My ankle didn’t even need treatment, which meant I ended up seeing Malas for absolutely no reason. Stupid ankle.

The time for the party neared, my next healing potion came out better, and one morning at breakfast, Kylie started asking Max quiet questions about how to make a fetish.

“I’ve been learning to channel the spell consciously a lot better, and while it doesn’t do anything when nobody’s in danger, it can still feel like a bit much, sometimes,” she confessed. “I’m thinking I’ll use my mirror, since I use it as a channelling aid anyway.” She pulled out the little hand mirror that she’d gotten for her birthday and waved it.

“Hmm, yes, that’s probably a good idea, if you’re using it anyway. Silver is easy to etch, so it’ll make a good first fetish.”

“But the problem is, I don’t know any runecrafting. I talked to Stacey, and she said that plenty of people don’t, and that there’s a way to have a crafter help?”

“Yes, that’s fairly common for non-crafters. It’s… people say those fetishes aren’t as good, but that’s more elitism and crafting pride than based on any practical truth. We’d need your ichor, your hand on the pen, and your intent, but somebody else can guide your hand and it will work fine.”

“Will you do it?”

“… Huh? Me? Kylie, I’m hardly an expert in – ”

“You made your fetish and it came out fine first try. I want it to be you.”

Max blushed. “Well. Okay. It’ll be a lot easier if you practice the runes first; I can start teaching you the – hang on, I need to talk to Magista.” He headed for the door, where Magista was entering with a couple of Amazons, and pulled her aside for a short conversation. Kylie nudged me.

“So, have you got together a pit comp team? You seemed pretty interested.”

“Yeah, I… I’ve been a bit busy. Trying to catch up with the schoolwork and all that, you know.”

“Never would’ve picked you as one who cared about grades. I always thought you were a different kind of nerd.”

“Grades are important,” I said, trying to force myself to believe it. I grinned. “Although not as important as getting the flower decorations right for a party, lest you unintentionally imply that someone’s mother was a donkey or something.”

Kylie smirked and put on her best di Fiore impression. “If you’re getting a three tiered cake, Max, we simply cannot have red roses; we need intimacy without making a statement about wealth or size of the bigger part with the other families will – hey, what?”

I followed her gaze to Max just in time to see him plant a small kiss in Magista’s hand, then a more emphatic one on her lips. She blushed a little and fluttered her fingers in a small wave as he headed back to our table.

“Um,” I said as he sat down and returned to his food as if nothing had happened, “what was that?”

“Hmm?”

“That kiss? With Magista?”

“Oh. Yes. We’re dating now.” He picked at his salad. “Do you think many people will turn up to runecrafting class on the day of the party? Because that afternoon the Magistae will be – ”

“I’m sorry, you’re dating now? When the hell did that happen?”

“Two days ago. Why?”

“I just… wasn’t expecting it. You never said.”

“Well unlike you and Magistus, we’re not exhibitionists.”

“Hey, we weren’t – ”

“Do you even like her?” Kylie cut in.

“Of course I like her. And I trust her. We’re friends, we just have very different hobbies.”

“Do you like her like that, I mean.”

“She’s a very beautiful young lady,” Max said stiffly.

“So that’s a no? Because if you’re taking advantage of her for some – ”

“You think I’m taking advantage of her? Kylie, she’s the one who suggested the relationship.”

“Oh. Well. Does she like you like that?”

“Magista’s romantic preferences are something you probably want to discuss with her. It isn’t my place to gossip.”

“You’re so weird,” I said. “You and Magista are both so weird, and I don’t understand either of you.”

“Can’t be weirder than your relationship with Magistus,” Kylie shrugged. “At least there won’t be any candy heart wars this time.”

“They might have endless tea parties, Kylie,” I hissed. “Endless. Tea. Parties. And they’ll make us come.”

“I’m right here,” Max pointed out.

“I’m not coming to your tea parties,” I said.

“What about me has ever suggested…?”

“You’re dating Magista! Queen of Politics! You have been lost to the darkness!”

“Actually, dating her and giving the automatic assumption of my support for her actions means I have to do less politics. It can be her problem.”

“Aha! You’re outsourcing your politics! Clever move.”

Max, resentfully chewing lettuce, didn’t seem to think this was worthy of a response.

“Does this mean I have to date someone in the group and make you all deal with my nonsense, too?” Kylie asked. “You’re finished with Magistus, right, Kayden?”

I refused to rise to the bait. “Good luck. He’s seeing someone else.”

Kylie grinned mischievously. “Hmm, good point. Guess I’d better ask di Fiore out, then.”

“Don’t you dare,” I said at the exact moment that Max interjected, “Extremely inadviseable.”

Kylie hadn’t stopped smiling. She widened her eyes innocently. “What? He’s so rich and dignified and studious, and Kayden, you did say my party dress looks like a wedding dress.”

Max choked on his salad while I looked her directly in the eye ans said, “Kylie, if you ever marry him I will come to your wedding and set the church on fire.”

“Who said we’re marrying in a church?”

“You’re right, do it in a park. Churches are often stone, and much harder to set on fire. Marry di Fiore in a park in the summer. I will bring matches.”

