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Whatever it was, I hoped Cosette would stay. We needed her, and if that meant Van had to stay too, then we’d book them their own shitty motel room. We’d take as many fey fighters as we could get at this point.
“Anyone else wish they had popcorn to watch this show with?” Meredith whispered.
“Me,” I whispered back just loud enough so the wolves could hear. “This is blowing my mind.”
Cosette turned to glare over her shoulder. Whoops. I guessed I hadn’t been as quiet as I’d thought. She undid the chain on the door and nudged Van into the hall. “Let’s finish this outside.”
He walked out without looking at us, and Cosette pulled the door closed behind them. We all settled back down, except for Meredith, who stood to peek through the curtains. I was too exhausted to try to eavesdrop. I sank back against Dastien and let his energy wash over me, spreading calm.
“Who do you think he is?” Meredith whispered.
“I’m not sure.” Claudia glanced at Lucas. He looked like he might know something about it. “But their auras were very similar. White and almost rainbow, although Cosette’s is a bit brighter.”
Lucas sighed. “It’s not mine to tell her secrets. If you consider her a friend, you should be worrying more about that hand of hers.”
I was worri
ed about it. An injury from a demon had almost killed Raphael. Cosette was acting like she could handle it, but she also acted like she could handle everything. This was one thing I was pretty sure even she shouldn’t be messing with. Hopefully she’d let us look at it and see if we could find some spells to help her. “I don’t know what’s up with her, but I saw her friend in my vision.”
“You what?” Cosette’s voice from the doorway was like ice.
Right. She just had to come back at the right time…
There wasn’t much I could say to defend myself. “I’m sorry. At first I was worried you’d leave if you knew. But then, with everything else that happened, there just wasn’t a good time to bring it up again.” I said the words, but they sounded like excuses, even to me. “We’re going to need you in that church if we want to survive. I’m going to need you.”
Cosette glared, and I deserved every ounce of her anger.
“I am sorry,” I said again, hoping to reinforce the sentiment, but it didn’t look like it was doing any good.
Her eyes narrowed at me. “I can’t decide if I’m pissed or impressed.”
“Impressed?” How was that possible?
“You got what you wanted, right? Very fey of you.”
Is that a compliment? I asked Dastien. It didn’t feel like one.
Probably not. His voice rumbled through the bond, a little amused.
“I’m the last person who can complain about keeping secrets.” Cosette sighed as she tugged her bag out of the pile of gear in the corner.
Claudia stood. “You’re leaving?”
I said a silent thank you to her. I wanted to ask, but I’d already gotten enough of Cosette’s wrath.
“For tonight.” She let out a slow breath. “Van needs more convincing, but I’m going to stay and fight, so odds are he’ll stay and fight with me.”
I swallowed the ‘thank you’ that I wanted to give. “We really appreciate your help.”
“Thank me by killing Luciana. That’s the only way this is all worth it.” She slung her bag over her shoulder. Her normal humor came back as she took in the room with a smirk. “Also, I’ll be sleeping in a feather bed that smells like jasmine. I think karma has done its work here.”
“Lucky,” Meredith murmured.
“We’ll reinforce your wards before we go.” Cosette eased the door closed, but her voice carried through, way more chipper than it needed to be “Don’t let the bedbugs give you hepatitis.”
Okay. Definitely not thanking her for that one.
“Well, that was awkward.” Chris locked the door chain behind them, although it hadn’t done much to keep Van out.
