‘Ladies!’ she shouts. ‘The guest of honour is here! Let the festivities commence!’ I can’t tell if she’s already drunk or that’s just how she is. She’s one of those people who are so vivacious that their sobriety level is not always obvious. She lunges forward and throws her arms around both of us, air kissing me on both cheeks before hugging Athena. ‘I mean Marlowe, by the way. You shouldn’t even be here, you horrible little turncoat.’

‘Once a seraph, always a seraph,’ Athena replies blithely. ‘Even if I’m giving away the goods for free these days.’

Sophia gives a chic European shrug. Her accent is pure Oxbridge, but she’s apparently also from a big Greek shipping family. ‘Gabe’s a lucky fucker, but I’m far more interested in how Brendan Big Dick Sullivan is treating our little ingenue here. Marlowe, prepare to get drunk and spill the beans.’

I laugh. I can’t imagine sitting around with these women and casually swapping sexual exploits, or sexploits, as the seraphim apparently term them. Camille has explained that our NDAs purposely exclude our fellow Seraph members so that we have a safe pool of people with whom to be frank—critical in this job—but that doesn’t make me any less horrified at the prospect of openly sharing with anyone beyond Athena what Brendan and I have got up to. It’s disrespectful to him, for one, and it’s far too… complex, I suppose, for me to make light of it. It’s still fresh, still raw. Fabulously so, don’t get me wrong, but yeah. Nope. No beans will be spilt tonight. Not by me, anyway.

‘I’ll definitely take a drink,’ I tell Sophia now, because she strikes me as the kind of person to relent a little if you throw her a strategic bone.

‘Of course you will. Fuck knows, you’ve earned it this week. Come here, come here. Ladies—I give you our newest seraph, Marlowe.’

I allow her to clamp an arm around me and pull me into the circle, Athena bringing up the rear. There’s a chorus of effusive greetings and a generous smattering of smiles so full-wattage I’d swear there were paps around.

‘I feel exactly like the new girl at school,’ I whisper to Sophia with a shaky smile, but it’s true. I remember showing up at Cheltenham Ladies’ College on a full scholarship, one of the only girls whose father wasn’t rich and either famous or titled. In this moment, I’m right back there.

She doesn’t smile back but instead cocks her head and studies me with compassion. ‘That may be a younger part being triggered, but that’s understandable. We’re going to show her that this is your tribe. You’re wanted here, and you belong here. Got it?’