I bowed my head, pressing back my excitement as Magnus walked in, Kelela on his arm. She was probably worn out from last night, not to mention her injury. I’m sure he was simply assisting her. But … they just looked so good together. So right. They were of the same social standing, and she was so beautiful. She was showing her prowess, again, by stealing a room just by entering.

I wasn’t jealous, was I? There was no point, not after Magnus had already declared his love for me. But part of me couldn’t help it. I would never look perfect with him. We would never be anyone’s ideal.

Magnus’s brown jacket looked like—what was it called?—a tuxedo, shorter in the front with two long tails in the back, but the fabric was more textured. His white Nehru-collared shirt went almost to his knees. I liked that he mixed his two cultures in his decorating and his clothes.

Kelela gaped as soon as they walked in the room, her eyes shining in the firelight. “Oh my God, it’s Jember! This is such an honor.”

Jember paused in his work to look at her, squinting slightly. “Have we met?”

She looked starstruck. “I’m Kelela. I go to your church. I love when you sing the chants, can you sing something now?”

“Are you kidding?” I grumbled, raising my eyebrows at her reaction. Cleansing a hyena had made Jember a living legend, but that didn’t make him worth fawning over by any means.

Jember looked as unimpressed as I expected. “Why are you here?”

“Oh,” Kelela said, smoothing her hair. “I volunteered to make eye contact with Magnus.”

He kissed his teeth and put his focus back on the amulet. “What is with you girls risking your lives for this awkward little dope?”

“That does it,” Magnus said, helping Kelela sit on the couch across from Jember before leveling a glare at him. “I wore my corduroy jacket for such a time as this.”

Oh God. “Magnus—” I tried.

“I contacted you three years ago, Jember, and you wanted nothing to do with this house. What’s different now?”

“What’s different?” Jember said, as if Magnus should’ve known, and continued his amulet without actually answering.

“You are a coward and a fiend.”

“Let’s not hurl names,” I said, stepping between them.

“Now that you’ve slept for a year,” Jember said, without looking up, “perhaps we can finally talk about what comes next. Now, where’s your guardian, little boy?”

Magnus crinkled his nose like a snarling puppy. “I’m not a little boy, old man.”

“Why does everyone your age think thirty-eight is old?”

“I don’t,” said Kelela, batting her eyelashes.

I rolled my eyes.