Succubus Revealed Page 0,107

had been summoned and I'd lost my succubus powers briefly, I'd discovered that I really wasn't quite as adept as I'd believed. I'd been cheating without realizing it all along, making small corrections with my powers. Stripped of them, I'd found all the little details I'd missed with blending eye shadow, straightening my hair, and myriad other grooming tasks.

Now was no different. I would never have that guaranteed perfection again. There would always be flaws in my appearance. I was going to start aging. How long until that set in? Staring at myself in the hotel bathroom's mirror, I searched out all the little things I thought could be improved upon and then tried to fix them. When I was finished, I was so frustrated that I didn't know if I'd come close to my previous perfection or not. The only thing I was fairly certain of was that it probably didn't matter. Seth's decision to forgive me wasn't going to have anything to do with how my bangs fell or if my makeup brought out the gold flecks in my green eyes.

I showed up ten minutes before Seth's event started, thought it was obvious people had been arriving for some time. A bit of nostalgia for Emerald City hit me as I gazed around and took in the efficient bookstore staff as they worked to accommodate the crowd. A podium had been set up in front of a large seating area, though no chairs were left empty. Staff shifted what furniture they could to improve the view for those of us who were standing, and I had to stop myself from offering to help. I ended up purposely staying near the back of the standing crowd. I could still see the podium and hoped my spot would keep me semiobscured. All around me, excited readers clutched copies of Seth's books, some even carrying huge stacks.

Their excitement was electric, and I found myself getting caught up in it when Seth finally emerged to thunderous applause. My heart leaped. How long had it been since we'd last spoken? A week? It felt like an eternity, maybe because I'd pretty much lived one in the trial. He was wearing a Brady Bunch T-shirt, and though it looked like he'd brushed his hair, I could already see parts of it starting to go unruly in that way it had. He didn't appear to have shaved in a couple days, but the scruff looked adorable and added to his carefree writer appearance. I felt a smile spreading on my face as I watched him and was reminded of the first time we'd met, when he'd come to Emerald City for a signing and I hadn't recognized him.

"Hey, everybody," he said into the microphone, once the applause had quieted. "Thanks for coming out tonight."

Thinking about that first meeting with him also made me realize how much he had changed in the last year and a half. He would never be entirely comfortable in front of a crowd like this - especially since they kept getting bigger - but he was certainly more at ease than that first meeting. He grinned at their enthusiasm and made eye contact where he could, something he'd had trouble with in the past. There was confidence even in the way he stood and spoke. It made me love him that much more, something I hadn't believed possible.

Sometimes he would open by reading aloud from the new book, but this time, he jumped straight into questions. Hands went up everywhere, and I found myself ducking against a shelf as he scanned the audience and called on people. I wasn't quite ready for discovery yet. I just wanted to watch him and drink him in.

I was amused that the very first question he was asked was, "Where do you get your ideas from?" That had been a joke between us, at that first meeting, because it was one of the most common questions he received. I'd commented, back then, that it must get tedious answering the same things, and Seth had told me no. He'd said that the question was always new for the person asking and that he treated it as such. It didn't matter how many times it came up. He took joy in their excitement for the books.

More questions came, both broad and specific, and Seth answered them all with friendliness and good humor that his fans loved. A lot of people especially wanted to know about the next