Page 93 of Livewire Witch

Cecelia Clements, member of the Archarcan council. I’ve heard of her, but we’ve never met in person. I am aware of her reputation.

Roscoe shakes his head and continues, “She’s a massive bitch, so I don’t think the rest of us give a shit. She can be vamp bait for all I care, but it means we have Silver’s family real coming along too. Ember’s always useful to have around. And I’m pretty sure Rook’s only coming because he thinks we can’t do a good enough job of taking care of her or looking out for her or whatever.”

It feels like having a conversation where I only understand half the words. Roscoe talks like I should know exactly what he’s talking about, but I’m clueless.

“I feel like my nips might freeze off,” he moans, rubbing them vigorously through his shirt.

“Don’t you own a warmer coat?” I ask, feeling exactly the grandad I ought to be.

Here I am chiding the kid for going to bed with wet hair or not wearing thick enough socks.

Fuck.

This is why I’m exactly wrong for Silver. She should be with someone like Roscoe. Someone carefree so they can make young, dumb mistakes together.

“I didn’t want to be that guy. You know the one, right? Lugging my big ol’ coat and ruining the lines of this suit.”

I stare at him. “You know they’ll have a coat check at this kind of event, right?”

He doesn’t notice my incredulous look, ignoring my response entirely. “I look swanky though, right? This outfit doesn’t work with an overcoat, unless I want to look like a two-bit gangster.” He rubs his nipples again. “I guess I’ll just have to get Silver to warm me up when we get inside.”

That causes a surge of hot envy to go through me, taking me by surprise.

We finally reach the city hall a few minutes later. By that point, Roscoe has resorted to complaining that his fingers and toes are about to fall off, and I’m about to lose my mind with the level of tension in my body.

The front of the building is teeming with people. They’re dressed to the nines and lining up to get past the mixture of flashing cameras, video cameras, and security at the doors. We skip past them all, and Roscoe uses his illusion magic to ensure we avoid any attention. It’s not my first time here, so I lead usthrough the side of the building. Roscoe then picks the lock in thirty seconds flat.

Fairly impressive.

We head through a labyrinth of corridors inside the city hall, heading along a back staircase until we’re in a room overlooking the main reception room.

It seems we’re the last to arrive.

“What happened to arriving fashionably late, sweetheart? Thought you didn’t want to spend too much time here?”

Roscoe immediately swoops in to kiss Silver, and another dose of jealousy goes through me. The casual way he demands her affection and knows with confidence that she’ll give it to him astounds me.

I haven’t experienced such a thing in a long time and it sends a pang of loneliness to go through my chest.

“The room’s glamored, so no one will notice us.” She shrugs. “When we were at home, Z kept pacing around like an angry lion and it was stressing me out. We already went through every type of stress relief and none of them worked for more than ten minutes.”

“You can relieve my stress anytime, honey,” Roscoe croons. “I’m ready and willing right now if you want to find a closet.”

She snorts and rubs his arm. “Maybe later.”

“I don’t know why we all had to meet at this fucking place. Even the air is making me nauseous,” Zeph says.

“Can we get this shit over with already?” he growls, still pacing. “I’m gonna head out onto the main street to trawl around, check out whether anything is going on down there. Too many assholes in the building for my liking.”

I don’t miss the pointed look he gives me. Pretty sure I’m one of the assholes he’s referring to.

I’m not entirely sure why he has such an obvious dislike for me, but it’s not something I’m losing sleep over.

“We should split off into pairs. Zeph and Roscoe can take the main street, Hanna and Rook can head down to the docks, and Silver and I can stay in the building. We’ll avoid the main reception room, though, and Dante can head into the main party itself,” Fabian says. “We also have a couple of other people out scouting other parts of the city. They’re due to check in with me every hour.”

“I’ll go with Dante,” Silver’s... brother, the redheaded telepath, announces. “That way, I can keep an ear out for anything that’s going down.”

“We have Seb scoping surveillance around the city, too,” Fabian says. “Couldn’t trust anyone else isn’t already in Felix’s pocket and we still haven’t weeded out all our moles. Keep your cellphones on in case Ember and Silver can’t get through to you using their usual methods.”

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