Page 31 of The Darkest Night

“Jeez, Grandma,” Ryu muttered.

Yoo-Mi’s expression grew pinched. Mae swallowed a sigh.

Violet and Miles must have been out when he went there. That, or they were hiding in one of the bedrooms.

“I’m surprised Mr. Seong climbed the stairs to my place,” she muttered. “He’s frail and prone to falls.”

Ryu brightened. “That’s because you’re the official hero of Koreatown.”

Mae stared. “What?”

“It’s the truth.” Yoo-Mi bobbed her head. “Even Mrs. Son-Ha acknowledged it. By the way, she wants to introduce her son to you and Ryu.”

“Over my dead body!” Mae and her sister snapped at the same time.

Kwon ‘Michael’ Son-Ha was a cheating little snake who liked to dip his stick in as many unchartered honey pots as he could find. They’d known him since high school, where he’d tried vainly to hook up with Mae or Ryu on many an occasion. The last time he’d asked Ryu out, he’d gotten overly friendly and earned himself a black eye.

Mae met her sister’s gaze. They shared a faint smile.

The tension between them had dissipated.

“I think it would be best if I didn’t date anyone for a while,” Mae said firmly.

“Oh.” Yoo-Mi’s face fell. “Of course. It’s too soon. Especially with everything that happened with Rose.”

The funeral invitation in Mae’s back pocket burned her skin through her jeans. Though Rose’s body had not been recovered, she had been declared dead after having been seen falling from the rooftop of the surgical block at Grandview. Her parents had sent the funeral notice to Mae’s home two days ago. The service was tomorrow, at Union Field Cemetery. It was going to be a closed casket burial, as per Rose’s Jewish faith. Her family intended to fill the coffin with all her favorite things.

Her best friend’s sapphire bracelet warmed Mae’s skin where it kissed her wrist. She’d originally planned to place it in Rose’s casket. But something had dissuaded her from doing so. It had taken her a while to figure out what it was.

Burying the bracelet would mean she had accepted Rose’s death.

Mae became aware of the stilted silence in the hallway.

“I’ll be off then.”

She opened the door, saw an irate Violet trying to lift Brimstone from where he was sniffing the Vespa parked in the driveway, and slammed it shut.

“On the other hand, why don’t I stay the night?” Mae said brightly.

Yoo-Mi’s eyes sparkled. Ryu stared. Ye-Seul nodded wisely.

“I’ll show myself to my room.”

Mae took off her helmet and climbed the stairs to the second floor before anyone could stop her. She turned left at the top, stormed down the hallway, and entered the bedroom at the end.

Violet froze, one leg over the windowsill. Trixie startled on her shoulder.

Miles was cursing on the floor, Brimstone struggling in his hold. Millie bobbed in alarm where she’d coiled around the sorcerer’s arm.

“What the hell?!” Mae whispered fiercely. She closed the door and dropped the helmet on a chest of drawers. “I told you guys to wait for me at the apartment!”

“We did.” Violet came in, closed the window, and drew the curtains. “Until your fox decided to run away.”

Brimstone slipped out of Miles’s hands, bounded over to Mae, and coiled around her legs. Mae sighed. She could feel the creature’s distress at being parted from her.

She squatted and petted his head. “I was coming back.”

Brimstone made a happy rumbling sound and rolled over onto his back. She scratched the fox’s belly.

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