Page 18 of Go Luck Yourself
Still a bad descriptor.
It was lust, plain and simple. He was hot, emotions were heightened, and I haven’t gotten laid in a long time.
This is not the train of thought I need to be riding right now.
Iris adds even more decorum to this room, wearing heels and a sleek purple dress that hangs to her knees, and I feel the grunge of my sweats all over again, made even worse by the fact that this is the first time I’ve seen her in person since everything imploded. And she, of course, looksperfect,while I look like I woke up, got a panicked text from my brother, and barely gave myself time to brush my teeth before I came here.
She stops next to me, across from Coal at his desk.
“Hi,” I manage.
Iris’s smile is tentative. “Hi. How are—”
The cat chooses that moment to launch itself out from under the bookcase and make a mad dash for the door Wren is closing.
Iris jumps about a foot in the air.
I spasm. “Fucking hell—”
Wren shrieks.
Coal cries out, “Catch her!”
And Hex snaps his fingers.
The cat vanishes mid-leap.
Coal whirls on him. “What’d you do? Where’d she go?”
Hex studies Coal’s growing alarm. “It was created with Halloween’s magic. It wasn’t real, Coal. It wasmagic.”
“Don’t talk about our baby that way, sweetheart.”
Hex’s eyes bulge. “Ourwhat?”
“I was already thinking of names.”
Hex massages his temple with a long-suffering sigh. “Again, it was not a real cat.”
“You killed our child. So heartlessly. I’m not sure I like this side of you.”
“I have no idea what I’ve walked in on,” Iris starts, “but this feels about right. Random magic. Coal being dramatic. What else have I missed?”
Coal drops into the chair behind his desk.NowI see it hit him, that he’s atthisdesk as the official leader of Christmas.
His jaw tenses, his persistent happiness wobbling.
And, true to my brother, he yanks up a beaming smile after half a millisecond and plunges onward. “First of all, I’m Santa now, so show some respect, Lentora.”
Iris’s eyes flare. “The fuck?”
Coal launches into a recap of everything that’s happened this morning.
At the end of it, he looks at me, and I can see him remembering my reaction to Dad’s news, how we haven’t gotten to talk about that yet. I give him my bestdon’t do it nowsilent plea, and he rolls his eyes with afine, but later.
Iris is staring at Coal’s desk, cradling her jaw in one palm.
“Shit,” she grumbles. “And I thought my morning was busy.”
