Page 38 of Midsummer Phoenixes
“It won’t happen again! Plus Math, I’m really good at Math, okay?”
“I’m sure your teachers will confirm that.”
Under the teacup Echo had drunk from, there was a card. His name, embossed in beautiful cursive the color of rose gold, and his phone number. In ink—not some cheap pen, but proper ink like I liked to use—he had written,See you around, Lord Shuck.
Fucker. I hated a Cassandrian who needed to prove their skill for prophecy at every turn. And while I didn’t owe him yet, I still might, because he was a fucking Cassandrian, and he’d told me some stupid shit about hell and the underworld.
“Fuck,” I said.
“They will, I swear!” Ella said.
I pocketed the card and decided to use my momentum with the teenager. “They better.”
She nodded. “What are we doing here? Are we stopping for tea?”
“No. Left something. March on. I’m taking you home, kid.”
“I’m not a kid.”
“Really? Do I also need to check you are carrying condoms while you’re out with your friends at night?”
That shut her up once more, at least until we got to the escalators. There, she said, “You don’t need condoms with another girl.”
“Couldn’t tell you. Not anything that I ever had on my to-do list.”
And Ella just nodded.
I was almost back to mostly ignoring her when I put things together. The way Ella had leaned against the werewolf in her group. Had smiled. The way the werewolf had made a point of hugging her.
“Wait. Are you telling me you are fucking the Star-Garbed?”
Ella’s face turned an unhealthy shade of red. “No! I mean, do you have to say it like that?”
“No. You want to fuck the Star-Garbed?”
“How even—that’s none of your business!”
It wasn’t, not really. But the fucking Star-Garbed would bedelightedthe little sister of my vassal was getting close to one of their own. They would double my holiday candy. Triple it, because with Amory there, they would already double it anyway. I pulled out my phone and ordered several more fitted sheets I could put in the laundry over the next month.
When I put the device away and we changed to the second escalator, I said, “The pack is good people. They take care of their own.” I swallowed against a sudden lump in my throat, said, “You could do worse than one of them.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“And I’m just saying.”
She nodded. “You’re a nice guy.”
“The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”
Ella smiled at me. If I remembered correctly, that was the first time she had ever done that.
“Just… people usually pretend to be nice and aren’t. But you pretend to be mean and bad, and you are neither.”
“You remember how we met, right?”
She shrugged as we stepped off the escalator and the lights around us switched on automatically.
“I do. But those were bad people. Very bad. And you saved me and Rae.”
