Fire and Bone (Otherborn #1)(58)

SAGE

Aelia doesn’t even knock—she just comes into the cottage exactly as the clock ticks over to 4:00 p.m. Three girls from the other night at the club follow her in: Freya, the zit critic, and the mousy girl.

“You’re early,” I grumble, too exhausted to get off the couch.

“We’ve got work to do!” Aelia says, holding up several makeup bags.

I was enjoying staring at the ceiling and finding animal shapes in the plaster. And not thinking about tonight. Because then I have to think about Faelan. And I really don’t want to think about Faelan right now. The training thing was almost going well—he’d barely grunted at me the whole time. But he got so intense when the protector thing was brought up. And everything went wacky.

I left, letting him believe that I didn’t trust him. And maybe I don’t. I shouldn’t. But why the hell did I bring up Kieran? I handled it completely wrong. I made him feel like I was considering dumping him for a creep. I’m not sure what I was thinking.

What a mess.

The scroll he gave me is sitting on the coffee table, and I haven’t looked at it. I want to know what all the fuss is about my sister. But then I don’t. Isn’t it bad enough that my fake human family was screwed up? Does my real supernatural one have to be a mess too? It’s not like I have to end up like her.

Maybe not knowing is better.

“Come on, street urchin,” Aelia says, walking over to the couch. She waves me up. “We’re going to need the full two hours.”

I sit up, and Freya appears beside Aelia.

“Does she still have that spell on her?” Freya asks.

Aelia rolls her eyes. “No, Freya, gods. I told you, her energy is weird, okay? That’s the whole point.”

The zit critic frowns at me. “Seriously, she looks different, though. What’d you do to her since last night? She’s, like, almost decent looking.”

The mousy girl watches it all from the other side of the room. “Really, Victoria, I think she’s sorta pretty.”

The zit critic, Victoria, smirks. “You would think that, Rayane.”

“And her hair,” Freya says, squinting at me, “I wanna borrow her conditioner.”

Aelia grunts. “Can we just get her to the vanity, please?” She takes my arm to help me off the couch. I start to squirm, but Victoria takes my other arm, and I’m outnumbered.

We’re across the room when Victoria stops tugging me. She turns me around to face her and looks me over. She sniffs the air at my neck. “Do you smell that?” she asks Aelia. “Is she marked?”

“No,” Aelia snaps. “Stop smelling her, it’s weird.”

I think of the new scar on my neck. “What do you mean marked?”

Aelia gives me a look to shut up. “Nothing. Let’s just get your face fixed.”

“She has nice eyebrows,” the mousy Rayane says.

“Then marry them. Gods, Ray, you’re so obvious,” Victoria says. “Stop drooling over the newblood.” Then she whispers out the side of her mouth to me. “She has demi envy because her druid blood is weak.”

“I do not,” Rayane says.

Freya snorts.

“What do you mean by marked?” I ask again as they shove me into the vanity chair. I didn’t even know this was a vanity; I thought it was a desk. But now I see the thing I thought was a pencil holder is actually holding long lipsticks.

Freya runs her fingers through my hair. “It means a fellow demi has claimed you.”

I sit up straighter. “What?” That sounds very, very bad.

“No one’s claimed her,” Aelia says, shooing Freya away from my hair. “Stop being ridiculous.” But I can see she’s nervous—her hands shiver a little when she waves at Freya.

“She sure smells claimed to me,” Victoria says. “And you know I have the nose. But I can’t tell who it is.”

I stand up from the chair and back away, holding my hands up. “Stop touching me and smelling me and being insane—just tell me what is going on.”

Freya leans forward and says slowly, like I’m dumb, “We’re putting makeup on you for the Introduction.”

“You’re going to look so much better,” Victoria says.

“Though you already look nice,” Rayane adds.

Exasperation fills me as I stare at their ridiculously calm faces. “Everyone out!” They all blink in unison, not moving, so I add, “Now!” A small spark flicks to life on my right, and the tissue box on the vanity bursts into flames.

I gape at the sudden blaze.

Aelia moves her hand over the blackening box a few times, snuffing the fire out with her own magic. “Go on, girls, I’ll crack this solo. Just hang by the pool and I’ll call you in for shoes.” She coughs and waves at the smoke in her face.

They seem all too eager to back off now and quickly slip out, Victoria looking over her shoulder a few times before I hear the front door shut.

Aelia turns to me with a huff. “You seriously need to control yourself. Those girls have very powerful fathers. They can’t know that your torque isn’t working right.”

“Oh great! So why’d you bring them here?”

“You’re a project. I can’t fix this alone.” She motions to my body. She pauses, though, looking at me more closely. “You do look different, don’t you? Hmm.” She pinches my arm fat. “A little Faelan does a body good, I guess.” She winks at me.