Page 9 of City of the Lost
“What face?”
“You were chomping away and then your mouth went all weird.” His eyes widened. “Shit, it’s not that time of the month, is it?”
“Seriously, Trev, personal space is an actual thing, you know.”
“Just saying.” He lapped at his plate, cleaning it so thoroughly it looked washed. “So what’s the face for?”
“I was just thinking, we’ve all been taking our meals together for the past two weeks, and it feels odd with Azren not being here.”
He placed a paw on the table. “I get you. He kinda fills up the space with his exuberant scarfing and all the glaring.”
I snorted. “That too.”
“I mean, if he could inhale the food ...”
“Right?”
We both chuckled and then Trevor sobered. “But he won’t be with us forever. He has to go back sometime. Don’t forget that, Wila.”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah, sure. ’Course I know that.”
“Do you?” Trevor asked. “Gil and I have noticed how close you two are getting. He gravitates toward you when you enter a room, and there’s a natural ease between you two. The kind of dynamic that precedes something deeper.”
“We’re not having this conversation.”
“No, we’re not, because you’re smarter than that. You know there’s only heartache in store for you if you let him get closer.” He sighed. “If he was free to stay, then things would be different, but he belongs to the dragon bitch. Remember that.”
The food no longer tasted lush. And my stomach quivered with the first signs of anxiety. “You know me, Trev. I don’t do relationships.”
“Yes, you keep saying that, and yet here we are—you and me and Gilbert—in a relationship.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes, the big romantic L.O.V.E. The plague. The disease to be avoided. But you know what, Wila? It can also be a blessing, and I think deep down you know that. I think if you opened your heart, you’d have plenty of love to give to that special someone.”
Yeah, except the idea of doing that brought me out in a cold sweat. It felt like shackles, and the walls began to close in.
“At least you have the choice.” He ducked his head. “Unlike some of us.”
Oh, God. I was such a dick. Sometimes, I forgot he’d once been a man, that he’d had a life and possibly lovers. He rarely talked about his life before, probably because it was too painful to remember, but maybe I’d backed off too soon. Maybe I’d given him too much space.
“You never did tell me if you’d been in a serious relationship.”
He made a chuffing sound. “Too many relationships to count.” He laughed. “Until I met Janet, and then things got serious pretty quickly. The woman was obsessed. Can’t really blame her.” He raised his head. “I’d wiggle my eyebrows suggestively, but this face probably wouldn’t cooperate. Anyway, it didn’t work out.”
“Why? What happened?”
He looked down at himself.
“Wait ...she’sthe one who did this to you?” I shook my head. “You told me it was a bitch witch dabbling in nasty dark magic.” There’d been no Arcana rule back then and no one to police nephs with the ability to harness magic.
Trevor sighed heavily. “I was a regular Joe, see, and when I found out what she was, that she was ...different, I ended the relationship. She didn’t take it too well. We got into a fight, she called me a dirty dog, and then the next morning ... well, that’s exactly what I was.”
“But she liked you. Like,likedyou. Surely she’d have removed the hex or whatever it was once she calmed down ...”
“Maybe. If she’d lived that long. The broad got hit by a bus the next morning. And that was that.”
“Ouch.”
