Page 84 of Laid Bare

“Lucifer wears a toupee?” What kind of cockamamie bullshit is that?

“You have some shitty priorities here. I tell you you’re boring, and you’re more worried about if Lucifer actually has a toupee or not.” Zane clucks his tongue and shakes his head.

It’s now Saturday, two days after I passed my Basic Elements class and two days since the kiss with Thaddeus. I feigned cramps yesterday morning to skip my first two periods, the same two where he’s my instructor.

Unproductive of me? Yes.

Very much needed? Also, yes.

Did I do it just to avoid the Fae? Bingo. Third time's a charm.

Luckily, Bane let me get away with it and even went as far as going to Jasper’s office to tell him I wasn’t feeling well. The headmaster gave me the whole day off, but I still went to my history class and Transmutation since that’s where I seem to need the most help.

Not that I let Professor Asshole know that. He still thinks Aero is my weird, out-of-body form, and it will remain that way.

“Let’s remedy this, shall we?” Bane strides from his room, a bottle clutched in his gray fist. “We never properly celebrated your passing of Basic Elements.”

“Oh, oh!” Zane bounces on the other end of the couch like an excited puppy. “Is that the good stuff? How the hell did you score it here?”

“It is,” Bane cackles. “I made a deal with one of the Fae fucks, but instead of his soul, I got this in return.”

My brows furrow. “What is it?”

“Fae wine. It’ll fuck up even the biggest bastard after one glass. Fae keep this shit to themselves since it’s harder to get here, and when they do get it here, they spend a fortune on just one bottle.”

“What the fuck did he want to where he willingly traded it? Idiot,” Zane mutters the last part under his breath, but we both heard him.

“That’s the best part,” Bane snickers, grabbing three glasses from the kitchen. “Poor kid is a shower not a grower, and his now ex-girlfriend laughed at him when they were about to get busy. So he wanted to be a grower. And now he is.”

“Oh Lucifer’s tits, that’s hilarious!” Zane roars, slapping his thigh. “How long is the contract?”

“One month. But get this shit… he only wants it long enough to sleep with a few other chicks, so word gets back to his ex-bitch how good he is in bed. Any longer than that, and I would have wanted more in the deal. I mean…” Bane shudders. “I had to touch his tiny pecker for it to work, and I don’t wish that shit on anyone.”

“Okay, okay.” I hold my hands out placatingly. “No more dick talk. Let’s celebrate.” Anything to get my mind off missing my mates and the freaking kiss with Thaddeus.

“Fuck yeah. Gimme.” Zane makes grabby hands at Bane. “I’ll crack the bottle.”

A glass full of a deep red liquid is thrust into my hands, strong raspberry notes flowing from wine inside. It looks like any normal wine you would get in the human sectors and smells the same too.

So it can’t be that bad, right?

Wrong.

The first solid sip goes straight to my head, giving me a floaty feeling. Something I don’t normally feel until Mom and I are halfway through our second bottle.

My second sip has me swearing there are tiny pixies flying around my face. And laughing at me.

Jerks.

By my third sip, Zane, Bane, and I are laughing our asses off, deep in a game of Truth or Dare, with none of us choosing truth.

Dares are always more fun, anyways.

We’re seventy-eleven rounds and half a bottle in when Bane turns me.

“Snow, truth or dare?”

“Hit me with a dare, Baney.”

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