Page 171 of Caelum

It wasn’t fair, but very little in this life was.

Scowling harder at him, I growled, “Let her open her gift without you bitching at her.” Dre flipped me the bird, but I crooned, “Walk to the corner and stay there.”

The words held the lilt of my Lorelei who wasn’t in charge today but was hovering over things like he’d started doing ever since I’d hit nineteen. It was like he was the manager of my souls now.

In response, Dre lumbered to his feet then headed over to the corner and stood there dumbly.

“Face the wall,” I instructed, the words a singsong that had him obeying, and Stefan and Nestor began snickering.

When I looked at Eve, she gaped at Dre then at me. “Why didn’t you do that before?”

It was my turn to snicker as well. “Because I don’t like to manipulate people. But it’s your birthday. Consider it gift number two.”

She grinned at me then darted her gaze back down to the box. When she opened it, her grin faded, and her bottom lip trembled. When she looked at me next, I saw the tears in her eyes and felt my heart clutch at the sight of them.

I wasn’t sure if she liked it, and I was pretty sure she didn’t have a clue what it was.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, then quickly followed that up with, “What is it?”

Smiling at her, I dropped beside her on Nestor’s sofa. “It was my mother’s.” I didn’t want her to know that it had been on her body when she died because it might disturb her, but it was the only thing of hers I had, and I figured if anyone needed a talisman, it was my Eve. “It’s called the Hand of Hamsa.”

“The Hand of Hamsa?” she repeated. “What does it do?”

“It wards off evil. It’s a talisman too. For protection.”

Her lips twitched. “With seven of you hovering over me, I think I’m safeon the protection front.” Then her smile blossomed for real and she requested, “Put it on me, please?”

She twisted in her seat and reached behind her shoulder to scoop up her hair from the back of her neck. As I placed the delicate gold chain around her throat and fastened it, I inhaled her scent and reveled in our closeness. I longed to press a kiss to the back of her neck but wasn’t sure how she’d respond.

Things had changed since we’d learned she was djinn. The revelation had made her open up to us because, I knew, she had finally realized no matter how crazy she was, no matter what she could do, we weren’t going anywhere. For our loyalty, for our steadfastness, we were rewarded. She’d ceased avoiding us, had begun being affectionate again, but even that had a limit—I was well aware how traditional she was. Shit, she made my ultraconservative sister look modern.

“You should have reminded us,” Stefan grumbled, and I sensed his irritation with me, but this was on him. Not me.

I hadn’t done this to make them look bad. Genuinely. But they should have remembered without my reminding them. How fucking hard was it to set an alarm on their phone?

Ignoring them, I rubbed the gold with my fingers—using it as an excuse to touch the back of her delicate neck and loving the sudden surge of gooseflesh at my touch—and said, “There. It’s fastened. Are you ready for your second day of classes?”

“It figures that’s why they’ve taken her off private tutoring,” Nestor stated. “Her turning eighteen as well as whatever’s going down with Merry and Damon were the prompt.”

Stefan nodded. “Another reason it would have been useful if you kept us in the loop, Eren,” he groused. “Then we wouldn’t have worried something funky was going on with the faculty.”

I shrugged, ignoring him. Petty? Perhaps. But mostly I was just transfixed by the sight of the pendant nestling amid the slight protrusions of Eve’s collarbones.

“It looks beautiful, Eve,” I told her, my voice a soft rasp, and it wasn’t a lie. The bright twenty-two karat gold against her alabaster skin made me wish I had the right to press my hand to her throat so I could further study the contrasts between us, with me so dark and her so pale.

I licked my lips and whispered, “Happy birthday,habibati.”

Though she tilted her head to the side in question, I felt sure she knew the word was for the pair of us alone. She smiled and replied, “Thank you, Eren.”

“I have another gift for you,” I teased.

“What is it?” Her grin was infectious and made me smile right back at her.

“A cake. One my mother used to make for me. After you’ve finished your classes, we can go to the kitchens and finish it up together.”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

“Why the fuck does she sound excited about that?” I heard Stefan mumble at Nestor.

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