“Burnt strudels on the eve of my Great Aunt Tulip’s grave!” Hamish wailed from across the room, jumping to his feet and Catalina tried to pull him back down into his seat.
“I can’t sing, or dance, or write poetry so I’m just gonna shout this really, really fucking loud,” Orion announced, looking right at me with a smirk on his lips. He raised a hand to his throat, casting an amplifying spell before tipping his head back and hollering so loud that the roof of the cavern rattled. “I am in love with Darcy Vega, heir to the throne of Solaria, daughter of the Savage King – who by the way was tricked by Lionel Acrux into being an evil sonuvabitch. And I know you all think I’m a complete waste of oxygen.” He kicked a bread roll into Justin Masters’ face and it bounced off his forehead as he tried not to react. “That my shame is infectious and you don’t want it anywhere near you, let alone your precious princess.” He leapt from one table to another, making his way towards us and I got up, a smile nearly splitting my cheeks open. “But it turns out she wants me anyway. And I’m done making decisions for a girl who has always made better ones than I do. So if this is what she wants, then she can have it. Because she owns me right down to my black heart.” He leapt forward again, a round of cursing and outrage sounding as he landed on my table, looking down at me and holding out his hand with a piece of paper folded inside it.
I took it with a curious frown, unfolding it and realising what it was as my heart hammered out a wild and desperate tune. On the surface was my final I.O.U. from the ones I’d gifted Orion for his birthday last year.
I.O.U.
One kiss anywhere you like.
“This cannot be!” someone cried in anguish.
“Crabcakes through my mail slot, please stop this madness,” Hamish begged as he lumbered his way towards our table.
“Papa!” Geraldine flew out of her seat to halt him. “They are in love. And Mama always said love is like a peppercorn buried in a salt pot.”
“But sweet Gerrykins,” he rasped, bringing his handkerchief to his mouth. “I cannot stand to look at it.”
“Then don’t look,” I growled, taking Orion’s hand and letting him pull me up to stand in front of him.
He gripped my waist and yanked me flush to his body, his warmth surrounding me and the scent of cinnamon hanging in the air.
“You owe me a kiss,” he purred, a devilish gleam in his gaze.
“Where do you want it?” I asked, high on this moment as raindrops pattered in my gut.
He tapped his lips, his smirk still hitched in place and I swear I was never going to get enough of this man.
“Are you sure about this?” I whispered as the crowd muttered and cursed him.
“No,” he admitted seriously. “I’m so terrified of what this will mean for you, Blue, but I’m so much more terrified of hurting you. So if you want this, then it’s yours. Besides, now the decision is made, I get to do what I’ve wanted to do since I first laid eyes on you.”
“And what’s that?” I asked, my hands sliding over his broad shoulders and looping around his neck as I zoned out the cries of disgust around me, focusing on him and nothing else. He was all that mattered anyway.
“Kiss you in front of the world, and show them that you’re mine.” He leaned down and I offered him my mouth and everything else I was made of right down to the dust that made up my bones. Our lips collided and I swear I could feel the stars watching, their whispers hanging just on the borders of my hearing like they were conspiring, and I prayed they were done working against us, because we’d suffered enough, and it was our time to be happy.
His tongue met mine in firm strokes and my sister whooped loudly, pounding her fist on the table, the Heirs taking up the cry and all my friends were suddenly working together to drown out the rebels.
I swear I had never felt so much joy in all my life as I did then, and I hoped it was never going to end.
***
“Crustaceans on a cracker,” Geraldine gasped. “And then where did the second Long Sherman go?”
Sofia giggled, releasing a horsey snort as she pointed at her ass and we all fell about laughing.
We were having a girls night in Geraldine’s room, using Angelica’s surprisingly extensive collection of nail varnishes and beauty products to pamper ourselves. Geraldine had just finished freshly dyeing my hair blue and it glittered around my shoulders as I dried it with air magic, the loose waves falling gently down my back.
“Perhaps I shall dye my hair a more flamboyant colour,” Geraldine said thoughtfully as she sat opposite me and Tory on the bed.