Nick may have been a weirdo and a half, but I chuckled.
Then he pul ed me to him like we were going to dance, and the laugh died in my throat. For an instant, al I could see was another dance, another dress, another dark-haired boy holding me, and the sudden pain that lanced through me caught me by surprise. Before I could stop myself, I raised a hand to his chest and pushed him away.
An awkward silence descended over the room. Lara discreetly cleared her throat and said, "Nick, Daisy, why don't you come with me and let Jenna and Sophie get changed? Lysander, we can discuss your payment."
Nick and Daisy shot me unreadable looks as they fol owed Lara and Lysander.
"You okay?"Jenna said once we were alone.
I shook my head, but answered, "Yeah. Just a little freaked out about the party."
Which technical y wasn't a lie. It seemed profoundly stupid to gather a whole bunch of very important Prodigium plus four demons in one place when things were so scary. But Dad had explained that it was a point of pride with the remaining Council members. "We can't let The Eye think they've cowed us,"Dad had said. Then he'd given me a little smile. "Besides, this wil be the first birthday party of yours I've ever been to."
I couldn't resist that. Stil , I was uneasy about the whole thing.
Jenna stood up, coming to stand beside me. She had decided to go as Mina Harker from Dracula, and she was wearing her own Lysander design, a pseudo-Victorian concoction of black lace and pink silk. It even had a cool little top hat and veil.
There were no changing rooms at Lysander's, probably because faeries tend to be real y into their bodies and showing them off, so something like
"modesty"is kind of a foreign concept to them. Luckily, Jenna and I had lived in close quarters for nearly a year, so it wasn't a big deal.
"You looked real y beautiful in it, though,"Jenna offered as I attempted to unsnarl the crown from my hair.
"Please. I look like an Evanescence album cover. You look fabulous."Jenna tipped her top hat at me, which made me smile. "I just hope no pictures of me looking like this ever get back to Hex Hal ,"I continued, turning toward the mirror. Maybe if I could actual y see where the crown was snagged..."Can you imagine? Dressed as Hecate? And wearing this thing?"I gave another tug. "Al my new social cachet would be gone like that."
I glanced at Jenna in the mirror, but she had her back to me. Weird. I thought that would've gotten me at least a chuckle.
"Sucks to think that we'l be back at Hex in, what, four weeks? Gonna be quite an adjustment after being"-I pul ed hard, but my hair refused to let go-"a pretty, pretty princess al summer."I was joking, but even as I said it, my stomach sank. Thorne definitely had its own issues, but at least I could do magic here.
Jenna turned and met my eyes in the mirror. "I'm not going back to Hecate, Sophie."
My fingers stopped tugging, and the tiara dangled limply near my left ear. "What?"I whirled around to face her.
"I'm not going back,"she said, her voice firmer now.
"But...you have to,"I said stupidly.
For the first time in a long time, Jenna's face flushed with anger. "No, I don't. I don't have to do anything the Council tel s me to. They're not-"
"The boss of you?"I finished, even as I cringed at how snotty that sounded. But Jenna couldn't leave Hecate. I was already dreading going back; how could I possibly do it without her?
"I don't belong there,"Jenna said, pul ing off her pink lace gloves. "Vix thinks it's time we were with our own kind, and so do I."
A very nasty comment sprung to the tip of my tongue, but I bit it back. In two days I would be seventeen, and I couldn't act like a toddler with hurt feelings. I touched the tiara and used my magic to make my hair uncurl itself from the platinum band. "But last year you said you didn't even want to be a vampire. That you wanted a normal life with algebra and prom, and al that."
"Last year changed both of us a lot, Soph,"she said, not unkindly.
"Yeah."It was al I could think of to say. We got changed with our backs to each other, and neither of us said anything until we were back in our regular clothes, the costumes up on silk hangers.
"I don't get why you're so upset,"Jenna said, taking me by the shoulders and turning me to face her. "This is something I have to do. I thought you'd get that, especial y after everything with the Removal."
I stepped back, and her arms fel limply between us. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Wel , if you had gone through the Removal, I'd have been left on my own at Hex Hal , and that never seemed to bother you."
"Right, but I was going to do that so I wouldn't kill anybody,"I said, trying not to get angry but failing miserably. "It wasn't like I was ditching you at Hecate to frolic with some guy."
Her eyes flashed, and I thought I saw a hint of fang. "Oh, real y? So you're tel ing me Archer had nothing to do with why you wanted to get your powers removed, and ditch me at Hecate?"
I gaped at her, even as magic swirled up in me. "What?"
Jenna rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, her voice thick when she said, "Like it never crossed your mind that you could be with him if you weren't a demon."
It had. Or at least I think it had. Al the reasons I'd wanted to go through the Removal were too twisty and complex to sort out. But stil , it hadn't been the main reason, and how could she...Something clicked.
"That's why you were al 'Sophie and Cal, rah, rah, rah!'isn't it? You thought if I found some new guy, I wouldn't want to go through the Removal."
She didn't have to answer. The blush that spread up her neck and her lowered gaze were enough.
"I watched Alice murder Elodie, Jenna. I thought I was a monster. That's why I wanted the Removal, not so I could be with Archer."My powers were racing around me now, curling inside me. A nearby mannequin rattled, and both mine and Jenna's hair was fluttering slightly. "The Removal could have kil ed me,"I continued. "And you'd have to be a total moron to die for a crush."
Jenna recoiled like I'd slapped her, and I suddenly realized what I'd said. "Oh, Jenna,"I said, taking a stumbling step toward her. "I didn't mean-"
"No,"she snapped, backing up from me. "I get it. You're Demon Queen of the World, and I'm an idiot who let a monster kil me."