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Instead of shying away or squirming at the sudden expedition we were giving, like I thought she would, Reaper pulled me up to meet her lips again and I deepened it .

I chuckled between our kisses, she didn’t even care and that’s where my memory of the night ended.

***

I woke up alone in my bed with my head throbbing. No. No. This is all some sick joke. No way last night happened. I fumbled around in my bed, grabbing my phone and group dialling my friends. The screen was too bright to read their texts.

“Hello?” Lin picked up first, his voice groggy.

“Hey!” Iri sang.

“Oi, it’s too early for this,” Jamiel groaned, hungover like me.

“What happened last night? What the bloody hell did I do?” I asked, my voice hoarse and parched.

“If you’re wondering if it really did happen, yes, you did kiss Cel.” Iri giggled through the crowds of chatter in the background. She must be at work.

I cursed. “And the… Bathroom?”

The phone screeched at their overlapping and loud laughter. “Yeah, you were so drunk!”

You’ve got to be bloody messing with me.

“Her and I—”

“Cel? She wasn’t there.”

No. I’d rather it have been her right now. “Then… Who did I…?”

“Who did you what, Cinth?” I could hear Iri’s smile through the phone.

“Uh…” I couldn’t think straight. “You guys didn’t walk in on us?”

“Did you two do something in the bathroom?” Jamiel shouted into the phone, making me pull it away from my ear.

“No, they didn’t,” Lin piped up. “I followed you to the bathroom, Cinth, after you took my drink, and I went in when I heard a thud. ”

“He called us over,” Iri chimed in.

I felt my phone vibrate at a notification and took a glance at it.

Bloody hell.

“You passed out in the bathtub in the middle of washing your hands and took the curtain with you.” Lin laughed.

I can see that.

I put a hand over my face. “Delete the photo,” I begged. “Please.” If anyone saw this, my reputation…

“Okay, but we’re keeping the video,” Jamiel said, and I felt the vibration again.

I cursed at the sight of it, I wasn’t even going to click play on the video of Reaper and me. Prassino would have seen this by now and soon enough Silias and the entire Underworld would know.

“Oi, you’re such a lightweight,” Jamiel mocked. “You only had one drink.”

I think I had more than one and in my defence, I’d never drank before. No one warned me alcohol didn’t take effect immediately.

“Shut up, Jamiel.” My head felt like it was about to explode and my body heated at the thought of our kiss. I reached for my pills and popped one in, praying the headache would go away soon. “Bloody hell, I can’t believe we—” I couldn’t say it out loud. “What do I do?”

None of them answered for a long while.

“Just don’t make it awkward,” Iri replied. “It’s fine, she wanted it too.”

We were both intoxicated. “Who said I wanted it?” I snapped.

“Cinth.” Iri laughed. “Please stop lying to yourself.”

I cursed at them, but I didn’t understand. “What does not making it awkward mean?”

“Act normal,” Jamiel said.

Act normal? I just lost my first kiss at a party to the most beautiful girl this world has ever seen, clearly drunk out of my mind, because I would never do that sober. How could I act normal? That incredibly vivid, intoxicated dream too… Shit. Don’t think about that.

“Anyways, I have to get back to work,” Iri announced. “You’ll be fine, Cinth.”

“Yeah, I’m off too,” Jamiel said. “I need sleep.”

“Are you okay, Cinth?” Lin asked.

I didn’t know how to answer that. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I shouldn’t have drank anything.”

There was a long pause before he asked, “Do you regret the alcohol or the kiss?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, slowly. “When we were doing it, I was thinking that this is probably why we mess with each other so much, because we wanted to do this, but we were both so drunk, I don’t think it was okay for us to do that.”

Lin was the first person I was able to call a friend. He wouldn’t tell anyone the things I confided in him, and he was always honest with me.

“She took care of you while you were half conscious.”

I furrowed my brows. “What? Why would she do that?”

“She felt bad because she made you drink.”

She didn’t make me do anything. “Right,” I muttered. “How did I even get home?”

“By yourself,” he sighed. “She managed to sober you up enough to walk. Anyways, if you really feel weird about it, you should talk to her and clear the air.”

I felt my pocket for the necklace with my ring and took it out, analysing its engravings again. It didn’t seem she ever took it off in those four years of having it. Tarnished, the tip of the vulture’s beak was chipped off.

“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe.”

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked. “We can meet up after my tutoring session if you want? ”

“I think I just need to think. Thanks, Lin.”

“You’ll be right, it was just a kiss,” Lin said before hanging up.

I put my arm over my face and shouted a curse.

