Page 20 of Truth Revealed

“Are you offering me the grand tour?” she teased with a flourish.

“Absolutely!” Daria chirped, her expression a little too eager for normality.

Truth made a cutting motion across his neck, safely out of Allegra’s sight, telling Daria to tone it down.

With an extended arm, Daria motioned Allegra ahead of her, and narrowed her eyes on Truth when she was out of sight. Then they were gone, their footsteps echoing on the stairs.

“Holy shit, that was close,” Hope breathed next to him, once he was sure they were out of hearing range.

Truth ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “No kidding. Who does Chaos think he is? Just dropping her in at any point and time?”

“Uh, well, he is Chaos,” Death pointed out. “He does whatever he pleases.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Truth grumbled.

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to talk to you…” Misery swung the door back open and pulled Truth out onto the front porch, shutting the door behind them. “I know you’ve been wanting to talk with Daria a little more, so why don’t I corral the guys and get them out of the house tonight? Then you two can have some alone time.” Misery clapped his hands together and rubbed them. “Your talk went well last night, right?”

“Well, yeah, I mean, she seemed pretty open to everything I said. I think she’s just… scared. Maybe we need to talk more?”

Misery shot him a droll stare, the whites of his eyes visible as he rolled them. “I think the time for talking is over, man. Just make a move.”

“I can’t believe the fucking misery demon is giving me advice right now.” Truth clenched his jaw.

“Hey, don’t knock it until you try it,” Misery teased, then held his knuckles out for a bump. “It’ll be fine. I’ll kidnap everyone tonight and you guys can talk.” He emphasized the word with air quotes.

“Okay, fine. Are you sure it’s wise to unleash all of… that on Maleston?” Truth grimaced and motioned to the house, indicating the demons waiting inside.

“Yes, yes! It’ll be fine. I’ll let her know what’s going on.” Misery patted him on the back. “It’ll be okay.”

“Whatever you say, Misery,” Truth conceded to placate his friend. When Misery’s mind was made up, there was no changing it, and to be honest… a night in with Daria, just the two of them, sounded nicer than he was comfortable admitting out loud. He was almost afraid to let himself hope it could be real.

The door flew open behind them, interrupting his thoughts, and Daria just about took his breath away, even as flustered as she appeared. Her hair wild, wearing a larger sweater, jeans, and short boots, she was quite the sight.

“Hi! Bye!” Daria shouted, as Allegra dragged her down the porch stairs and over to her car. Daria gave an awkward wave and shrugged as if to say I’ll explain later, sorry!

And then they were gone with a crunch of tires over the gravel.

“Should we be worried about those two?” Truth asked Misery.

And while his friend did have a hesitant expression on his face, he shrugged. “Nah… it’ll be fine.”

Now why didn’t Truth believe that? With a chuckle, he led Misery back inside and lounged around while they decided what trouble they would get into that evening. It wasn’t until later when Truth pulled out his phone, read through the text full of bad grammar one more time, and responded.

* * *

DARIA

“Uh, so, what kind of magic pussy do you have?”

“What?” Daria choked out, her voice strained. What the fuck?

Allegra pointed at Daria across the table spread with all the brunch fixings, and smirked. “Uh, girl, come on. You have five live-in boyfriends. Care to share the secret?” Allegra sipped a mimosa and winced. “They added far too much champagne to this.”

Daria paused from gulping down her mimosa like it was water. “Yeah, you’re totally right.”

Allegra waited for a moment, but when she realized Daria was avoiding the subject, she sighed. “Come on, tell me your secret.”

“Secret? What secret?” Daria squeaked out, her voice an octave too high.