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The hounds who’d been trying to murder her the night before were now sniffing at whatever Eddie was carrying. They were dancing around, and Puff was busy getting underfoot.
“Down, Hestia. This is for Olivia. It is not for canines.” Eddie put the tray down. It was covered with a cloche.
I held the sheet to my boobs because I was naked and now there were a shit ton of people and creatures in my room. “Hello, privacy?”
Kelsey’s lips turned up in an amused grin. “Yeah, we were never big on that, were we? Do you remember the time you let all the kids sneak into my bedroom while I was naked? Payback is a bitch, sister.”
“Shouldn’t they be back with their mom?” I wasn’t interested in meeting the legendary First Woman. Not at all. Curiosity wasn’t helpful in my position. It led to bad decisions like the one I’d made the night before. Night. Day. It was all confusing here. Everything was confusing here.
“She wasn’t home so she’s going to come here and pick them up when she gets back. I find it interesting she happened to be out. Tix told me she rarely leaves her realm.” She sat down on the edge of the bed, that grin turning wicked. “So, Casey was humming earlier. I think he’s in songwriting mode.”
Dear goddess. I did what Kelsey had done that day she’d referred to so long ago. I pulled the covers over my head and prayed the universe would swallow me up. In my defense, I hadn’t known she was naked when I’d sent the kids in to wake her up, although she’d been with Marcus Vorenus the night before, so I should have.
He would do it. Casey, that is. He would write some dumbass song about how his love had healed me or something, and then he would go one further and write an entire musical around it. He’d done it before. It was terrible. We’d made fun of it, the other witches and I.
I kind of wanted to see it again. I’d never told him that those songs had played through my head for years. I wondered how I would have felt about it if I’d had a whole soul.
“All is in readiness, mistress,” Eddie said from what sounded like the door. “I will take the hounds back to the kitchens with me. Do you happen to know how long Fenrir will be gone?”
Poor Eddie sounded haggard. I didn’t think the Hell plane had been kind to him. He’d turned into an Earth plane-loving demon.
“He and Evan are running an errand. I promise they’ll be back in an hour or two,” Kelsey said. “Thanks, Eddie. You’re the best.”
Hewasthe best. Kelsey always got the best, but then she seemed to need someone to take care of her. Profane took care of themselves because we were the strongest. We needed no one. We didn’t need a lover who thought about how much we used to need coffee to function. Now I only needed…
I brought the sheet down around my chest, looking at Kelsey, who was now lying down beside me, her head propped up on her hand and facing me. “I think the blood Evan is giving me is turning me into a pretentious asshole. She’s poisoning me. Did you tell her to do it?”
Kelsey’s eyes flared, and I realized I’d made a mistake. “Is that what she offered you?”
“Well, I thought for sure you were in on it.” I hadn’t really dreamed I could put one over on Kelsey.
If it bothered her, she didn’t show it. “Nope, although I was worried you would get the shakes and die. You know we made a vow to never do drugs.”
We had. It had been high school. “You broke that quickly.”
“Yeah, I had a misspent youth. But you were always so straightlaced.”
I hadn’t joined Kelsey’s experimentations in finding oblivion. “The demon blood isn’t a drug. It’s an enhancer. It’s like a vitamin.”
Kelsey snorted. “Sure, sister. You’re not trying to find a way to escape reality. It’s completely different from what I tried to do when I was a teen. So why do you think Evan is poisoning you by turning you into a pretentious ass? I think your timing’s off on that one. You’ve been Dark Willowing for a long time now.”
She knew that was the worst season, and she kept shoving it in my face. “I was lying here and I was thinking about the coffee Casey left and I thought about the fact that I used to need it to function. And it went through my freaking head that Profane didn’t need caffeine because we had rage to fuel us.”
Kelsey groaned and rolled onto her back. “You’re right. That’s bad. And really, what’s wrong with coffee? Did you give up wine, too?”
“A Profane does not drink such things.”
“Well, Myrddin does.”
“That’s different.” It was my turn to roll over. Twelve years and I still felt comfortable with her. I should be feeling vulnerable, but how often had Kelsey slept beside me? So many times. There had been sleepovers when we were young, and times when I hurt and didn’t want to be alone. She’d been there. “I don’t know why right now. I’m still half asleep. I don’t want to argue.”
I didn’t want to think about the fact that Myrddin did whatever his male ass wanted to and the rest of us had to follow rules he’d dictated. The thought was unsettling because I wouldn’t have questioned it mere days before.
“Obviously. Do you want me to find Casey so you can cuddle?”
I was actually kind of irritated that he hadn’t hung around. We hadn’t slept together in years, and he’d left me behind to research shit? I pulled the sheet back over me. “It was a mistake.”
“It was not,” she said. “It was inevitable because you love him. Livie, can we talk about this without arguing?”
