I got to Seb’s place, and frowned. Somebody’d kicked the mailbox so hard that it was now crooked. I didn’t want to risk straightening it, so I just headed up and knocked on the door.

“You know, if Clara spends too much time here you’ll end up up on stat rape charges,” I teased.

He blushed. “I can wait.”

“Where’s the angry witch?”

“Inside. She finally wound down.”

In fact, Clara was sitting with a cup of hot chocolate, despite the heat, sipping at it. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s okay. What did he say to you?”

“It’s not what he said about me!” she exclaimed. “It’s what he said about you. That you’re not meaning to hold out, that you’re negotiating for some kind of deal with Surtur. I know you aren’t.”

I sighed. “Surtur told me some things that demonstrated he might not be as evil as we think, but I still don’t want to marry him. Somebody probably got the wrong idea from us having an actual civil conversation.”

Clara snorted. “Fire giants aren’t civilized.”

“They are in their own way. But don’t worry. I’m not going to pull you into their politics.”

“What about Kanesha?”

I smiled. “We already had that conversation. She knows the risks of being with me.”

Clara glanced at Seb. “I wish we could properly…”

“Patience.”

Of course, maybe by the time she was old enough.

“At least the efreet went away.”

I grinned. “And Tyz’vel. I’m at least down to one crazy suitor. Just watch out for incubi. Or succubi.”

“Aren’t they the same thing?”
“Yup.”

I knew Clara was equally vulnerable to them in both modes, though, the same as I was. She’d crushed on me, and now Seb.

“I wonder if swinging multiple ways makes you more vulnerable.”

“No, but it does hand them a wider range of tactical options.” I shrugged a bit. “Not much we can do about the way we are, right?”

She grinned. “The rest of the world should just be jealous.”

“Of the fact that we can enjoy more of the eye candy in the movie?”

“Exactly.”

I’d done the one thing that mattered. I’d cheered her up. A moment later came a banging knock on the door.