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I snorted. “My mother would have a heart attack.”

At that, my cousin grinned. “Exactly what I said.”

I tossed his rune stone back at him and closed the file. Part of me was tempted to turn the pages, see more. But this was going to give me enough to think about without adding visual horrors.

I’d talk to him about it over dinner.

And Silver. Silver would kill me if she heard something that important was going on and I only informed Gideon.

Who was I kidding? The moment she heard I hid it for three weeks, I was dead anyway.

13

KLEOS

Iwasn’t the best of cooks. I could feed myself without resorting to daily takeout like my cousin, but I had the same weakness there as I did in potion brewing: a lack of creativity.

My grandmother complained about that flaw over and over again back when she used to teach me. Why couldn’t I understand that if the recipe said one scarab, and my stock so happened to be small, I simply had to have the presence of mind to use two—butremove the head of the second first?

Because that wasn’t what the recipe said, that was why.

We butted heads until we both accepted that I would never be a proficient potion brewer.

What I excelled at wasbaking. Baking was predictable: follow the instructions to the letter, and the likelihood of failure was close to nil. My anxiety could handle baking. Soufflé didn’t count. I only attemptedsoufflé au fromagewhen I was too fond of myself and needed some humbling.

Given the fact that I needed Silver in a very good mood tonight, I played it safe, sticking to my strengths: I ordered two courses from our favorite fusion Vietnamese restaurant—a ruinous place we all adored and rarely patronized—and baked adecadent chocolate fondant. If I went a little heavy on healing magic at the gooey center, it was no sin. The effects of excessive healing magic were similar to weed while being milder: it made everyone a little more relaxed and happier.

My plan was to wait until we got to that last course, after plenty of wine, delicious food, and an ever-so-slightly drugged dessert.

My plan went to shit.

Silver took one look at the selection of complex dim sum, sniffed the air—that woman could smell chocolate a mile away—and turned to me, her hands on her hips. “Fess up. What did you do?”

Dammit.

Gideon, bless him, walked in just then, providing me with a well-timed escape.

He had the keys to all the Valesco properties, our immense Palladian house on the 3rd circle included, so he never rang. Perfect man that he was, my cousin was carrying a bottle of wine in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other. It was absolutely not required of him—he could show up sweaty and emptyhanded any time he wanted—but the unspoken law of our relationship was that he provided alcohol and I provided baked goods.

Silver, as my oldest friend, and someone who didn’t have any kind of trust fund, was encouraged to never bring anything to me. For all that, she also wasn’t emptyhanded. There was no mistaking the little leather pouch in her hand. She brought me goodies! The kind of goodies I couldn’t wait to unwrap. Even more than the wine. But she seemed in no mood to give me anything right this moment.

I wisely ignored her and focused on the newcomer. “Oh, flowers! Let me find a vase. And is that cava? I’d better put it in the fridge for dessert?—”

“Kleos, don’t insult my intelligence. You can bring a damn vase, fill it with water, and levitate it right here like this.” Silver snapped her fingers to demonstrate it.

I sighed, and snapped my fingers. Twenty seconds later, the flowers were in their vase, floating to the nearest sideboard.

I still took the bottle by hand. Electronics and magic didn’t mix well—I didn’t want to break my fridge again.

Undeterred, she followed me to the open-plan kitchen, though her attention stayed on Gideon. “Your cousin fucked up. She bought us food fromZest.”

“Oh, fuck yeah!” Gideon rubbed his hand over his tummy. “I haven’t had Zest in forever. What’s the occasion?”

“As I said,” Silver replied for me. “There’s no occasion, so she fucked up.Big. What’s going on, Kley?”

I sighed. That was what I got for getting myself a friend who knew me better than the back of her hand. “Look, it’s no big deal.”

“If it was no big deal, we wouldn’t be eating Zest. Dinner must have cost you two weeks of pay. Now, fess up before the food get cold.”