Page 3

Chapter 3

I crumpled my note so tightly in my palm that the sharp crinkles dug into my skin.

Laura's birthday. I hadn't forgotten; her presents were all neatly wrapped under my bed, in an enchanted box to stop Hecate from getting to them. But I had forgotten that Asher would want to come home for his little sister's twenty-first.

"Great." I stood up and paced to dispel the adrenaline that had burst through my tired muscles. "I'm going to have to make myself scarce around here."

Maybe I could concentrate on work for a while. I had received three commissions in the last week from supernaturals requesting my specialty: grimoires protected by magic. I had spent the past few days tracking down the unsuspecting people I would need to steal powers from in order to complete the commissions. Now was a good time to collect.

"Fancy going out tomorrow night?" I asked Hecate, who had jumped back onto the bed and curled up. Apparently play time was over.

"Do I get to take home some souvenirs?" she asked.

"As always."

The wily grimalkin was so useful during our raids that I had no choice but to let her take what she wanted: other people's shiny possessions.

"Then we have a deal." Hecate yawned and stretched. "Can I go back to sleep now?"

Nobody dared wake me up the next morning, probably because Priya had told them to give me space after her bombshell. That suited me just fine, given my late night. Hecate and I slept in until ten, when I finally rolled out of bed and grabbed Laura's jewellery to take back down to her.

Avoiding the kitchen, where I could hear bangs going on, I headed out the back door and into the garden where Laura's mini-forge stood at the very end. Asher had it constructed for her not long after she expressed her enthusiasm for the profession, and she had spent nearly every day in it since.

I tiptoed down the path, trying to avoid the dew soaking into my slippers, the telltale clanks of Laura hard at work filling the morning air.

A wall of heat rushed to meet me when I stepped through the open doors. Soot coated the beams above, the smoke from the fire billowing out through a hole in the ceiling. A little way across the room, Laura stood hammering what looked like a dagger's blade on the anvil. Through her visor, she fixed the item with a concentrated stare, and her lips held a pursed line.

"Lose something?" I called, in between beats of her hammer.

Laura snapped out of her reverie and straightened up, letting the hammer's handle slide through her fist to the neck. She pulled up her visor with a sooty gloved hand and rolled her eyes.

"That damn cat. Can you put it on the bench?" Laura's words had a slight Edinburgh lilt to them left over from the first half of her childhood spent in the city. "I guess talking to her didn't work."

"It didn't." I put the jewellery down on the bench next to me and folded my arms. "I'm sorry. I'll keep nagging her."

"Think it'll do any good?" Laura snorted.

"Not a bit." I tried to take a deep breath, but the soot tickled my nose. "Hey, do you have a minute?"

Laura stiffened, and she put her hammer down among her other tools on a nearby bench. "Is it about Asher coming home?"

I pursed my lips, and I began involuntarily chewing on my tongue. "No."

"Oh." Laura clasped her hands together and swayed awkwardly from side to side. "Wanna go outside?"

"Please." I didn't know how she spent all day in this place without dying.

We went outside, Laura pulling off her gloves on the way to a nearby stone bench.

"Well, it's a little bit about... him ," I said, as we sat down. "But mostly it's about us."

"Us?" Laura dusted a little soot out of her hair, taking a few locks between her fingers and frowned at the ends.

I whacked her gently with the back of my hand and she finally looked up. "I know I've been a bit distracted lately, and I don't want you to think that just because Asher and I broke up that we can't talk anymore. Like we used to."

Laura clasped her hands together and chewed her lip. "I do miss our movie nights."

"And that's on me. I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. Priya said you needed some space, so...we all just gave you that. Until you were ready." Laura couldn't have gone more rigid if she tried.

I rubbed my neck with both hands. I knew I'd distanced myself from everyone a bit since the breakup, but I didn't realise how much I had put everyone on edge.

"Can we do a restart, then? I still want to be your friend, and it doesn't matter at all to me that Asher is coming. He needs to help us get you drunk, anyway."

Laura snorted. "I don't believe you. I know it bothers you, but it means a lot that you'll put that aside for my birthday. Because you've always been more than a friend to me. Especially when you guys got together...you became my sister."

Well, that was one way to turn on the waterworks.

I crumpled up my face as tears welled up in my eyes, the entire garden becoming a blurry mess. I had spent so much time cultivating a badass image since I broke out, but there was one thing I still couldn't control. Crying came so easily that sometimes all it took was a picture of a bunny rabbit at the wrong time of the month.

"I'm not looking." Laura shut her eyes, but even through the tears I still spied her tightened lips as she suppressed a laugh. She knew how much I hated it when anyone saw me cry.

"Good. You're a sappy bitch, you know that?" I wiped the tears away with my sleeve and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "And you're my sister, too. I don't want that to change because of what's happened."

"Me neither." Laura leaned her head on my shoulder, eyes still closed tight. "When you're done bawling, can I ask you a question?"

"Okay, you know what? I don't like you anymore."

"So you don't want to come to my birthday party?"

"Depends. Are you going to have it at some Edwardian afternoon tea place?" I asked. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Actually, I was hoping to go out on the town and get absolutely hammered. Fancy joining me?"

"If I ever say 'no' to that, just shoot me."

"Great." Laura sat up and opened her eyes to smile at me. "And you and Asher...you'll be okay being around each other?"

I dabbed at my eyes a little more, though the tears were gone. The salt stung my skin a little.

The idea of spending time around Asher made my stomach clench so tight that it would have turned breakfast into a weird full English diamond. That, and drinking around him would likely make me regurgitate all the horrible things I wanted to say to him that I usually kept to myself. Everyone around here still loved him, after all.

But I could do it for Laura. Pacing myself and choosing low-alcohol drinks didn't sound like the wild nights I usually enjoyed, but to avoid ruining her birthday, I would.

"I can only speak for myself, but I'll behave," I said.

"And so will he." Laura tapped her feet excitedly on the ground. "I'm so glad you said yes. I wasn't sure."

"Of course I'm coming. This is your last big one until your thirtieth, and by then you'll be too old to want to go out drinking."

"Maybe you will." Laura grinned at me as she got up. "Thanks for having a talk with me. Still need those clasps and corners?"

"As soon as you can," I said.

The finishing touches on my grimoires gave them the luxury vibe I charged plenty extra for. Luckily, Laura would make them for me in exchange for taking her out on shopping trips. I shuddered to think how much of her wardrobe had come out of my pocket.

Laura blew me a kiss and headed back to the forge.

As soon as she was out of sight, my smile faltered. I wanted nothing more than to celebrate Laura's birthday with her. But for everyone's sake, I hoped going on a night out with my ex didn't destroy the fabric of my new family.