Catwoman: Soulstealer (DC Icons #3)(67)

Selina was grateful for the road to distract her.

“And even though it’s risky, this little trio of ours…” Ivy’s voice remained soft. “It’s more fun than I’ve had in ages.” She swallowed. “I went through school so fast I never got the chance to, you know—be normal. Go to parties or hang out with kids my age.”

“I could be forty-five for all you know.” Selina often felt like she was. She certainly hadn’t done anything society liked to call normal while growing up.

But she’d tried to give it to Maggie. As best she could. Making Maggie happy had made up for the lack of having a typical teenage experience. Mostly.

“You’re not forty-five,” Ivy said, snickering. “What I can see of you certainly doesn’t look like it. And you don’t talk like you are, anyway.”

Selina laughed a little. “Harley complains about my fancy-talking.”

“Harley is just being Harley.”

Selina asked carefully, “What’s up with you two—your history?”

She’d been dying to know for weeks now.

Even in the darkness of the car’s interior, Selina could have sworn she saw a blush spread on Ivy’s face. “We hook up. Harley was one of the first people I met after all the school stuff was done and I started doing this. The Poison Ivy gig, I mean. And I fell…hard.”

“And Harley?”

A shrug. “I’m a distraction for Harley, I think. From the things that haunt her.” Ivy held up her hands, vines pulling away to reveal bare flesh. “It’s hard to be together when one of you is literally toxic.”

“I thought you could control your toxins,” Selina said, still mesmerized, despite the horrors of Ivy’s past, by what she’d become.

Ivy let the vines cover her hands again. “I can. But sometimes, if I lose control…It’s a risk. Skin-to-skin contact.”

It had to be lonely as hell to be that way, to worry like that.

Perhaps it was one of the most unforgivable things those scientists had done to her.

Ivy waved away her own words. “It didn’t matter, anyway. Harley has never wanted to put a label on us. After the Joker, she said she wanted to be free, but…I don’t know if it’s truly because she doesn’t want to be tied down, or because she worries that the Joker will take vengeance on anyone who dates her.”

Noble. “I thought he’s her ex, though.”

“He is. But I’m not sure if Harley is even entirely over him. The Joker speaks to some broken part of her, a part I can’t reach.” Ivy’s eyes flickered.

A good friend—Ivy was truly a good friend. “Harley deserves better than someone like the Joker.” Someone like you, Selina added silently.

Ivy drummed her fingers on the arm of her seat, the vines along her hands shifting a bit with the motion. “He’s a monster. He’s worse than a monster. I don’t know if you ever met him, but he’s…” Ivy rubbed her face.

“I’ve heard enough to know how awful he is.” Cold licked down her spine at the thought of it.

“Evil. He is evil,” Ivy insisted.

“And Harley wants to be with him?” The question slipped out before Selina could stop it.

After working with Harley and Ivy these past few weeks, it still baffled her. Ivy was smart, funny, and warm. Yes, her history was pained, yes, she was a criminal, and definitely a bit of a fanatic, yes, but…Selina didn’t understand it. Why Harley would choose to run to the Joker. Especially when she could have Ivy.

“I’ve wanted to ask Harley that every day for the past year,” Ivy said hoarsely.

“Why don’t you?” It wasn’t her business, Selina reminded herself, even as she tried to convince herself that she was asking only to better know her allies.

“Because if I confront Harley about him, it will only drive her away, and I’d rather be at her side and keep an eye on her than be shut out of her life completely.” Ivy’s laugh was low—sad. “It’s pathetic, I know.”

“No, it’s not,” Selina said, and meant it. “For the person you love…you find yourself making choices like that. Living in gray areas. It’s not pathetic at all.”

God knows she’d done plenty of that. Gladly. Still would.

Ivy stared out the window. “I’m not sure if Harley even knows—that I still feel this way. Still want more with her, more for us. She’s better at hiding that sort of stuff than you realize.”

Selina refrained from saying that Harley hadn’t given any sort of sign about returning Ivy’s intentions. She wasn’t that cruel.

Ivy blurted, “Please don’t say anything to her.”

“I won’t.” Selina studied Ivy for as long as she dared to take her eyes off the road. She admitted quietly, “I’ve never had any friends, either. Doing this sort of thing?” She waved a hand to the car, their little joyride to the ley line. “Never done it before.”

“Why?”

Selina debated lying. Wanted to lie. But she said, “Because I had something important that I needed to take care of. And it required all my time, my energy to do it. Friends were a luxury I couldn’t afford.”

Ivy’s throat bobbed. “And what happened—to that something you had to take care of?”