Chapter 655: Old Friends
My initial knee-jerk, irritated reaction to Liam's star-struck lover boy routine faded as the weekend passed. In fact, by the time I languidly rose from his bed late Sunday afternoon, the smile I found on my face, reflected back to me from his bathroom mirror, was real and rather comical.
I'd never been one to accept being catered to. In fact, I was usually the one taking matters into my own hands. But having Liam wait on me hand and foot was becoming rather addictive.
His shower was smaller than mine, his shampoo all wrong for my hair, but whatever. I'd adapt. And make sure I stocked his bathroom with my stuff in the future. For now, I enjoyed more steam, more hot water, hugging myself with happiness and wondering what all my earlier fuss was about.
This could really go somewhere after all. It really could. I pictured myself walking down the aisle, looking up through demurely fluttering lashes, meeting chocolate eyes-
Damn it.
I turned the water off, wrapping myself in the large, plush bath sheet Liam left out for me. Why was I thinking about Quaid when Liam slept in the next room? After I spent the whole weekend engrossed in Liam, physically as well as emotionally?
I leaned against the counter, hugging the towel to me as I admitted how much it hurt I hadn't heard much from tall, dark and deliciously jerkish. He'd been keeping his distance since summer, focused, I could only guess, on his last year of training with the Enforcer order.
Not that I blamed him. No matter how I felt, no matter the fact my demon pined and growled at me until Shaylee wouldn't talk to her anymore, Quaid was lost to me, and I really, really had to get over him.
Was doing a smashing job. Just smashing.
Ack.
I peeked out the bathroom door, Liam's sweet, sleeping face turned toward me, bare chest rising and falling slowly as he breathed, one arm flung out over the place I'd left. Liam loved me so much, would do anything for me. He could be the one.
At least until he grew old and died while I stayed young.
Yeah, way to crush the moment underfoot and leave a smear of hurt behind, Hayle.
I squeezed water from my hair, hating the scowl on my face, my eyes flaring with blue fire as I caught my reflection again. I would not make Liam second best to a guy who chose his career over being with me. Time to choose to be happy with the Sidhe Gatekeeper. To pick kind and sweet over sarcastic and moody.
Considering I was more the latter than the former, we'd be a fit, wouldn't we? I could grow to like being taken care of. And there would be no jealousy from Liam I was more powerful than him.
Not like with Quaid.
I very firmly drew a box around every single feeling I had for my first love and sealed it with as much power as I could before leaving the bathroom. I sank to the side of the bed, held my long, wet hair out of the way, bending to brush my lips over Liam's. He reacted immediately, arms rising to pull me to him, eyes cracking open, wide mouth smiling. I snuggled against his chest, my damp towel still warm from the heat of the water I'd used. He'd been more than willing to turn up the heat, but we'd figured out very quickly his skin couldn't handle the temperatures I loved and I wondered how much of my craving for super-heated showers had to do with my demon.
"Love you," he mumbled.
"Love you, too," I said. Felt and heard my stomach rumble. "Hungry?"
Liam's smile made me wish I didn't need dinner just yet.
It was nice to hold his hand, to swing my arm in time with his. No more freak outs, not while I settled into his rhythm. Funny how it only took a couple of days for this to feel like it had always been between us.
Nice.
My little bubble of happy didn't protect me from the outside world, though. Not while a familiar figure approached, one arm raised. I tensed immediately as Mia crossed the snowy Yard to join us. The last time I'd seen her, she accused me of interfering with her coven, tried to have me burned for the loss of her family magic. I felt terrible for her, guilty the very same magic she'd lost to the Brotherhood chose to go to Andre Dumont instead of home to her. But I knew it was her weakness that made the theft possible in the first place.
So much guilt around my old friend. Her mother did her no favors blocking her magic when she was a baby. Clare Dumont fled her family and her crazy mother, Odette, for a chance to give Mia and Quaid normal lives. But the now-dead leader of the Dumont family hadn't been willing to let things lie. Knowing she could only protect one of her children, she chose the infant Mia over one-year-old Quaid, perhaps sensing her daughter didn't have the strength of her son.
