“He’s easy to look at,” Jasmine called.

“There’s that,” I muttered.

“There is that,” Farah muttered too, but now she was also regarding me openly.

I stepped closer to their huddle and said my next in a way Severus would not hear.

“There is something between us that cannot be denied.” I reached out and caught Farah’s hand. “Something, Farah, I see now I never had with True. He was but a friend, a kind one, a good one, but we’d never even kissed.”

Farah looked shocked.

“Cassius pinned her to the wall the second time he laid eyes on her,” Jasmine yelled helpfully.

I sighed.

Silence giggled.

Farah smiled at me.

“He did?” she asked.

I tipped my head to the side. “As he says, we cannot keep our hands off each other, when we aren’t fighting that is. He is not wrong. Alas, we fight a great deal.”

That was when Farah laughed.

And I was relieved to hear it.

I brought our huddle even closer.

But my eyes were only for Farah.

“What I wish to say is, it is not True. It never really was, Farah. And the way I see him with you, he’s realized this too.”

Farah looked away.

“You do not see this?” Silence asked her.

Farah looked to Silence. “He is a kind man. He understands this situation is not optimal, but he wishes to make the most of it. And he helps me grieve. That is all.”

“He helps you grieve while panting to get into your knickers,” Jasmine hollered.

Farah’s eyes grew round again.

“She has very good hearing,” Silence whispered.

“She’s a witch and she’s using magic to eavesdrop because she’s also a pain in the arse,” I told her.

“I heard that!” Jasmine shouted.

I looked to my friend. “Stop listening!”

It was then I sensed movement, turned to Hera and saw she had an arm lifted. From her hand, a streak of silver and orchid sparks shot Jasmine’s way.

Jasmine grunted when they hit her.

Hera looked to me and called, “Carry on.”

I smiled at my friend and turned back to my Sisters of the Beast.

“You are very lucky,” Farah said wistfully, eyeing both Hera and Jasmine.

My heart hurt at these words.

She might have had friends at some point in her life, but I’d noted not a one of them attended her at Catrame Palace. Therefore, it was clear she lost them due to what her father did.

She lost nearly everything because of what her father did.

The only thing she held onto was her mother.

And now she was lost too.

I squeezed her hand, reached to Silence’s and took hers as well.

Silence took Farah’s.