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“Look,” she said. “I know I’m not… the person to talk to about heavy stuff. I’m Party Spice, you know? But I’m here. If you do want to talk.”

She rolled the chocolate between her fingers, pressing a nail in between the minotaur’s tiny horns.

The bed dipped beside her. Oliver had picked up the other chocolate and was sitting down, almost close enough for their legs to touch.

“You’re notthatfun,” he assured her. He slid the chocolate into his mouth.

Luna said, “Okay, again, you’ve only ever seen me in averydifferent context to my usual?—”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said over her. He bent over, elbows pressing heavily against his knees. “I can’t believe I—God. I can’tbelieve Itoldthem.”

Luna hummed. “Probably good you did. It was obviously weighing on you.”

“What, almost getting my entire family killed? Yeah, Luna, it wasweighingon me.” He rubbed his forehead in a move that reminded her so much of his grandmother she had to smother a smile.

“I don’t…” he continued. “I just… I want— Wait, what the hell were you saying about Party Spice?”

“Like the Spice Girls,” she explained.

His brown eyes narrowed. “Thereisno Party Spice. There’s Sporty Spice, Scary Spice, Baby Spice— Wait, no, I take it back!”

But it was too late. Luna was laughing, head thrown back with the force of it.

“You know their naaaaames,” she crowed.

He scowled. “Everybody knows their names.”

“No, they don’t!” Luna giggled. “This is great! Did you have a favorite?”

“Shut up and eat your chocolate,” he said. But the haunted look had drained out of his face. Some of the tension had left his shoulders.

She nudged him. “See?Thisis what I’m good at. Livening up a party.”

He snorted. It was a weak shadow of his usual impassioned snorts, but she’d take it.

“You can’t be all fun all the time,” he pointed out.

“Well,youcan’t be grumpy all the time.” She popped her chocolate into her mouth, sighing happily as it melted over her tongue. “Everything’sfine, Oliver. Your family’s fine. That awful womanis in jail. The inn will get a lot better once you fix it up. Once you start implementing my genius ideas, money will be rolling in by the barrel. So, something terriblealmosthappened. So what? You’re okay. Your family’s okay. Everything’s good.”

Oliver was silent. Luna looked over to find him watching her, exhaustion shot through with something she couldn’t quite identify.

She smiled reflexively. “What?”

He shook his head. He reached up to touch her cheek, and Luna’s heart stuttered in her chest in a way that had nothing to do with the bond unfurling inside it, eager as always for his touch.

“Chocolate,” he explained. He drew his thumb back, sucking the spot of chocolate he’d lifted off Luna’s cheek.

Luna nodded, dazed. She couldn’t stop looking at his thumb, still shiny with spit. She wanted to put it in her own mouth. Wanted him to touch her again, smear that shiny thumb all down her collarbone. He was still watching her, and something strange washed over her.

Relief, she realized. She was relieved she was still here. That she wasn’t in her rental car right now, finally on her way to the airport.

Oliver dropped his gaze. Then he looked at the door and groaned. “They’re all waiting for me, aren’t they?”

“Oh, yeah,” Luna said. She let out a nervous laugh and stood. “Come on. Nobody’s mad, I promise.”

“They should be,” he muttered.

She held out a hand.