Page 133 of Any Way the Wind Blows

I let the towel drop around my neck. “Do you notwantto sleep in the bed?”

He shakes his head. “No. I . . . I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I sigh. “You’ve got to stop questioning me. I’m holding on by a thread.”

He looks down. “Sorry.”

That came out wrong. I throw the towel into the bathroom and climb onto the bed beside him. “Hey, no . . . I’m sorry.”

Baz looks up at me, pushing his damp hair back behind his ears. “Simon, are you sure you want me here?”

“Christ, I just told you not to question me.”

“Yeah, I know, but you also told me you’re holding on by a thread. I don’t want to put you in that position.”

“I’malwaysholding on by a thread! I thought the important thing was that I’m holding on!”

“Right.” He rubs his face. “Right. It is. I’m sorry. I wish I were more confident. I’m not really built for this.”

I breathe out a laugh.

He scowls at me. “What?”

“How can you be insecure, Baz? You’re the most arrogant person I’ve ever met.”

“They run on different tracks.”

I laugh again.

“I’m going to sleep in your bed,” he says, like it’s a legal declaration.

“All right.”

“Until you tell me you don’t want me to.”

“Or until you don’t want to,” I say.

“That might be never, Snow.”

“All right.”

Baz looks down, smiling with one side of his mouth, his eyelashes stark against his cheeks.

I get under the sheets he magicked up for me—they’re already going threadbare, I suppose I’ll need to buy real ones soon—and lie on my side.

Baz climbs in, too, and lies down facing me. After a second, he’s got my tail in hand, and he’s twisting it through his fingers. “So we’re going to wait for the next revival meeting?”

“Seems like it,” I say. “Do you have a better idea?”

“I think that’s what Smith-Richards wants—for you to come to another of his meetings.”

“You can’tstillthink he’s up to something nefarious . . .”

Baz lifts his head. “What’s the alternative? That’s he’sactuallythe Greatest Mage?”

“If he’s giving people magic, that’s pretty great.”

“He isn’t giving it to them. They were already magicians.”