Chapter 8
eight
LIV
I showed up early for the girls' night with a bottle of sparkling cider that had been spiked by the nymphs. They used some kind of herbs made to relax us, a blend made just for my family.
Well, just for Callum and Merrily.
It worked super well for me for a few hours, but the hangover was shitty. There was no way past that. My magic made me move, no matter how relaxed I was.
Dare didn't touch the cider, obviously. That would be an incredibly stupid decision on his part.
Merrily lifted an eyebrow in my direction when she saw the cider, from where she sat on her couch. Her massive kitchen and living room flowed into each other, like mine did, but she was almost always on one of the many couches and comfortable chairs distributed through her house.
Touching most things set off the overwhelming discomfort her magic caused her, and her overstimulation looked pretty similar to my panic attacks when it really hit.
Unlike me, she couldn't be talked down from an attack or find something else to do to distract herself. She just had to curl up under a blanket or in the bathtub while she tried to get back under control.
"It's that kind of girls' night?" Mer asked, her voice playful.
We joked about sparkling cider like it was our alcohol. It would be crazy addictive for her and Callum if they used it often, considering the sedative effect and the shitty price of their magic.
One of us always made sure to dump the extras at the end of the night, to avoid that.
"Yup." I was already pulling out the cork on the bottle and opening the cabinet to grab the wine glasses she kept put away neatly. Glass didn't overstimulate her as fast as some surfaces, which was nice.
"Do you think Niall was right? Could he really feel my magic well enough to be sure I wasn't going to die? I think Jonah's on his side about it," I said, not waiting to get started on the chatting part of this night.
Merrily eyed me. "Pour me some of that. We'd better wait for Kat and Callum."
"He's coming?"
"I assume so. He usually does. And I can't imagine he wants to sit at home, in pain, while we hang out with his mate."
"What about Dare?"
"He's at a nightclub. I made sure he was with plenty of people, and asked my assistant to follow him at a distance. He's not handling the Jonah situation as well as he acts like he is."
"Which part of it?" I wasn't offended by the fact that he wasn't handling my situation well. We'd been family so long that each other's lives affected ours heavily.
"The part where your fated mate could be in love with someone else."
Right.
"Niall doesn't think Jonah is my fated mate," I said.
"Why?"
"Multiple reasons. Is that the only problem for Dare?"
"No. He's also the last one of us to find their mate, now."
"Shit. I forgot about that." I grimaced. "Have you heard from Grayson?"
"God, no. He fucks me in my dreams, and we both live our own lives. I sent him a message about staying away from Gwen, and he sent me a tongue emoji."
"What was the tongue emoji for?"
"You don't want to know."
I shot her a look that said we both know that's bullshit.
She sighed heavily. "He went down on me all night afterward, without letting me get off until right before he left. I'm sure he was exhausted afterward, because visiting my dreams isn't restful for him."
I blinked. "Hot damn."
"I know. He agreed not to mate with her, though."
"Is that a good thing?"
"I think so." She shrugged. "Since when are you talking about Niall again?"
I turned back to the cider, and poured it into our glasses until they were so full the liquid nearly sloshed over the rim in one of them.
Lowering my lips to the glass, I took a sip while it sat on the countertop, and drained enough of the liquid that it was even with the other one.
My face twisted as I pulled away.
Damn.
Always forgot how strong the medicinal taste in that was.
One of the glasses still spilled over my hand when I brought them over to Merrily. I was too lazy to grab a paper towel, so I licked the sickly-sweet liquid off my fingers after I handed her the glass I hadn't already drank from.
I was on a roll, as far as manners went.
On. A. Roll.
Fuck manners.
"You ignored my question," she pointed out. "Dare said you two were looking friendly."
"We're friends again. Don't overthink it."
"He helped you through a panic attack, though."
"Friends can do that for each other."
"You and Niall were never just friends. You had sex in a bathroom the same night you met."
"I remember." Every minute of it. "We're trying something new. There's no plan to see each other again, so friendship is fine."
Merrily took a sip of the cider, then made a similar face to the one I'd made as she coughed and shuddered. Hopefully the awful flavor didn't overstimulate her before the drink's effect kicked in. "That's disgusting. Did it taste that bad last time?"
"I don't know, but we're living on the edge with this shit. Embrace it."
