rabbits.”
I sniffed and shrugged as the river of chocolate in my bowl blurred.
“Char, did you sleep with him before or after he broke the charm?” she asked, gesturing with her spoon.
“Um, before…” I said, thinking back with relief. “But that’s even worse. Why would he break my trust like that?”
“Well, the only reason I can think of is to glamour you to do something that you wouldn’t otherwise do. But in his case, I’d guess it was for your benefit.”
I pushed back from the table, aghast. “How can you still be on his side?”
“I didn’t say he made a good choice—I’m just trying to figure out what and why. Besides, you buried the lead here—you’ve been hanging around vampires lately without protection. That freaks me out. Especially with how weird you’re acting.”
