Page 136 of The Witch is Back

“Dumper.” Sloane pointed at Emma. “But it was clearly the wrong choice since you’re all mopey and everything.”

Emma raised her eyebrows. “How much of this is you and how much is Tia?”

Sloane avoided the question. “If you’re not happy you dumped him, why not get back with him?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Sure it is. If he likes you back. And since you guys were having sex—”

“Sloane.”

“—then he must like you a bit. Unless you were bad at it, I guess.”

“It’s not happening. It’s a dream,” Emma told herself.

“Is there ever a way to tell?” Sloane wondered. “Like, can you ask?”

“Sure, when you’re of legal age and you’re ready and in love.”

Sloane snorted. “Because those are the parameters.”

“They should be.”

“Did you wait until you were in love?”

Emma opened her mouth to say yes and then sort of just hung there because she was damned if she did or didn’t answer.

Satisfaction smiled back at her. Sloane already knew.

“I told you about the contract,” Emma said after a couple of seconds. She stabbed her straw back into her shake. “He was forced into that, then he was forced to go through with the engagement because of me and my mother.”

“Leah says she’s fascinating.” She shifted, uncertainty crossing her face. “Will I have to, like, meet her?”

Emma reached across the table and touched her hand. “Only if you want to. She might think she has a say in when or if you ever come into society, but she doesn’t. Only you do.”

Relief appeared for a brief moment and Sloane nodded. “Was he mad when he found out about the hex?”

Emma gave her a look.

“So, you dumped him before he could dump you?”

“In a way, I guess.”

“Are you sure he was gonna dump you?”

“What’s with all the questions? Why’re we still talking about him when we could be talking about your new friends?”

“Tia said you’d try to change the subject.”

“Tia doesn’t always know what’s best.” Emma ruffled her hair with an agitated move. “Look, I waited for Bastian to come back after the Exhibition and he didn’t. That was my answer. It was easier the way everything played out. And it’s done.”

“Seems to me you could’ve at least talked about it. Isn’t that what you’re always going on about to me—talking?”

Emma aimed a glare her sister’s way. “Well, we’re done talking about this. It’s over. He’s gone, like he always was going to be.”

Sloane pounced like a rat on cheese. “You kind of pushed him away first, though. Like, you didn’t actually think he’d stick around. You said that’s why you didn’t let us hang out—because he was gonna leave, right?”

Emma softened at the flash of uncertainty the teen still had. “Right. I didn’t want you to get attached to someone who was going to leave us. And the less people who knew about you, the better—though with Clarissa knowing, I guess that may change, depending on how we approach it.”

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