“He’s president of O-Chi. No one has more clout than he does.”
I speak through gritted teeth, “He knows I don’t want him to interfere.”
“But why not? If he talked…”
I create a diversion. “The Mardi Gras ball is this weekend.”
“Oh, that’s right!” she gushes. “How exciting. Where is it again?”
“The Hilton in Asheville.”
“Are you sure you have the right shoes for that dress? Is there someone you can borrow from if the silver pumps don’t look right? Oh damn, I meant to order you that necklace I saw on Etsy. Well, it’s too late now. How about your pearl satellite choker? Or you could…”
I tune her out as I search my wardrobe for something soft, cozy, and self-care-ish to wear today. Now, where are my pink fleece socks? I thought I washed them the last time I did the laundry. Mom’s still rambling, reminding me to take pictures at the ball and asking me to tell Zander she and Dad say hello.
“Will do, Mom. Gotta get some studying done. Gonna be a busy weekend.”
After we say goodbye, I toss my phone onto my bed like it’s contaminated. I’m deceiving my family, deceiving Liv, deceiving Zander.
I’m no better than Leo.
Even though I can never forgive him.
After an hour of distracted, unproductive studying, I finally decide to sneak off to a study lounge and call Avery. My anger with her and Aaron has mellowed over the week, and now all I want to do is commiserate. After all, for a long time, Leo lied to them too.
As I hoped, Avery is sympathetic. “He kept insisting he was going to tell you.”
“When did he tellyou?” If her answer is “months ago” then she’s back on my shit list.
“He didn’t. I saw him. You know,sawhim, saw him.”
“Saw him?” So he didn’t voluntarily confess? “When?”
“Like two weeks ago. It was the day after we did the ancestor ritual.” She describes how she was pruning the plant Leo had revived and had a vision of him healing it—in his fae form. Not sure if she should trust what she saw, she confronted him, forcing him to come clean. But unlike me, she wasn’t all that shocked.
“I already had some suspicions,” she admits. “And getting a good look at his ring that night, I dunno, I think it totally opened me up to the truth.”
I guess after years of being a witch and honing her psychic ability, she’s much better equipped than I am to embrace the supernatural.
“Does Aaron know?”
“Yeah, I told him.”
Hurt pitches in my stomach. “But not me?”
“Leo asked us not to tell you. He said he wanted to do it himself.”
But he never did.
I’m a coward. I was afraid of losing you.
Dammit, my eyes are stinging.
There’s a frown in Avery’s voice. “He made a big mistake, and he knows it.”
I wish that was all it was: a lapse in judgment, a simple matter of waiting too long to tell me. But when I think of the layers and layers of small lies he told, of how hard he had to work to maintain the deception, his behavior seems far too calculating to be a mere mistake.
Throat tight, I croak, “So you weren’t pissed off at him for lying to you?”
