Page 19 of How To Summon A Memory
Ethan stares at me so long I start to squirm. With a huff, he drops back to his bottom. “Besides taking my magic. I don’t know.” He fiddles with one of his shoelaces. “And I know I’m being a big dick coming here every day, but…” He throws his head back. “You’re the only hope I have. I need you to take my magic and I don’t want you to forget about me. Plus, you’re really good looking, and I might have a teeny tiny crush.” He pinches his thumb and forefinger together.
My cheeks heat. “Uh, what?” It comes out harsher than I mean, and a cute, bright blush takes over Ethan’s pale skin.
“Seriously, you could be a model. I’d hang your pictures in my bedroom. And you’re so freaking nice to me even when you try to put on the air of indifference. The only person who’s as nice to me is Florence, and they have to go straight home after classes. So I come here. Where there’s a demon that watches over me and helps me with my homework.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
Ethan shrugs. “You don’t have to say anything. My grandmother says I’m too blunt sometimes. Sorry if I freaked you out.”
“No, I just… No, you didn’t freak me out.” I just don’t know how to form the words to explain what goes on in my head half the time. “You’re very sweet, Ethan.”
“But I’m not right for you. You have to have a demon partner. Am I right?” His smile falters.
“Nothing like that at all. I just…” I slide down to my bottom, too. My tail continues to swish behind me like it has a mind of its own. Some days it does. “Can I?” I hold out my hand and he hands me his. It’s so small in mine. “Before you showed up in my life, I thought I knew myself. I thought I was fullyaromantic. I just didn’t care, and I was completely unbothered by it.”
“That’s Florence. They’re aromantic and asexual. There’s nothing wrong with it.” He squeezes my hand and my heart pitter pats.
I love him for saying it. “Romance, partnership, just didn’t appeal to me and I never felt like I needed it. I still don’t feel like Ineedit. But I can see myself with you and I don’t know how to feel about it. Most of my research points to me being demi-romantic. Just little things made me realize how much I love having you in my life. My bright little witch in my dreary days.”
His smile lights up my crossroads. “Coming here is the highlight of my day.”
Now for the awkward part. “And not to scare you away, but I’m either asexual, graysexual, or demi-sexual. I’m not entirely sure, but it’s not something I generally think about either. Everyone around me in the demon realm is always talking about their sexual conquests, and I’d rather sit there with my fingers in my ears. I’m attracted to you, you’re sweet, and I’d love to date you, but… we’re young.”
“You want to date me?” Ethan nibbles his bottom lip.
“Yeah, is that weird? I know teenagers date, but it feels weird to me. How does anyone know anything at this age?”
“We don’t,” Ethan laughs. “But it’s always fun to test things.”
“You’re not put off by?—”
“No. Nothing about you is off-putting. Besides, I have my hand. I used a grapefruit once and, uh do not recommend. Kinda burns in the wrong way.”
I snort. “Noted, don’t fuck the grapefruit.”
Ethan’s pocket vibrates like it does every day at this time. “Gotta go.” He finishes packing his back. “I’ll see you in a few days.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
Chapter 9
Ethan
“Prof?”Tanner says when I stroll into the classroom. “You’re okay?” He races towards me and pats my arms as if to check that I’m really here.
“I’m okay.” Better than okay, but I won’t tell him that. Florence says the demon that brought her home last night is coming back tonight with messages from Wick.
“Thank fuck. I thought… well, Professor Hallow said you’d live, but I wasn’t sure. The way you went down, that was scary.” He goes pale. “Not to mention you have an admirer or stalker or something that wasn’t too happy to find out what I’d done to you.”
“You didn’t do anything to me.” It takes me a moment to register what else he said. “What do you mean, admirer or stalker?”
“After… you know…” Courtney, one of the other four remaining students, pipes up. “We wanted to cheer Tanner up and went to Flutter and Fangs. There was this demon that heard our conversation and flipped out when he heard you’d been poisoned.”
“He was scary,” Tanner says as he paces. “He didn’t hurt me, though.”
My heart drops. “What happened?”
Courtney shrugs. “A lot of growling. The bartender was a hot nephilim and even he couldn’t get the demon off Tanner. It took another other demon to pull him off.”
