Cold Kiss

I can’t face him and I’m talking to my feet, the scuffed toes of my Docs against the dull wood floor. “I mean, honestly. Why do you even like me?”
    “Wren.” It’s my turn to flinch when he steps up beside me and lays his hand on the small of my back. I want it so much, to count on it there, to lean back into it, to let him take some of my weight. But I can’t, not now, not with Danny in one room and Olivia in the other.
    Not when I don’t even understand what it is he sees in me. The only things I see anymore when I look in the mirror make me want to run away.
    “Do you want, like, an itemized list or the Reader’s Digest version?” he says, leaning close enough that I can feel his breath tickle my cheek.
    I open my mouth to answer him just as the phone in the kitchen rings, a shrill surprise. He drops his hand as if we’ve been doing a lot more than just standing close together, and when it keeps ringing, he bolts toward the kitchen to pick it up.
    I wrap my arms around myself and wait, even though I don’t know what for. Whatever Gabriel feels for me, I can’t let it matter to me. I have to go home eventually, for one thing, and face my mother. I have to apologize to Jess and Darcia, if they’ll let me. And I have to create a spell that will send Danny back to death.
    It doesn’t matter that the only thing I want right now is to put my arms around Gabriel, to feel his arms around me and his mouth on mine, to let him take some of my fear and grief and swallow it for me.
    Real love is supposed to be more than solace, more than a way to forget. I had real love once, I think, and what did I do with it? I made Danny do those things for me when he was the one who needed peace the most.
    When Gabriel touches my arm, I’m so lost in my thoughts, I jump. He holds out the phone, a cheap portable handset, and frowns. “It’s for you.”
    My mother, I think, my heart sinking into my stomach with a nauseating thud, but I take it anyway. It’s not like I can hide forever.
    “Hello?”
    “Wren, don’t hang up.”
    As if. It’s Aunt Mari, and I’m so stunned with relief, I stumble forward a step. “How did you…? I mean, how could you know…?”
    “You’re not the only one with magic in this family.” I can hear the smile in her voice, but she’s tired, too, I can tell. “I have a proposal for you.”
    Bliss is quiet when I walk in, only two kids from school at a table in the front window, and Mari at another along the wall, two tall mugs of coffee already set out. Trevor’s behind the counter as always, and he looks up when the bell jingles.
    “You’re not working tonight.”
    “You’re lucky I come in on my day off. This place is really hopping.” It feels good to snap at him the way I always do, especially when he just rolls his eyes, the way he always does.
    “Nothing’s on the house,” he calls as I walk over to Mari’s table and pull out a chair. He’s lying, of course, but the tough-guy act is one of his favorite things.
    “I see Trevor hasn’t lost his charm,” Mari says drily, loud enough for him to hear.
    “You either,” he retorts, and a moment later he’s tapping on his keyboard as if a little banter was just what he needed to get his creative juices flowing.
    I hang my bag over the back of my chair and look at Mari properly for the first time in months. I haven’t seen her since a few weeks after Danny’s funeral, and at the time I was spending every free minute furtively studying spell books. She was the last person I wanted to see then.
    She looks good, though strain shows in the dark blue smears under her eyes and the tangled knot of curls on top of her head. There are only two explanations for her knowing that I took off, and my bet is actually on Mom calling her rather than Robin. It’s hardly the most important thing right now, but it’s a small sign of hope.
    “You okay?” She reaches across the table to put her hand on mine, and all I can do is nod. My throat is suddenly choked with tears again.
    “More or less, huh?” she says. Her smile is fond. “Your mom’s on the ‘less’ end of the spectrum at the moment, and so is Robin. She said she texted you and you didn’t answer.”
    Oh God. Robin must be completely freaked out. “I haven’t even looked at my phone since yesterday.”
    “I figured. And you might be mad, but I told them you agreed to meet me here. Just so they’d know you were okay.”
    “I was going to go home, really,” I