Willan
Did you know that Rickelle mated Sean last spring? Crazy, right? She’s pregnant. Apparently it’s triplets.
Lying on my couch, I stare at my phone regretfully.
I sent the message at about eleven this morning, after scrolling through my timeline and seeing a random post from a girl we both knew back when we were kids.
For some reason only the Gods will ever understand I decided to message Nikolo about it.
Like he’d care about gossip from back on the mountain.
It’s just past five thirty–which just happens to be when my weather app says the sun is due to officially set—and I’ve had exactly that long to regret my impulsiveness. Because it’s been three days since we went to Golden Night, as it’s been dubbed online, and I have indeed stayed feral.
I’ve tried to ignore the posts—I even went so far as uninstalling the Crumbles app and trying to learn how to block it from my phone entirely.
Obviously, I failed. Miserably. I lasted half a day, and then I started getting recommendations for their videos on a completely different app.
I’d say it is the Gods testing my resolve, but I’m not a witch earning my powers and really, it’s just the dumbass algorithms.
There’s nothing fated about Nikolo and me.
Or Nikki as Kai calls him. The pet name leaves a sour taste on my tongue.
According to Finn, Kai and Nikolo used to fool around.
I thought that Finn would be insecure about that—self confidence is one of his great life lessons—but he’s surprisingly chill about it.
It makes my jealousy look twice as pitiful.
Years ago I thought Nikolo was my destiny.
I was sure of it. Not that I ever told anyone, because Aleksi definitely would have tried to keep us even further apart.
At one point, I thought my brother had a thing for him, too.
That was an awkward winter. I kept putting crushed up chafe berry leaves in his food.
They aren’t dangerous; they just make everything taste a bit gross and your tongue itchy.
Then my brother got his first girlfriend and I realised he wasn’t into guys at all, and the strange illness that plagued my brother all winter long mysteriously cleared up.
Eventually, Nikolo started dating, too. On the one hand, he went out with boys in between some of the girls, which gave my stupid pubescent heart hope. On the other hand, none of those boys he ever looked at were me. So I grew up, and I got over it.
Well, not entirely over it, because here I am, wasting a perfectly good day off waiting for a message from someone who is clinically, if not magically, dead.
I close the messaging app and switch over to my food ordering app. If I’m going to lie here all night I’m going to need to eat.
Nikolo
Yeah, I think my mum told me about the mating. Triplets, though? That’s… a lot.
The message comes through just as I’ve finished ordering. Which is perfect timing because food is going to be awhile.
I know! I wonder if the kids are going to be just as good looking as they are or if their genetics will cancel each other out and the kids will just have to have fantastic personalities?
Ha! Who knows. Maybe the genetics will combine and they will create a Trifecta of Doom—three beings so unnaturally hot that their existence destroys the world.
Hopefully they end up with their parents’ skills in the mage department. For the good of all being kind.
I laugh out loud and then snap my mouth shut. I didn’t expect Nikolo to be funny. Or snark back. Rickelle and Sean were known for being the two most good looking beings on the mountain. From the day they were born, both within weeks of each other, they were lauded for their looks.
Which is good for them, honestly, because they couldn’t magic their way out of a wet paper bag.
I’ll light a candle with our pleas tonight.
I pause, one thumb hovering over the phone's keyboard, the other between my teeth where I ruthlessly gnaw at my nail bed.
What are you up to tonight? Are you working?
Gods’ tits. What have I done? Why am I trying to make small talk here? Compared to the instant replies I just got, the seconds tick by in long, exaggerated drips. It feels like an eternity before the message flicks over to read. And then there is nothing. Not a damned thing.
For minutes.
Long enough for me to feel like the burning shame on my cheeks is going to be permanent.
I’m just about to pick up my phone to start searching how to create a new identity, when my phone vibrates.
Thank the Gods I live alone because my yelp is loud.
Sorry, just had to jump in the shower.
Well. That’s an image I don’t need.
Not working tonight. Catching up with a friend.
And there’s the dose of cold, hard reality I do need.
Sounds like fun. Have a good night.
You too
Well. There I have it, in black and white on my phone. That was a shutdown if there was ever a shut down.
I lie back on the cushions, letting the weight of my disappointment drag me down further.
