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“You say he tested my control over my desire, and you seem to think I failed. So what? I don’t think I failed anything. ”
“Now he thinks he can use that knowledge to control you. ”
“Well, that’s his own damn mistake, isn’t it?”
“You think he’s wrong?”
“I don’t understand what you guys are talking about. Who did you have sex with?” Brigit asked.
“The fairy king thinks he can manipulate me because I had sex with Holden. ”
“The fairy king did manipulate you. That’s why you had sex with Holden,” Calliope corrected.
“You had sex with Holden?” Brigit squealed. “Gosh he’s pretty. But such a grumpuss. ” She mocked Holden’s signature scowl, and I had to hold back a chuckle. I didn’t think Calliope would appreciate me laughing right then. She didn’t tend to have the best sense of humor when it came to things she considered to be of grave importance.
Come to think of it, the Oracle didn’t have a sense of humor about most things. I guess that was the price one paid for being able to see into the future.
“I’m glad you two are finding this so humorous,” Calliope said.
“I didn’t even laugh. ”
“Secret, this is important. ”
“I know this is a serious situation. Believe me, I’m well aware. ”
“Are you? Because if you really were, I don’t see how you’d be taking a break to let a vampire stick his dick in you when you should be saving your friend. ”
The words hit me more sharply than a slap in the face. When I didn’t reply to her verbal assault, Calliope got off the bed and started pacing the floor.
“I don’t know if you’ll be able to help her now,” Calliope said.
“If your brother thinks he’s tapped into some great secret by exposing my less-than-stellar judgment when it comes to having sex with the wrong men, then he’s sorely mistaken. I was getting into and out of shitloads of trouble before I started having sex with werewolves and vampires. ”
“That isn’t the point. ”
“It is the point, though, isn’t it? You’re saying Aubrey’s power lies in discovering and exploiting the desires of those he encounters and turning those desires against them, right?”
“Which he did. ”
“No. Cal, I went to Holden’s apartment less than a week ago to have sex with him, and even though it didn’t happen, it could have. There was nothing there, no supernatural force motivating me to do it. And maybe I shouldn’t have had sex with him, and maybe I let my vagina do all the thinking yet again, but Aubrey can’t use this against me. ”
“You shouldn’t be so sure. ”
“If he tries to claim he’s exposed my greatest weakness by giving me an excuse to have sex, that’s like saying you’ve exposed a coffee lover’s greatest weakness by leading them into a Starbucks. It’s bullshit. With or without Aubrey’s sinister machinations, Holden and I would have eventually had sex. Sure, in retrospect I would have preferred we’d done it in a different time and place, when my other boyfriend wasn’t right outside the door…” a pang of guilt stabbed me in the guts, “…but it is what it is. And if Aubrey thinks that’s going to give him power over me, then—”
I stopped talking because my mouth had been moving faster than my brain, and we got to the conclusion at the same time. If Aubrey thought he was in the power seat because of this, he was about to find out he didn’t know me as well as he thought he did.
“If he thinks it gives him power, then what?” Calliope asked, apparently interested in the look I must have on my face from the moment of epiphany.
“Then maybe it gives me the upper hand. ”
“Ohhhh,” Brigit said. “The sounds good. Doesn’t that sound good?” The latter question was directed at Calliope.
“It sounds like two foolish girls who have no idea how much trouble the fae can be. ”
But she didn’t argue, and she didn’t shoot the idea down immediately.
“Admit it,” I pressed on. “If he thinks he’s already found my weakness, he’ll stop looking for another one. Once you find the fatal flaw in a Shakespearean tragic hero, you don’t go on hoping he’ll have more. Aubrey thinks he’s figured me out. ”
