Page 55 of Ashes and Lilies
“It’s Maria!” It was a wonder I could speak at all. Besides my mother, I had never gotten a text from a girl.
I was going to have to commemorate this occasion. Should I print and frame it?
“What?” Damen’s face masked over with surprise.
“She wants to know if I like board games!” Reality began to set in. This would be my first time hanging out with a female in a non-life-threatening situation. “Should I ask her to bring a movie?”
My dreams of a bosom buddy friendship were coming to fruition. We would be destined to be together forever—just like in the books. My heart pounded as I opened a reply and began to search through a list of emoticons.
I had to find the perfect one.
“Titus, stop this,” Miles said urgently. “She doesn’t have to be here. I don’t want her around Bianca. She’s too tempting.”
“I can’t tell her to do anything!” Titus sounded horror-struck. “She doesn’t listen to me.”
“She’s supposed to!” Julian snapped. “At least try!”
“Don’t tell meyou’regoing to lecture me on authority?” Titus retorted.
I ignored them, even as Damen told them to hush. Whatever they were going on about was utterly unimportant.
I’d finally done it. For the first time in my life, I had a female friend.
Titus POV
“You know her the best!” Bianca’s small form shook as she turned to face me. She held out her phone so that I might take it. “What should I say that will make her like me?”
I highly doubted she had to do much to make Maria like her. Maria had been annoyingly possessive over her since their meeting.
She’d even had the nerve to tellmeto stay in my lane.
“Make it stop!” Miles elbowed me in the side. “Before it’s too late!”
“Shut up,” I growled at him and tentatively accepted Bianca’s phone. For some unknown reason, Bianca seemed to enjoy being around my crazy cousin. I didn’t have the heart to dash her dreams now.
The others moved around me—trying to see the screen. It wasclear that we all had the same question: What had Maria said to make Bianca so excited?
BFF Maria
Hi babe. I’ll be there to protect you tonight. I heard that you like games. I’ll bring some along for us to play. It’s going to be so much fun.
I glared at the phone. I’d told her that in confidence, only so that I might see what she would recommend as a fellow female. How could she use such knowledge to her own advantage?
And who was Maria to call herbabe? She knew Bianca’s role in relation to ours already. Besides, Bianca wasn’t even her type. Plus, Maria never got close to the people she was trying to protect.
Unless…
My mouth went dry.
She really did want to be her friend. But she was never able to maintain friendships. She normally frightened everyone away.
This could be good.
I frowned at the phone. Dare I trust Bianca’s fragile hopes to the likes of Maria? The alliance might have a strategic advantage.
Damen stepped past me, having read the message over my shoulder, and petted Bianca on the shoulder. “That’s great, baby girl,” he said, once more using the annoying pet name that made the rest of us cringe. “I’m glad you found a friend.”
The lioness’s aggressive ways would be helpful. Bianca was a fae in the human realm, and the more she developed her abilities, the more attention she would attract.
