Declan threw me a look and I returned it with a subtle shake of my head. Will and Van were only friends, but I suspected Will’s feelings weren’t entirely platonic.

The bedroom door clicked shut, followed by the sound of the flap as the ferrets hopped through it to check on Van. Woodbridge’s upper lip curled in contempt. Prisha looked like she wanted to fan herself and had definitely been checking out Will’s ass.

I clapped my hands together sharply. “Right! I’ll put the kettle on, then, shall I?”

Prisha and I both ended up picking green tea—Declan stuck with his usual chamomile, and Woodbridge continued to steep in his own bitterness. After the most stilted and awkward conversation of my entire life—and that was saying something—Mama Ami arrived and we finally let Prisha check our binding. She reluctantly gave us a positive assessment with a side order of stink-eye for me.

She really didn’t like what I’d done. Part of her held out suspicion that I’d somehow engineered this setup, doing it all on purpose to get Declan as my familiar. I tried not to get too grouchy about this, because Prisha was just doing her job. In her place, I’d question my motives, too.

That didn’t mean I was completely cowed by her, either. I knew I hadn’t done it intentionally and there wasn’t anything I could have done differently. Since the bond was currently keeping Declan from falling back into Eva’s hands, it was harder and harder to feel guilty about it. Which meant both Prisha and I felt protective of Declan and justified in our actions, resulting in a lot of mutual heavy eye contact as we both channeled our inner felines.

Cat thoughts were so dangerously seductive because they felt good.

“If I set a glass of water by you,” Declan whispered, “would you bat it off the table?”

I elbowed him and he laughed.

What really unnerved me was how quiet Woodbridge was. He looked entirely too smug, but hadn’t said a peep since our original argument. It was making me uncomfortable. I thought maybe he’d take the chance to look at any of the photos we had up—catch a glimpse of his estranged daughters or his only grandchild. The pictures could have been of strangers for all the notice he paid them.

Once Prisha had seen to Declan, she leaned back in her chair. “What updates do you have for us? Has Eva attacked at all? Anyone tried to make contact?”

“She’s attacked twice.” Declan caught her up on details of both, though left out some, ah, racier details on the last one. Both of them were interested in hearing about our countermeasures, like the dream magic we’d managed and the piercings Will had given us. Prisha and Woodbridge both checked the protective stones in our jewelry, Prisha making appreciative noises while he gave a disdainful sniff.

“That was a really good idea, the piercings,” Prisha said. “You said you used your brother’s shop? I’ll have to write down the name. I have friends that could use a good arcane piercer—”