At least there's forty-five minutes for the queasiness in my stomach to go away before I have to go and pick up my dinner.
I should have ordered a double serving of the spicy veggie rolls.
Fried spicy deliciousness is definitely going to be needed to appease my ego tonight.
Fried spicy deliciousness doesn’t work. Well, not alone anyway. Fried spicy deliciousness, a phone call with Lusce and Jax, a movie, and clearing out the storage cupboards in the classrooms downstairs—that’s what works.
By the time I’m taking the big bag of rubbish I’ve collected to the bins outside, I’m feeling much less embarrassed about Nikolo’s apathy towards me. And Jax somehow knew how to create a completely new, fake identity. So I always have that in my back pocket if I need it.
Yawning so wide I nearly crack my jaw, I make my way from the alley to the front of the store.
Something tingles at the back of my neck, and with my hand on the door handle and one foot on the step, I pause.
Considering it’s just after midnight, it’s dark on the street.
The shops are closed, most of the residents are in bed. The street is empty.
And yet…
Slowly I turn my head, checking down one end of the street. There’s only street lights and foggy mist. Kinda creepy actually. Reminding myself I’m an adult, and a skilled mage to boot, I force myself to look towards the other end of the street.
I’m almost convinced there is nothing there, either, when I see a shadow of movement in the rolling mist. My knuckles tighten around the door handle, but I can’t seem to twist it and remember the ward to allow me to open it.
The shadow keeps moving, clinging to the darkness on the other side of the street, getting bigger. Closer.
Fuck, fuck, fuck I chant—quite possibly out loud, I don’t know, but I hope not.
I’m trying to project an image of powerful calm here.
The tingling awareness that something or someone dangerous is watching me only grows until the feeling makes all the little muscles and tendons in my spine spasm painfully.
I know it’s my body's fight-or-flight reflex, but Gods, it’s making it hard to do either.
“You ‘right there?” Nikolo’s laughter breaks through the otherwise quiet night. And my panic.
Great Astal Spider and all her many thousands of babies. Are you fucking kidding me? All that panic for a fucking vampire? Now I feel like a giant asshole and an idiot. I lean forward, closing the small distance between me and the door and knock my forehead on it repeatedly.
The fucking ward unlatches and the door pops open.
It must be a failsafe Egbert enchanted. Honestly, tonight can get in the bin already.
“Yeah, just fine, thanks.” I repress my sigh and roll my neck as I turn to face him, an unnaturally bright smile on my face.
In the shadows I can see Nikolo’s head tilt as he looks me over from head to toe, making me incredibly aware that rather than my usual oqic—the black coat most of my clansmen wear—I’m in a ratty old pair of track pants and an oversized hoodie.
Meanwhile, he’s looking just as hot as usual.
I mean, it looks like he’s stolen someone’s grandmother's woollen sweater and with jeans that baggy you can’t see just how fine his ass is, but somehow he makes it work. Because of course he does.
“You sure about that? Because your heart rate is going fast.”
Not a lie. For more reasons than one, my heart is going a million miles an hour. I kind of forgot that he can hear it. It’s one of those annoying tricks most hunter type beings can pull off.
“Yeah, totally fine.” As quietly as I can I try to draw in a deep breath to calm myself down. The shape of Nikolo’s head cocks to the side.
“Seems like it.”
My nervous laugh shatters the night air. I can almost see the mist recoiling from me in second hand embarrassment. Cringing, I clear my throat, trying to regain some control, but I only set off a bout of coughing which draws Nikolo closer.
“Do you need to go in and get a glass of water?” He stops at the bottom of the steps, abruptly shoving his hands in his pockets, not wanting to get closer to my doubled over hacking and gagging form.
I manage to draw a full breath and stand up, even though it would be much more preferable to sink to the ground and become one with the concrete.
“Nope. Fine.” I rasp and cross my arms over my chest. Partially as a protective stance, but also now that my heart isn’t going a million miles an hour, I’m freezing cold.
Usually, I’d do something about that, but I don’t trust myself with magic right this second.
“What are you doing around here? Not that you can’t be around here.
You totally can; it's a free country. But I’ve never seen you around here and—” I snap my mouth shut.
Thank the Gods I can’t see Nikolo’s face.