Page 231 of Halfblood Deceived

Mari nodded, and half smiled.

“Thoughtful and kind,” Andreas drawled. “Your callous reputation is at stake, Mari.”

Mari glared at him. “Fuck off.”

Luce sighed with a weariness beyond her years and pointed at a small cardboard box. “That one is from Dad.”

A little apprehensive, and a lot curious, Aella opened the box. At first, she thought Andreas had given her play-dough, but then she read the label. “Er, thank you for the plastic explosives, Andreas. I’m sure I’ll, uh, find use for them someday.”

“C4?” Sebastian asked, golden eyebrows high on his forehead. “Seriously?”

Andreas shrugged, undaunted. “You never know when you might need to blow up something or someone.”

“See, I actually agree,” Aylana said with a wicked smile.

“I can think of a few situations where I might have needed some C4,” Diana commented, dead serious.

Kamilla hummed, giving Diana a conspiratorial smile. “Indeed.”

Aella pressed her lips, but a giggle escaped. She stood to grab a rainbow-colored box. Her eyes fell on Evan. “Yours?”

He grinned. “What gave it away?”

“Just a hunch,” Aella teased, opening the box. She laughed at the many pairs of gaudy toe socks. Two pairs were pink, purple, and blue. And underneath it…

“I know you have a computer already, but this one is better,” Evan said. “It’s waterproof and can survive a six-foot fall. It has 32 gigabytes of RAM, two terabytes of solid storage, the latest, most powerful Ryzen processor that’s not even on the market yet…” Aaaand that was the last thing that made sense.

Evan could have been speaking another language for all Aella knew. He finished his description with a triumphant smile despite the baffled looks of everyone but Luce, Andreas, and Gabby.

“Aella is studying online, not trying to hack the Pentagon, Evan,” Zeydan said, wryly amused.

Evan scoffed. “I could hack the Pentagon from my phone. It isn’t that hard. And that’s not the point. The point is that it’s virtually indestructible and won’t become a slog nightmare in two years because I can build better computers than most brands.”

“Thank you, Evan,” Aella said. “Considering the many times I’ve fallen asleep and knocked my laptop to the floor or drooled on it, it will be very useful.”

Evan lifted his chin smugly. “Ha! And you’re welcome, darling.”

Kamilla stood to pick up a rectangular white box with a bright red bow. She placed it gently on Aella’s lap and sat on the arm of her chair.

Aella opened the box a sliver, peering inside. Her eyes went wide as she noticed the tag of Luna’s Creations and immediately recognized the rich red fabric.

“You didn’t!” she exclaimed.

Kamilla chuckled. “I did.”

“But it was expensive!” Aella protested.

Kamilla placed a lock of red hair behind Aella’s ear. “What’s the point of being obscenely rich if you can’t spoil your loved ones, hm?”

Aella’s cheeks heated. “I—thank you.” For so much more than the dress. “But I don’t even know if I’ll look good in it.”

“The mystery is killing me,” Evan complained. “What is it?”

“A dress,” Diana said. “A gorgeous dress that will look perfect on her.”

Aylana nodded. “Agreed. It will cause heart attacks.” She winked at Zeydan.

His eyebrows shot up.

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