Max cleared his throat. “If you marry him, he’ll be obliged to invite the Fiore,” he pointed out. “And if Instruktanto Miratova is still your surveyanto, it would be only polite to invite her. So you must choose between the social awkwardness of those two at your wedding, or the social awkwardness of changing surveyanti. Otherwise, you have no choice but to postpone the wedding until you graduate.”

“A shame,” Kylie said, shaking her head.

“Are you kidding?” I broke in. “That’s an entire reason to have a wedding! I’m pro-wedding now. I want to see Alania push the Fiore into the cake. Or vice versa. Then you can divorce him for half his money… the perfect scheme.”

“Socks will be my birdesmaid,” Kylie said solemnly. “Magista and Socks. They can fight over who gets to be Maid of Honour.”

“I think Magista would probably throw you a way better bachelorette party than a cat would.”

“Good point. Magista gets to be Maid of Honour. But she and Socks have to wear matching dresses.”

“Do we know anywhere that does tiny cat dresses?” I asked.

“If you two were worried that Magista and I would be the dramatic or embarrassing ones in this group,” Max said, “I think that we can safely say that that is not a danger.”

“You’re just jealous that you don’t have any reason to involve a cat in your wedding,” Kylie said.

I shook my head. “No, it can’t be jealousy. I’m sure that Magista could find plenty of excuses to involve cats in their wedding.”

Max’s cheeks flushed. “We’ve been dating for two days!”

“Better leave it at least a week before you set a date, then,” Kylie said, nodding wisely.

“Sometimes I wonder why we’re friends.”

“It’s because we’re amazing and you know it.”

“Although.” I lowered my voice to a stage whisper and leaned forward. “Maybe we should have a fight. So Max can storm out of the dorm and move in with his girlfriend.”

“If you’re trying to start a fight, I must say that you’ve laid some excellent ground work for it.”

We’d probably gone too far. Max hadn’t given me a hard time over Magistus, and they’d been actively suspicious of each other at the time. I exchanged a glance with Kylie, who shrugged.

“It’s none of our business, anyway,” she said, and Max visibly relaxed. “Anyway, we’ve got a birthday party to worry about.”

“And a fetish,” Max said. “As I was saying before, if you can train some familiarity with the sigils into your muscles, then we have a much better chance of success. F you get some practice in, then we can try in, let’s say, a month?”

“That sounds good,” Kylie said. “It’s not urgent, it’s just…”

“Useful.” Max nodded. “Having one makes casting a lot easier, and gives me a lot of peace of mind. I’d imagine it would be good for you, too.”

I tuned out. This conversation, like a lot of magical conversations, was irrelevant to me. Almost everyone around me could cast magic properly, and I couldn’t. Seeing how useless some of the spells were took the edge off my feelings about that, but still. It was hard not to feel a bit bad about it, sometimes.

Not that I was going to try to wake it up, after I’d seen what happened to Cheryl. Oh, no. Better to just put it out of my mind, and focus on the future. Like the party.

Buying gifts for the twins was difficult. There was nothing like buying a present for someone that made you realise how little you knew about their lives. I didn’t know about the sorts of futures they’d have, or anything about their world – but I did know what they liked. Magista didn’t just like to cook, she liked to experiment with food; that time she’d tried to cook cupcakes with electrocution and set the kitchen on fire was etched into my mind forever. With Chelsea and Melissa’s help, I managed to amass a small collection of books for her about unusual food experiments; glow-in-the-dark lollipops, chocolate syrups that could be used as paint. Silly, perhaps, but something she’d enjoy, and beneath the dignity of most of the people buying for her, so she definitely wouldn’t get the same thing from anyone else.

The obvious choice for Magistus was something related to his bodybuilding, but that didn’t sit right with me. It was pointless to buy gym equipment for a rich guy who knew so much more about good gym equipment than me, especially when he already had unlimited access to a well-equipped gym. But I recalled how, early in our relationship, he’d seduced me in a flower-strewn clearing, how fascinated he’d been with the glowing flowers we’d filled the cabin with on Agreabla Insulo that one time. I bought him a large collection of flower-based teas, the kinds where dried flowers open when you pour the water on them and other fancy things like that.

Our party was early in the morning, because the twins had other engagements for the day. Max had found someone to build a cake covered in spun sugar to look like some kind of fairy castle, and looking at it I understood why di Fiore might have thought Max’s choice in cakes was a bit too much for a small event. But Magista eyed it with obvious interest while we passed around the gifts.

Magistus, delighted in the teas, hugged me tightly, and it didn’t feel weird at all.

“You didn’t bring your boyfriend?” I asked him.

“We’re meeting up later. One soppy couple per party, I think.” He glanced at his sister across the room and raised a brow.

I sighed regretfully. “Max made me swear on my soul that I wouldn’t make fun of them at the party.”

“How very unfair. Well, you can just save up all you most devastating observations to unleash on him tomorrow.”

“I suppose I have no choice.”

“He asked for it.”

“He did.”

“If everyone is ready for cake?” Max asked, lighting the fifteen candles artfully surrounding the crenellated top of his absurd dessert fairy castle.

The cake inside the castle wasn’t as good as Magista’s. But it was still good. And standing there, eating cake, surrounded by friends, it was hard to feel bad about anything.