Just a kiss. It didn’t mean anything.

“Cinth.” My door opened, Niko behind it. “I’ve let you sleep in long enough. Get up, you need to train.”

I groaned. “Can I just—”

“No, it’s your fault for stupidly drinking last night.”

“What time did I get home?” I asked.

“You don’t remember?”

“Not really,” I muttered.

“Five in the morning.” His voice was sharper than usual.

Shit. I glanced at the time on my phone, that was just a few hours ago.

“You cannot act this reckless,” he said. “Someone could have killed you in that state.”

“I know,” I said, dragging myself out of the bed.

“You’re lucky no one did. If you bumped into the wrong person on your way home or someone followed you…” He continued his lecture about how irresponsible I was, and I tuned out of it, already knowing I made a mistake. “How did you even get home? You barely made it through the door.”

I shook my head. “Honestly, I have no idea.”

***

Lin rented a room in the public library for those from other schools. And I ended up finding him with still another half an hour of tutoring.

“So, the derivative—” he paused his markings on the whiteboard. “Cinth, what are you doing here?”

“Can I talk to you? ”

He looked at his watch. “I guess so.” Lin turned to the students in the class. “You guys can either continue studying until I come back or leave.” Then he followed me out the door and kept his voice at a whisper as to not to disturb those in the library. “What is it? You look awful.”

I felt so drained if I'm being honest. My heart had been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours. I had a beanie to cover my awful hair and a hood up over my head to block out as much light as I could. “I think I’m sick, Lin.”

“It’s called a hangover.”

“No,” I said. “Not that. My heart keeps beating weirdly, sometimes I find it hard to breathe and concentrate. And I’ve been so warm, I sweat.

Also, I keep having these vivid dreams and it’s making it hard to sleep, but I’ve also been falling asleep in random places.

I don’t know, it's weird.” Lin stared at me, waiting for me to finish my list of things wrong with me. “Do you think I’m dying?”

“Wow. You really do need help.”

“Gods, I knew I should’ve just gone straight to the hospital.”

Lin chuckled. “No, Cinth. But most of these symptoms occur when you’re around Celestine, right? Or when you’re thinking about her?”

“Yeah. She makes it worse and won’t get out of my head. I’m certain she’s a witch.”

He could barely contain himself.

“Lin, she’s messing with my head. Take this seriously,” I demanded.

“What do you mean?”

I shook my head, this was so weird to talk about. “She makes me so angry and we… You know, did that thing last night.”

“Kissed.” He couldn’t help his smile at my fluster .

“I really don't think she likes me. She's just doing all of it to mess with me, but I don't know why.” I don't understand girls, but maybe talking about it with him would help me figure it all out more clearly.

“You think she's flirting with you to mess with your emotions?”

“Yeah,” I said, taking a step back to lean against the wall. “But that's so cruel, isn't it?” Even I wouldn't do something like that.

He mulled it over for a moment. “I don't know what's going on in her head, honestly I don't think anyone does. Maybe ask Iri. She talks to her a lot.”

I shook my head. “We all know Iri only feels obliged to try and be friends with her because she was once good friends with her brother.”

“No, Iri’s friends with her because she wants to be.”

I guess that came out a bit wrong. “Okay, whatever, but Iri’s biassed and sees what she wants.” And what she sees is Reaper as some sort of Angel who can do no wrong.

“Well, from what I've seen, Cel seems to really like you and I think maybe she just doesn’t know how to show it properly.”

“What is proper?”

Lin shrugged. “And no offence, Cinth, but you don’t make it easy for her either. She’s doing what she probably thinks is the way to be near you and get you to talk to her.”

“She enjoys it a bit too much.”

“No, I think what she enjoys is your presence.”

“So, you think I should be nicer to her and then she’ll be nicer to me?”

“Exactly that.” He nodded. “Might be a bit hard for you, but try it.”

“And what if this backfires? What if it really was her plan to get me to like her and then she breaks my mind and—”

“Gods, Cinth, you' re so dramatic.”

But everyone wants to take down Vulture and anyone would take the opportunity. Reaper is probably just like that. I cursed. “I don't understand her.”

“Try to get to know her.” Lin smiled. “Maybe then you'll figure out if you even like her and if not, then none of this really matters.”

He was right. If I don't let her in, then she can't break me. “So, I’m not dying, right?”

“No, Cinth. You are fine.”

I nodded. “Thanks, I'll let you get back to tutoring.”

***

I didn't bother warning Albion and Mica I was coming. The only two Demons I still kept contact with were usually together anyway.