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“Yes: cleaning the kitchen!” I turned the water on in my sink, plugged the drain, and then squirted a generous amount of soap in it.

Connor rolled to his feet. “Why am I getting conscripted into cleaning? I only came over here to make sure you hadn’t killed yourself with smoke inhalation.” Despite his complaints, he rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt as he approached the kitchen.

“It’s what friends do,” I said with a teasing smile on my lips.

“Great,” Connor said. “When do I get to start being on the receiving end?”

“I’ll take you out for ice cream once we finish,” I said.

“Ice cream? You think I like such a thing?”

I dumped my pan in the sink and shut the water off. “Probably not since you don’t seem to like anything fun, but you need to try Wisconsin custard. It’s life changing.”

“Even for an immortal?”

“Especiallyfor an immortal!”

CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE

Jade

That night, I was still trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong as I waited for our regular pre-patrol meeting to start. I reviewed the family shortbread recipe, but I hadn’t seen anything obvious that I’d done wrong, so I’d given in and started texting my mom—texts were safe with my parents, especially if I was just asking about baking.

Mom

If the shortbread burned, your oven must be too hot. What temp did you bake them at?

I glanced up to make sure I wasn’t missing anything but since I was sitting at my usual spot in the meeting room, there was no one willing to talk with me. My teammates filled the other tables in their usual clusters. April and Juggernaut were playing a card game together, while Grove laughed at something Medium-Sized Robert said, and Binx pointed to a tuft of werewolf fur stuck to Brody’s pants that he’d missed when lint rolling them.

I tapped out a response to Mom.

I set my oven at the temp it said on the recipe card—375.

While I waited for a response, I checked over my mask making sure it didn’t have any chips or cracks in it.

Tetiana—sitting with Clarence—stood up, and I watched with curiosity as she marched across the room stopping by April and Juggernaut.

“I see you playing with cards all the time, but they aren’t normal cards—they have people on them. What are you playing?” Tetiana asked.

“Old maid.” April showed the vampire a few cards, which had illustrations of humans in different work clothes—like firefighter, doctor, and fisherman. “This is a kid’s deck, so the cards all have people with names. We take cards from each other to try and get as many pairs as possible. The player left with the old maid loses.”

Tetiana thoughtfully rubbed her chin. “Impressive, I didn’t know these days that elderly maids were considered deadly in human culture.”

Juggernaut made a pained face. “Uh, that is not at all what April just said.”

My phone dinged—my mom had texted me back.

Mom

You’re supposed to preheat it to 375, and then drop the temp to 350 after the shortbread is in the oven.

“Really? I don’t think the recipe said that…” My eyebrows bunched together as I opened my picture gallery app.

“The pictures on the cards are quite adorable,” Tetiana said.

“Yeah.” April studied her cards, which she’d fanned out in her hand. “We’re playing this game a lot at House Medeis because Ivy—one of the kids in the House—is the perfect age to play it with. The counting for pairs, reading the characters’ names, and critical thinking skills are great for her. I’ve got about half a dozen of these decks as a result. Since we always have some downtime before meetings, I brought a deck to work. It’s the perfect game to slip in.”

“Are there any other cards that kill you or just the old maid?” Tetiana asked.