Page 14 of A Dream of Stars and Curses

His previous remark about vampires spelling humans for sex rushes back into my head.

‘I won’t let anything happen to you,’ he hurries to say. ‘Vampires are territorial creatures. The fae are more mischievous by nature, but all Veiled tend to respect another Veiled’s choices, at least to a degree. As long as they see us together, none will hurt you, but it is important that you stay with me all evening. Perhaps vitally so.’

My throat has gone dry, but I nod again. He’s warning me as a general safety precaution, nothing more. Besides, staying by his side all evening? I suppose I’ll manage.

‘I’d still like to go,’ I say. ‘When is it?’

I do want time to prepare myself. While it sounds perfectly acceptable to rock up in my oldest, most tattered pjs, I also want to make a good first impression. These people don’t know me and have no reason to like me, but if just some of them know whoever employed the Dreamcatcher, then they might have a reason to dislike me. And from what Leverett said, some will start with dislike just because I’m human. I don’t want to come across as clumsy or ignorant or anything negative. They don’t need to love me, but I definitely don’t want them to hate me. It’d be great if I could leave the evening with a few new friends rather than on several people’s shit lists.

‘It’s next week. Saturday.’ Leverett smiles. ‘I’m already more looking forward to it. If that’s too short notice, though—’

‘No, it’s fine! It’s like a date.’

I.

Hate.

Myself.

Gods. Fuck. On second thought, I think I’ll just go throw myself out his window.

But Leverett merely gives me a surprised look for a second, then smiles. And there’s a warmth in his eyes that promises to melt me when he says, ‘Yes. I suppose it is.’

I don’t come down from cloud nine the rest of the day, evening, and most of the night. When I told Bonnie, we both got so excited that we shrieked like teenage girls—which seems fitting, given how I and my hormones have been behaving.

I’m going on a date with Leverett.

Deep breaths, Esta.

I am going on a date with Leverett.

I try to be calm and not expect anything, but the being calm bit, at least, is really fucking hard. I said it was like a date. That’s what he agreed to. Neither of us said that it’s an actual date. Big difference.

When I finally fall asleep, I’m out of it. For the most part, anyway. The excitement keeps waking me up, and for the first time in... gods, I don’t even know how long, I can’t tell whether I’m awake or dreaming. Everything kind of blends together. I briefly dream about sitting up in my bed, annoyed that I can’t fall asleep—except I definitely am asleep, because the pyjamas I wore in the dream were all black and glitzy and very formal, as far as pyjamas can be dressy. It only occurs to me—hours later, after when caffeine wakes me—that I don’t own anything like that and never will, either. They are so far out of my usual style zone that I’m shocked I believed it was real for even a second.

At some point, I wake up and my throat is dry, so I go downstairs to get a glass of water—or I dream I do, anyway. Or I think I dream I do? Either way, Lady is watching me from the sofa, and I startle when I see a guy in my kitchen.

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