Regardless, I couldn't help but think Clare made the wrong choice. Being cut off from her magic caused a crack in Mia's psyche, which had only grown over the years as she struggled to understand what she was missing. Sure, it could have gone either way, especially if Mia was a little more stable. Considering Gram's own fight with her loss of magic had only made her stronger, in my opinion. Mia's story could have ended differently if she'd had support.
But my grandmother was powerful to begin with, hardheaded and stubborn. Not to mention the fact she lost her magic as an adult woman.
Mia wasn't so lucky-or so grounded. It still showed on her face as she smiled at me, eyes a little wild, cheeks sunken. She looked like she'd dropped twenty pounds, and not in a good way. Gaunt, pale skin parched, her black Goth makeup did nothing to improve her appearance.
But her smile shook me far more deeply than her looks. The way she reached for my free hand, acted like there had never been darkness between us as her cold lips pressed to my cheek.
"Syd!" Mia leaned away, meager power reaching for mine and, on impulse, I reached back. She ignored Liam like he wasn't even there. Rude. Very rude. But he took her attitude in stride and, with a slow nod, backed off and allowed her to take my attention.
While I struggled to accept her arrogance, knowing, even as I did, it was grounded in an underground self-esteem issue tied to a severe lack of confidence, he immediately understood what she needed and acted without ego.
Yeah, he'd do.
"It's so lovely to run into you." Mia's hair, the only healthy looking part of her, caught the gloss of the white lights bordering the Yard.
Um, okay. Not like she didn't know where to find me all along.
"Mia." I did my best to grasp some balance. She was so mercurial, I wondered if an explosion waited behind her clear blue eyes.
"I've been wanting to talk to you for so long." Her shoulders slumped, smile fading, though she seemed less ready to snap and more introspective, so I took it as a good thing. "The way I treated you, how I acted when all you did was try to help me and my family." She shook her head, hair swinging, a thread catching at the corner of her mouth. "Inexcusable."
"I'm so sorry, too." Guilt gushed out of me as I hugged her, relief curling free from months of old hurt. "I've been worried about you."
Mia smiled again as I released her. "That's sweet. But I'm doing okay." She turned and gestured. Only then did I notice a pair of young witches hovering behind her. "I've started my own family."
Her attempt at perky fell flat, but I wasn't going to call her on it. And from the feel of the pair, they were even weaker than Mia. Made me sad, but at least she was trying, right?
Right?
She glanced around as though we were being observed before bending her head, voice dropping in volume and timber. "I wanted to tell you that thanks to you, I've seen the light."
All of her crazy came back in a rush. Not in her face or her bearing. But in that moment, with those words and the ones following, I understood she was not only still broken, the pieces left of her were now starting to fracture as well. "I've found the true path of magic." She shivered, eyes widening. "There is so much to learn, Syd." Mia's hand grasped mine again, intensity in her face, a reverence and fanaticism reminding me of the Chosen of the Light. But at least that deranged group had a powerful leader at one point, someone to keep them safe. While I didn't agree with Demetrius Strong's old ways, I understood his methods. Mia just didn't have the wherewithal to support others, let alone herself.
She shivered in delight, lips pursing in a pert smile. "There is so much power to be had." One sharp nod ended her little episode into heretic. "When the time comes, of all people, I'll be happy to share my knowledge with you."
"Thanks," I said. There wasn't much else to say to crazy.
Mia hugged me again. Smiled brightly. "You're welcome."
Turned and left without another word, her sad little pair of followers trailing after her.
"What the hell was that?" Liam's arm went around my shoulders, pulling me against him.
"I have no idea." Yes, I could have invaded Mia's mind and found out. But honestly, she wasn't a threat to me, to anyone, not anymore.
Let her have her delusions if they made her life easier. The elements knew she earned some peace.
Liam hugged me, warm breath in my ear even through my hat. "It's not your fault."
"I know." I hugged him back. Kissed him. "Thank you."
But as we moved on, the beckoning lights of Memorial Hall calling us to dinner, I couldn't help but wonder if there was more I could have done for Mia.
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