“Wow.” Her shock is absolute, but as it is every time I tell Stella about my exploits, there’s no judgment. She only cares about my wellbeing and knows I don’t want to do work like this anymore. “So you slept with him?”
I choke at the understatement of that but swallow before answering, “He fucked me in more positions than I know. I thought I was going to lose my voice from screaming.”
If anything, her eyes get wider. “Wow.”
“You already said that.”
She looks down at her food and starts to eat. After a few minutes of pondering in silence, she shrugs.
“Maybe I should break into a dragon’s house,” she says.
Jealousy stabs me at that, but I shake off the ridiculous feeling and force a laugh. “I don’t know of any other dragons. And I got the impression that this isn’t a normal occurrence for him.”
Stella shakes her head. “I’m not going to break into anyone’s house. I don’t have as much luck as you. I’d get eaten—in the bad way.”
“I’m not usually that lucky,” I say, serious. “Anytime I’ve gotten out of a bad situation before has been purely on skill. This was—I don’t even know what to think about it. It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m not going to see him again.”
“… Do you want to?” she asks.
Do I want to? Does it matter?
I shrug. It doesn’t matter. “He made sure I knew just how much he didn’t like me after all the fantastic sex.”
There must be something in my expression that Stella picks up because she softens. “After you were kind enough to help him out? What a dick.”
I cough a laugh. “What a dick indeed.”
Or dicks, rather. God, I’m going to miss that.
Stella throws a napkin at me, and I laugh. See, I don’t have to be the sniveling woman in the bathtub. I can laugh about how ridiculous this all is.
Our conversation continues, and I ask Stella about her work. She crafts charms for people. She’s very talented, and I try my hardest not to be jealous of her magical gifts. I just get weird dreams and have a skill for breaking and entering.
“I’ve got this super complicated glamour coming up for a minotaur. He’s really sweet, quiet though, real quiet.” Stella chews her lip. “I was thinking of asking him out.”
I try and imagine her with someone described as quiet and fail, but what the hell do I know about romance? “If you like him, you should.”
“Well, I won’t know if I like him until after talking with him more.” Stella shrugs. “But I feel like I have to start somewhere. It’s been forever since I’ve dated, and I’d love to get railed so hard that I lose my voice from screaming. It would really clear away the cobwebs.”
I snort. Something about the juxtaposition of Stella’s poise to her mouth always lightens my mood.
“Don’t act so shocked. You’re the one that shacked up with the dragon. I’m so curious, but I actually see him on a semi-regular basis for business and would rather not know all the details. He’s terrifying.”
“Oh?” I say, thrown off.
“Kalos has his fingers in most businesses in this city.”
“Huh, I guess he’s never needed an art restored.” How would I respond if I saw him again? I blow out a breath. It doesn’t matter. He wants nothing to do with me, and by all rights, I don’t want anything to do with him either.
I adjust my seat with a wince at the tender muscles of my hips.
“Do you need some healing salve?” Stella asks.
I clear my throat. “I’m good. I have some. I just feel… off.”
I didn’t notice it as much before, but the jarring displacement of something different I’d felt this morning hasn’t faded.
Stella straightens. “What kind of off?”
“You think it’s a witch thing?”
Stella tries to look patient, but fails. “Have you been meditating?”
Being raised by humans left a lot of gaps in what I know about magic and myself. It’s not like there’s a crash course called So it Turns Out You’re a Witch. Stella has done her best to teach me as much as she can, but as the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know.
My cheeks burn. “I’ve been a little busy.”
Stella waves a hand. “Everything is a witch thing. You are not only your body, and you need to keep track of what your senses are telling you. So, what kind of off are you feeling?”
I crease my brow. “I’m not sure?”
She exhales, back to trying to be patient. “You won’t know until you go looking.”
I take a breath and try to tune into the sensations of everything to pinpoint this disconnect. The savory whiff of food from our finished plates. The warmth of my coffee cup. My sore body. The humming wards of my apartment.
I close my eyes on my next inhale, the air cooling my throat, expanding my lungs. Both Stella and I have magic, hers clusters tightly around her, while mine is a little spacey, searching. I place my hand on my heart, wondering if the dick of a dragon broke more than I let myself accept. There’s a tinge of campfire there, and I slide my hand to the bite he’d left at the crook of my neck, Kalos’s sneering face flashes in my mind and my hand wanders away, retreating. My lungs fill again, and I embrace the sensation of my chest moving before moving on, lower.
The sensation sparks, and I try to focus.
Something is there. Something new.
I open my eyes, and Stella is staring in shock at where my hand is resting on my lower stomach.
“Oh. My. Gods,” she says.
5
KATARINA
“THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE,” I breathe. I can’t be—I can’t even think the word right now.
Stella makes a high-pitched mouth sound. “Not impossible, just highly improbable.”
“But I have an amulet!”
Now Stella frowns. “What amulet?”
My face burns. “The one that magically stops STIs and… pregnancy.”
Stella’s face pales. “I’ve never sensed that kind of amulet on you. Show me.”
I undo the thin chain with shaky hands and hold it out to her. It’s a simple thing—silver with a tiny medallion the size of a bead. Stella holds the chain, and my stomach drops at the conflicted, angry look on her face.
“Did Nemo give you this?” she asks.
“Yeah, forever ago.” I’d barely turned eighteen when he’d caught me kissing a guy. The next day, he’d thrown the charm at me gruffly saying I needed to protect myself.
Stella’s lips thin, and she places the necklace on the table. “And he didn’t tell you you’d need to get it charged?”
“What?”
She sighs. “Most witches get a permanent one when they come of age. One that charges itself from the witches’ magic. It’s more expensive up front, but most would agree that it’s a better option than the ones that need to be charged yearly by the maker.”
There’s a numbness in my fingers and face. “That’s one that has to be charged yearly? This whole time I’ve been wearing a useless amulet?”
I’m reeling. The protection I thought I had is a joke. Thank fuck for condoms.