Page 62 of Awry
“You just said we needed a ride,” I remind Cayley.
“So you’re just going to buy one?”The kitsune shifter huffs, shaking her head admonishingly.
Harlee sets her hands on her ridiculously perfect hips and curls her lip.At us both.She’s a mage, not a shapeshifter.With a strong affinity that I can’t suss unless I look closer.But I’m not looking closer right now, not wanting to trigger another knowing— or even the weird overlay of threads that swamped my actual vision outside the diner.Not if I can help it.
Harlee is wearing a lot of bright colors, layers of fabric.I scan down to see completely out-of-season, flat-heeled sandals.Her toenails are painted teal blue, matching the car — that has to be deliberate — and she has multiple multicolored bracelets encircling her left ankle.A mage with an affinity for charms?Or maybe potions?Though not a healer.At least not with a specific focus on healing.
“I thought you were in one of your riding-dick phases?”Harlee sneers at Cayley.Then she juts her chin in my direction.“This one is a little skinny and pale for your —”
Cayley’s hand shoots out, lightly snags my chin, and angles my head toward the miffed mage.
Again with the random contact.I’ve never been so eagerly, so casually touched in my entire life.
Cayley drops her hand an instant later, as if only just realizing that she’s touching one of the awry.Or maybe just me specifically.
Completely stymied, Harlee shuts up, frowns, then actually looks at me.
She goes pale.Pink blooms across her cheeks.
Ah.The mage hadn’t noticed my eyes.
Her own eyes are a gorgeous sky blue, ringed in a darker blue.Striking against her golden skin.
“Who is Dick?”I ask, trying to cut the tension.Because I do really want the car.
The shifter rubs her hand — the one she touched me with — on her thigh.“Harls means all dick, like in general.”
Ah, I see.They’re ex-lovers.“Which I don’t have …” I wink at Harlee.“But how can you tell without a closer look, mage?”
The cowed mage casts her gaze somewhere around my knees, swallowing.
Purple eyes really do freak most people out.But even more so when they’ve had some experience with an awry.The awry, in general, wield too much power to be considered … well, harmless.As in, we are seriously not friend or lover material.Unless danger turns someone on.That does happen on occasion, and probably accounts for more of my own hookups than any sort of actual attraction.
I sigh internally, raising my phone into the mage’s field of vision.“The car?I can transfer the cash right now.”I’ve already opened a payment app.
“I … ah …” Harlee flicks her gaze to the kitsune shifter, then away.“I’d be willing to trade … a favor …”
“No!”Cayley snarls.“Absolutely fucking not.”After our conversation about her sister, Kiki, I’m not certain if the shifter is protecting me or Harlee.Though Harlee is more likely.
The mage flinches.
Cayley softens her tone.Well, she tries, at least.“You want to sell it?Fine.I’ll buy it.”
Harlee stiffens as if she’s remembering herself — or rather, her goal of coming into the diner in the first place.A calculated move, it seems.To post the flyer about the car, yes.But also because Cayley is here to witness it?
“No.I won’t sell it to you.Not to you and not to your … newest … sugar pussy.”
Sugar pussy?Like sugar daddy?Why wouldn’t it just be sugar mama?I’m not certain whether to be insulted or not.
“Don’t worry, Harls,” Cayley says nastily.“I’m still riding the same dick.On occasion.”
“Why would I care?”she snaps back.
“Am I buying the car or not?”I ask, really tired suddenly.Both in general, but also of the conversation.There are too many layers to navigate, and none of it is my business.Though Tasmin had mentioned that issue of the ‘male persuasion’ that she thought Cayley and I might have.Related to the dick she’s apparently riding, perhaps?But I can’t imagine how that connects to me either.
“No,” Cayley says.“You aren’t buying that car, Zaya.”
Harlee grabs my phone, inputs her info into the payment app, then shoves it back at me.She doesn’t take her eyes off the kitsune shifter the entire time.
