Page 18 of Road To Runes

At half twelve, I threw on my knee-length purple cardigan that Priya had knitted for me, and my shoulder bag ready to meet Penny for lunch again. My lips tingled with the prospect of being able to offload to Penny about Asher's arrival and his sheer audacity the night before as I popped downstairs.

Hecate had stayed in the kitchen, probably in the hopes of snagging scraps from breakfast, but her ears perked up as I passed the kitchen and she jumped down off the counter to pad toward me.

"Where are we going?"she asked, once she had jumped up my back and curled around my shoulders.

"Lunch with Penny."

"I'll have a salmon bagel when we get there. Thank you."

"You'll only eat the salmon," I said, as we made our way into the garage.

"So? You like the cream cheese and bread part."

"Some days I wonder if you should start earning your keep around here."

Hecate jumped into her carrier and curled up, blinking slowly at me. Yeah, she knew I was full of it.

The roads were fairly clear on the drive to the teleportation portal, and even through Cambridge, and I could truly lose myself in the sensation of a little speed. Sometimes I would pop over to Germany to burn some real rubber on the autobahn and leave my troubles in the dust. In fact, I was probably overdue a visit.

When we got up to the cafe, Penny already sat in our usual booth, a mug in both hands and a creased brow.

"Uh oh, what's up?" I asked, as I slid into the booth.

Hecate jumped off my shoulders and onto the table, picking her way across it to greet Penny.

"Oh, nothing." Penny stroked Hecate but her eyes remained glazed over.

"Hey." I snapped my fingers in front of her face and she jerked out of her daydream. "Come on, don't hide stuff from me. What's wrong?"

"I just think I'm overreacting, that's all," Penny said, taking a sip of her tea. "My mum's got this new boyfriend and he gives off these weird vibes.”

"How so?" I took my gloves off and flexed my fingers.

Penny gave a huge shrug and a sigh, the tea slopping around precariously in her mug. "It's just the weirdcommentshe makes to me, you know? Like,'oh, you're so beautiful today'and'if I was twenty years younger'. It's just...gross, and now mum wants him to move in and..."

My cheeks heated up. "She wants him to move in after he's acted like that? Is she mad?"

"She's desperate," Penny said, rolling her eyes. "And I've done a few readings and, well...it doesn't look like things will get any better. If anything, they'll only get worse when he moves in."

I slumped in my seat. Penny had moved back in with her mum after returning to university and while they had never really gotten on that well while she was growing up, they had managed to make it work so far. But that looked like it would change in the immediate future if her mum let this weirdo into their home.

"You could come and live with us," I said, jerking out of my slump to lean on the table. "We've got room and I know the guys would love to have you as a roommate. Hec and I would."

Hecate pawed at Penny's neck, hopefully communicating to her the same. Penny's eyes shone and she took Hecate's large paw between her fingers and kissed it.

"You guys are sweet," she said. "But I can't pay rent or anything. It wouldn't be fair."

"You don'tneedto pay rent. And nobody would expect you to."

I hadn't when I first arrived. Nobody had made a big deal out of it then or made me feel bad about it. In fact, everyone had made sure I felt settled and set up my life before I paid a penny. Even my first rent payment had been at my suggestion, nobody else's.

Penny scoffed. "I can't justliveoff you guys while I finish my degree!"

"Give me a good reason why not," I said. "Besides, it'd be great to have you around."

It would give me someone to hang out with until Asher left and I could finally have my home back.

Penny's brow remained furrowed, her eyes glazing over a bit, hopefully thinking about my proposition seriously. But after a moment, she snapped out of it.

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