later and be all oh right she was talking about MY empire.
There was nothing for a moment. The bus stopped and I had to get up to let somebody off. Then Sofia sent: Try asking me something.
I thought about it. There was a lot I wanted to know. There was also a lot I absolutely didn’t want to know. I tried for something low-risk. How can I save Elise.
Another long pause. Two more bus-stops passed and I had to give up my seat for an old man with a walking stick.
Finally Sofia got back with: Nothing. Sorry.
Perhaps we need to get you high.
You’ve already sent me a suggestive penguin, now you’re trying to push drugs on me?
I really thought you’d stop being able to play the “help you’re corrupting my innocence” card when you turned eighteen.
:shy emoji:
Don’t come all blushing face with me, young lady.
:tongue-sticking-out emoji:
Then
It’s good to hear from you. I’d been worried.
Fuck me in the ear with a rusty egg whisk. How downhill had my life gone that a psychic teenager with an on-again-off-again vampire boyfriend and all the pressures of actual real life medical school had enough space to be concerned about me? I’m fine.
I know you can take care of yourself. It’s just you usually don’t.
It was beyond humiliating that she was the one giving me life advice. I liked to think I’d been a non-terrible influence on her, if only as a kind of negative example, but I wished I could at least sometimes pretend I was more of a grown-up than she was. I’m doing better, I think. How’s Patrick?
Another pause. Out of the picture for now. It was getting weird with him still being all highschool and me having clinics to do.
How do you feel about that? See me being completely neutral about the girl I was quite fond of in a completely platonic and slightly older-sisterly way finally dumping the guy I’d been hoping she’d dump for literally years.
Strange. I miss him and I still care about him. But I need to focus on me for now.
And Samuel?
Gone back to being god of the sun.
Then.
We don’t have normal exes, do we?
Nope. Welcome to the life of the magical destiny girl. Fifteen years from now you’ll find yourself in bed with an estate agent wondering what life would have been like if you’d made different choices.
The bus finally arrived at Bow Street, or at least close enough to Bow Street that I could walk it. That seems oddly specific was Sofia’s reply.
Long story.
How long?
I thought about it. Not that long. I went to bed with an estate agent and it made me wonder what life would have been like if I’d made different choices.
:confused face:
Then
Estate agent?
Estate agents are people too. I made my way upstairs to my office, and was alarmed to see the main door—the one with the frosted glass and the Kane & Archer sign I really should have got around to replacing—swinging open. Hold on think I might have a break-in.
I sidled closer, wishing I’d brought a weapon, but I’d got far more lax about going armed since I stopped caring if I lived or died. Much as I hated to do it, I reached for my mother’s power, trying to touch as little of it as I could. The senses always came first and easiest, and they were all I needed for now. My eyes sharpened and the scents on the breeze took on new and dangerous characters. The walls were tamed stone, the air smelled of wild pursuits and the faintest trace of a very expensive perfume. I stalked closer and pushed the door open.
Tara Vane-Tempest was lounging with her feet on my desk, displaying much more of her legs than I could cope with while also keeping in control of my mother’s instinct to chase and catch and kill. “You didn’t think I’d wait outside did you?” she drawled.
I banished my mother’s power as quickly as I could, not liking how hard that was getting these days, and glanced back at my phone to see six messages from Sofia, all variants on “what’s happening” and “are you dead.”
False alarm, I texted back. Just a small outbreak of werewolf.
Then I sent her a wolf emoji. Then, The wolf is not intended to be sexual.
“You broke my fucking door.”
“I’ll replace it.” She swung herself into a standing position with a poise and elegance that should have been impossible in that much flowing red silk. “Where did you go last