"This cider is definitely not living on the edge."
My magic was growing restless, so I took a swig of the cider before I set my glass down on the pretty wooden tray that rested next to Merrily on the couch. She used it to hold drinks and food, so she didn't have to hold them on her lap.
She was entirely unsurprised when I walked over to the wall and kicked my legs up in a handstand. Not because of the cider, but because my power was driving me crazy. The small amount of physical exertion required for the handstand usually helped a bit.
"Handstands already?" she asked.
"Yup. Trying to hide from my problems and ignore my magic. Like always."
Her lips curved. "Wow, we have the same life goals."
I lifted one hand long enough to make a finger gun and pretend to fire it at her, still upside down. "We're cool like that."
We heard the front door close loudly. Callum didn't announce his arrival, but we didn't expect him to.
I eyed Merrily as she tipped her glass back and drained the entire thing.
"You impress me," I told her.
"I'm impressive," she agreed.
"How many abusive assholes did you kill this week?"
She shrugged.
She never answered the question. Refused to even acknowledge that she made bargains to kill people who abused women. Mainly, people who abused sirens. Their magic drew problematic assholes toward them.
I didn't know why she wouldn't talk about it. Probably because of the shit in her past that she also refused to talk about. She was covered in scars the same way Darius was, even if she chose to hide them with clothing.
A lot of people in the city knew about the murders, though. Anyone who interacted with the sirens did, for sure. Everyone in the Shadow District called Merrily Death.
Another assassin had appeared on the scene recently, killing abusers like Merrily did, but with shadows instead of fae magic. When we tried to get information about them, the only thing we could find out was that they were known as the Wraith.
That was slightly unnerving, so we ignored it.
"Is this wine?" Kat asked as she and Callum walked into the kitchen. She picked up the bottle and checked it out.
"No. This is the good stuff," Callum said, taking the bottle out of Kat's hand and striding into the kitchen. She followed him, slipping between him and the kitchen counter as he pulled out two more wine glasses.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"It's medicinal, from the nymphs. It relaxes you," he explained to her. "Worth its weight in gold for us, but potentially addictive."
"So we're all going to fall asleep on the couch?"
"If we drink enough."
"That's a unique way to do a girls' night."
"Does it qualify as unhinged?" I called out.
"Not as unhinged as you," Kat called back, winking in my direction.
She dragged Callum's hands to her waist, so he was touching the bare strip of skin between her shorts and cropped t-shirt while she poured their drinks.
"I love it when she gets sassy," I told Merrily. "Kat should be my fated mate."
"If we could choose, I would've stolen her from Callum years ago. Fuck letting her magic settle," Merrily agreed.
"In the next life, we can fight for her."
"Or you and I could just be mates."
"We'll make it a plan. Pinky promise." I lifted my hand again, holding my pinky toward her, and she lifted hers too.
The disgustingly happy couple brought their much-emptier glasses of cider to one of the couches Merrily didn't occupy, and plopped down. They weren't going to end up sleeping on the couch. I would've put money on that.
Callum didn't need to get drunk on cider anymore.
He dragged Kat onto his lap immediately, and she took a sip of her drink.
She legitimately choked at the taste. "What the fuck? This is disgusting."
"Absolutely foul," Merrily agreed.
"Worth it, though," I said. Still upside down.
"How long does it take to kick in?" Kat asked.
Callum set his hand on her thigh. "Twenty minutes or so. Liv will probably be upside down the whole time."
"I'll have to take a break in the middle so I don't pass out," I corrected. "But otherwise, yeah."
"Why are we drinking cider?" Callum took a small sip of his drink, too. Even that icy bastard couldn't hide the disgust on his face when he tasted it.
"Jonah told Liv that he thinks Niall is right about Niall being able to feel her magic well enough to know that she wasn't going to die that night," Merrily said, wrapping her arms lightly around her middle.
"That's not exactly what he said."
"What did he say?" Kat checked.
"Basically, that I need to give Niall a break because there was no right decision for him."
"Why does Jonah have an opinion about Niall at all other than wanting him dead?" Callum asked. "He should be violently possessive. If someone Kat had fucked showed up, I'd take extreme pleasure in torturing him to death. I only sent Niall to your house to force Jonah to react."
"Thanks for confirming that I can blame you for all of this shit," I grumbled.