The Consumption of Magic (Tales From Verania 3)

“Can’t sleep?” I asked Justin as I sat down beside him, our shoulders touching. He scowled at me, shoving me over to put a small distance between us.

“No one should be able to sleep through that racket,” he said.

“Eh. We’re used to it by now.” Something sounded like it squelched. “Mostly.”

“It says a lot about you as a person if you can be used to something so vile.”

I shrugged. “It’s love.”

“It’s disgusting.”

“Eh, to each their own. You’ll see. One day.” I glanced at Ryan and smiled softly. He’d rolled over onto my pillow, smashing his lovely bearded face into it.

“I sure hope not,” Justin said. “I don’t ever want to get the look you have on your face right now. It’s ridiculous.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure, dude.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Okay, best friend 5eva.”

He scoffed but said nothing more. I was thrilled. Pretty soon our best friend 5eva friendship would be sealed and nothing would be able to break it.

I opened my mouth to tell him as much but instead said, “You can’t have sex with Ryan.” And then slapped my hand over my mouth because what.

Justin choked. “Excuse me?”

I shook my head frantically, not trusting myself to remove my hand.

“Sam,” Justin hissed. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” I squeaked through my hand. “Absolutely nothing.”

Justin glanced back and forth between Ryan and me. Then he grinned.

Evilly.

“You’re jealous,” he said, sounding far too gleeful.

And I wasn’t. So what if Ryan hadn’t appeared until the next morning after I’d met with the feathered dragons. So what if he’d been slightly distant since the secrets I’d been carrying had been revealed. So what if in the weeks since we’d left Castle Freesias, he and Justin had been all buddy-buddy. It was fine. Everything about it was fine.

I wasn’t jealous.

Not at all.

(Okay, I was roiling with it.)

I glowered at the fire, Justin cackling next to me, the sounds of Gary getting plowed by a dragon while screaming just how Sam he was in the background.

All in all, not one of my best nights.

“Oh gods,” Justin said, wiping his eyes. “Get that look off your face, you fool. It’s not like that.”

“So you wouldn’t take him back if he asked?”

Justin sighed. “Sam.”

“What? It’s just a question.”