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“And if anything happens, anything at all, you let me know, and I’ll be there in an instant.”

I nod, even though she can’t see me.

“Trust your instincts,” she continues. “If something doesn’t feel right, it likelyisn’tright. I love you, sweet girl.”

“I love you too, Mom,” I say.

“Love you, Booger!” my dad shouts from the background.

“Ugh,Dad.” I hear him laugh in the distance. “I love you too,” I say. “Now both of you go do something fun, like stare at piles of rocks someone stacked together centuries ago.”

“All right, but be careful,” my mom warns again.

“I will,” I promise.

“Okay,” she says, only sounding half convinced. “Love you, bye!”

“Bye.” I sigh and toss my phone aside, lying on my back.

What a fucking day the last twenty-four hours have been.

I continue to lie there, my body and mind exhausted. Need a shower. And food and…

My stomach drops when I realize all last night and this morning, Memnon came in me. Even now, I can feel the evidence of it.

For a moment, my head is screaming.

Selene?Memnon says down our bond, noticing my panic.

I slow my breathing.

What is it?he presses.

Everything’s fine, Memnon,I respond.

You seem to only say that when things arenotfine.

I peel myself off the floor.They will be, I say, and then I close off communication with him.

I drag my creaky body downstairs, determined to cook up some birth control spell in the kitchen. I’m pretty sure someone’s pinned that potion on one of the walls in there.

The witches I pass look equally haggard, some of them still wearing last night’s costumes—what remains of them at least. Others lie passed out in the common rooms—there’s a knot ofnaked witches lying together in the library, the remnants of last night’s orgy.

As soon as I duck into the spell kitchen, I nearly cry in relief. Someone has set out a tray of deep blue potions in tiny corked bottles, each of them neatly labeledContraceptive Potion.

A tag attached to each vial says:To be taken after intercourse.

I unstopper one and drink it then and there.Taking no chances.I have no problem with children—I nearly had one when I was Roxilana. But asSelene, I simply do not want any for the foreseeable future.

I grab another potion vial for Sybil, then leave the spell kitchen and head to her room. It’s only once I step inside and see her made bed and the costume options she laid out for me on top of it that I realize she hasn’t been back.

She’s still with Sawyer.

My heart drops when I remember her and Mai and Olga. All of them left with shifters. And if their nights were anything like mine…

Setting the contraceptive potion on Sybil’s desk, I rush back to my room and snatch up my phone. I scroll to Sybil’s number, my heart beating a mile a minute, and call my best friend.

It rings once…twice…