She sounded so wistful that Nic agreed. Besides, Alise and Quinn’s conversation had reminded Nic sharply of those long-ago days, when they’d been neither wizard nor familiar, only students together in magic, and her friends had come to stay at House Elal during school breaks. Those had been carefree days that she hadn’t realized she’d missed until this moment. It was a bittersweet kind of missing, the softer variety of regret, the sort that got drowned out by the flood of greater miseries.

But on this sunny spring day, against all odds, here they were, all together. A lunch with her friends suddenly sounded like the absolutely perfect thing. “All right,” she conceded. “But we are not discussing my sex life.”

“Mm-hmm.” Iliana’s brown eyes sparkled with such mischief that Nic knew she was in trouble. “I also understand we have a wedding to plan!”

“How did you—Alise.”

Alise glanced over her shoulder, eyes wide in feigned innocence. “Was it a secret? If so, I have to warn you that people will find out eventually, especially once we send out invitations. Big society weddings are difficult to hide.” She smirked at her own wit.

“Ha-ha.” Nic decided to confide in them, this unexpected, unlooked-for group of female friends. “It just feels really strange, you know, to plan to invite a bunch of people to a wedding at the same time that we’re strategizing how to keep our vengeful enemies from arriving to attack.”

They were all quiet a moment, ascending the final flight of stairs.

“It’s life, isn’t it?” Iliana finally said. “You plan for the best and prepare for the worst. That’s all we can do. I thought I was going to be Sabrina Sammael’s plaything by this time, having to watch her bond Han as her familiar, helpless to stop her from tormenting us both. But here I am, lunching with Lady Phel.” She flashed Nic a brilliant smile. “And Han is my love and my lover, as I never dared hope for. We have a room of our own and a place where we can be useful.”

“Except it might not last,” Nic warned her, feeling—as always—that she needed to be the practical one amidst this group of dreamers.

“I don’t need a guarantee of the future to be happy right now,” Iliana insisted quietly. “Now can be enough.”

Nic smiled at her. She’d always liked this about Iliana, her determined sweetness and good nature. In fact, she liked all of these women, and it was really lovely to have friends again. If only it could last… But Iliana was right: now could be enough.

~ 11 ~

Gabriel was just about to go look for Nic when she swept into their rooms in a flurry of swirling skirts and rolling eyes. “Ugh!” she exclaimed in disgust. “I can’t believe I’m running late yet again. One day, I swear, I’ll won’t be in a rush to change for dinner.”

“We have time,” Gabriel told her, watching with interest as she shed her gown and underthings, leaving a trail behind her as she raced for the bathing chamber. He followed her in at a more leisurely pace, settling himself on the chaise. He’d already bathed and dressed. He’d begun to like this transition to mark the end of the day, much as he’d initially protested the need for it. Farmers tended to bathe in the evening anyway, to rid themselves of the day’s accumulated dirt, but not to attend a fancy dinner. “There seem to be a few improvements in here, I noticed.”