Page 60 of A Dream of Stars and Curses

‘Come on,’ she says. ‘Sitting out here and dwelling on what went wrong won’t fix it. Let’s get inside, hm? I know a tea that’ll help.’

I scoff and immediately feel bad about it. Then again, if she really does have a tea that’ll somehow make all this better, she should be selling it. She’d make a killing.

Lady nudges my leg, moves between me and Kate, and her wagging tail hits me in the thigh. I guess if she’s ready to move on, I can follow her.

We enter Kate’s house, and she points to the sofa. ‘Sit. I’ll make you that tea, and then I’ll make a few calls. I know people who can help.’

I raise an eyebrow as I sit down. ‘You know people who can, what, magically fix the house?’

I realise how ridiculous that sounds as I’m saying it—ridiculous because she probably does, in fact, know people who can fix it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are Veiled who are good with this kind of stuff, though I’m too mentally drained to think of specifics.

‘Sit,’ she says again, even though I’m already sitting. I can take a hint, though—a breather first, a talk about options later.

So, I sink back into her sofa while Kate busies herself in the kitchen. Keano and Bruin join me on the sofa, and Lady lies down by my feet. Circumstances aside, I guess there are worse outcomes than being surrounded by dogs for a while.

My phone buzzes. The screen announces Bonnie, so I pick up.

‘What’s wrong?’ she says. ‘Kate said to call you back as soon as I could. Why was she using your phone? Are you okay?’

I hate that we worried her, but I don’t suppose there’s a non-worrying way to say ‘our house made a good go of burning down, but it’s okay, Kate is taking us in while the damage gets fixed by her Veiled friends.’

‘I’m fine. Sort of. But—’

Kate swoops into the room and holds out her hand. She gives me a stern look that’s chiding me for not relaxing harder, and I hand her my phone. I’m glad. I don’t want to have this chat, any chat, right now. Kate talks to Bonnie from the kitchen while she makes the tea. I can’t quite make out what she’s saying because she closed the door on me—on her, whatever—and because I’m surprisingly comfy surrounded by all these dogs. I didn’t see Kate light any incense, but there’s a lingering scent of lavender. I’m starting to associate it with her house. Bruin spreads himself over my lap and heaves a deep, contented sigh. I close my eyes to soak it all up, and when the door opens to let Kate back in the room, I jump awake. I can’t believe I dozed off.

She gives me her usual patient teacher smile. ‘Here you go. It’ll help calm you down, and you should enjoy a dreamless sleep, too. We can talk when you’re feeling better, or we can go over options now?’

I hide a yawn in the cup as I take a deep sip. ‘I’ll have a quick version?’

She nods and sits next to me and her dogs. ‘We’ll have the door fixed in no time, as I said outside. I know Veiled who can easily take care of any fire damage, but we’ll need to get the carpet replaced by traditional human means. We can visit a carpet shop later, or tomorrow.’

I think she smiles again, but I’m already dozing off.

‘I quite like the one you have here, but I’ll discuss it with Bonnie later.’ I feel heavy from the tea’s drowsy effect, but I also feel a little better already. I know I can tackle this when I wake up.

Honestly, all I hear is that Kate is taking care of it. She talks more, I feel myself nod where I agree with her, and then I drift off completely as I finish my tea and Keano snuggles into my side.

And then I have the best, most relaxing sleep I’ve had in weeks.

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