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I emptied Alice’s rejected glass of tequila. Honestly, what was I to say? ‘Thanks for taking supplements so I can leech your blood’ didn’t really have the right tone. Ours was a complicated friendship, founded in murder, built on blood.
Luckily, before the awkwardness could go on too long, Jesse and Sera arrived at the table with a flurry of greetings. Eli watched all of it with the sort of fae reserve we all used to interpret as dismissal. I knew better now. He was simply not expressive around most people—and I felt a surge of joy that I was an exception to his rule.
“Is this one still treating you well?” Jesse asked with a nod toward Eli. They weren’tnotfriends, but Jesse had taken up the “big brother” role in my life for years. He thought it was his duty to be suspicious of anyone looking at me with interest.
Eli looked at me and raised his brows. “Am I?”
“Yes.” I felt like blushing at the topic, so I turned it away from me. “Christy? Is my obnoxious brother looking after you?”
“Hey!” Jesse objected with a laugh. “You’re to be asking if she’s looking after me!”
Christy leaned over to me and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, “Poor thing is trying to keep up.”
“What is this? Pick on Jesse night?” Jesse looked around at the table in faux outrage.
Eli started, “My sympathies, Christy. Do I need to find you someone more—”
“Nah. He’s the one I want.” Christy leaned into Jesse’s embrace, and he tugged her until she landed in his lap with a victory yell from Jesse. They had taken years to finally try dating, and if they weren’t tangled up in forever soon, I’d be stunned.
Sera and I exchanged a look. Instead of feeling like an “extra wheel” because our friends had found love, we both were glad. I wished I knew someone who would make Sera feel as content as my other two best friends looked, but she was in no rush.
And Ally had the glimmer in her eyes that was the hint of tears.Again. I was glad she wasn’t drinking, to be honest. Liquor made Alice maudlin. She’d known she’d outlive her husband; Alvin Chaddock was easily twice her age. She’d thought she had more time, though, and a couple glasses of booze meant that was all she could discuss.
Just as I was about to start scrambling for anything that made Ally avoid tears, a man strode into the bar in that hyper-focused way that said that he only had eyes for one person. Unfortunately, I was that person.
“Gen?” Sera asked, voice ringing with the questions we always had these days—was he adraugr? Did we need to do something?
“Iggy.” I had a moment of hostility, but it wasn’t his fault he was not in his grave. At least I thought it wasn’t. Honestly, magic wasn’t a hard science. It was somewhere between science and art, not quite as precise as things like biology but more so than literature.
“Not adraugr.” I stood, watching the increased calm ripple over my three oldest friends. They were still adjusting to my near-death, and the memory of my body’s reaction to the venom seemed to haunt them more than me.
In fairness I was unconscious for parts of it though. They witnessed everything.
“Not adraugr.” Iggy scoffed. “Rather skilamalink to hide me if I were.”
“Ignatius Blackwood,” I said with a nod toward him. “Magician and general lesion.”
“Skilamalink?” mouthed Jesse.
“Lesion?” Iggy scowled. “You are, quite possibly, the most infuriating hexen I’ve known. I was summoned. Rousted from my restful—”
“Stop.” I rubbed my head and glanced at Eli. “Fruity something?”
“Bowl of garnish coming right up.” Eli vanished, leaving me to explain to my friends why there was a dead man at our table.
“Iggy here is a witch,” I began as Iggy stood arrogantly at the table.
“Hex—” he started to interrupt.
“Died in the 1800s,” I continued. To him, I said, “Chair.”
A flicker of surprise slid over his face as I invited him to sit. I felt guilty, realizing that he was probably as unable to leave as I was to get rid of him. He had to be lonely. Probably confused. But then, he tried to sit next to Ally, who looked about as friendly as a wet hen with a fox approaching.
“Revolveress,” he greeted her.
She folded her arms and glared at him. “I’m married.”
Iggy looked around. “Ah. Where is the lucky—"
