Page 56 of The Succubi's Choice

9

Miri wakes up to the sound of muffled arguments in the kitchen and she just knows it’s all her fault.

Her eyes feel crunchy, like her make up from the night before fused together. Her hair, stiff from the hairspray, like it’ll break off and twist.

Still, she shrugs on a robe, before steeling herself up and walking down the hall, because if she can’t confront what’s ahead, she can’t do anything.

True to her gut instinct, Gabriel and Lundy fall silent the moment her door opens, and they both look like they’re trying to pretend that they weren’t just almost yelling.

Lundy gives her a quick up and down, before he crosses his arms and gives her the most disappointed father face in his repertoire.

“Yeah, I got in late,” she grumbles, before getting the meal replacement drink from the fridge.

“You don’t need that, you should be hunting tonight,” Lundy says, his voice just as disapproving as his face. “You also somehow snuck past all our guards around the building.”

“Not so much snuck as it was teleported,” she says, toasting him with the suppressant drink anyways and taking a big glug of it.

After the drink the night before, it tastes like a hollow imitation of it, dry and chalky. Great.

Lundy’s face twitches anyways. “We were expecting you to give a report last night.”

“I got in at 5:30,” she says, stealing a glance at the microwave clock, which reads 8:21. Which is not enough sleep. “I should text Katya.”

“No need,” Katya chimes in from the couch, where Miri had absolutely not seen her.

Miri glances around the kitchen door, and Katya gives her a tight wave, dressed in her sharp suit and looking completely unflappable.

“You look like shit,” Katya says, cheery, because she’s always been a morning person. “I’m not expecting you to be in today.”

Miri shoots Gabriel a look, and he gives her a sheepish shrug, at least. “They just showed up, sorry.”

And then, everyone just sort of stares at her. Clearly expecting her to have all the answers to all the questions before she even knows what they are, and she may have her first hangover in her life.

“I’m safe, I’m not in any trouble, I have a lot of weird shit to tell you guys, I’m not awake,” Miri says, making her way to the table and all but collapsing at her place at it. “Where’s Jacqueline?”

“Morning lab time,” Gabriel says immediately. “Left before anyone got here.”

Resting her hand against her head, Miri looks up at Lundy. “Do I have to talk now?”

“Pretty much.”

“They wanted to take you to the copper room, I said no,” Katya chimes in, prim, with just the hint of anger behind her voice. “Congrats, I’m officially involved in this one now.”

The smile Katya gives her is sharp and full of teeth. An angry Katya is a fierce Katya, and a fierce Katya gets way more done.

“Good news is he doesn’t want to kill people, bad news is I met all of the old demigod’s inner circle and they know who I am now,” Miri says, racking her brain for a place to start and not finding a good place. “He said he brought me to send some sort of message, to show them he’s not like the dead guy.”

Katya blanches for a split second, but covers it well, and Lundy just looks like he’s about to explode from questions.

“I also got a lot of questions about how pretty much everyone thinks I’m underfed,” she says, pointed, at Lundy. “And some really wild statements about need and personal responsibility.”

Lundy and Katya exchange a glance, and it’s only after years of knowing them that Miri can read the worry and anger behind both of their looks, and she just hopes that the anger isn’t directed at her.

“Well, good news is I’m absolutely buying you coffee on the way to work,” Katya says brightly, while not breaking eye contact with Lundy. “And I’m going to monitor everything so you don’t have to hide away again.”

Yeah, she’s angry at Lundy. Almost spitting angry.

“The bad news is you’re going to have to go through testing tonight and I can’t be there for it,” Lundy says, his voice apologetic and tinging on sad, which says way more than he thinks it does. Someone above him said something, and he hates it. “Did the Archdemon...touch you at all?”

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