There was a cooldown. Natalie and Jordan’s seake-out session didn’t provide further energy.

  They did, at least, keep better trol of themselves. Jordan hadn’t mounted Natalie in her excitement, and while Natalie had definitely gotten hard again, she wasn’t naked from the waist below, so Jordan ared from the physical proof of how excited Jordan’s tongue wrestling made her.

  Kissing her best friend. It really shouldn’t be so much fun.

  Natalie cleared her throat. “Yeah. There’s one. A cooldown.”

  “That makes sense.”

  Did she sound disappointed, or was Natalie imagining things?

  “So,” Natalie said. “Looks like it’ll take time tress.”

  “Not that long,” Jordan said. “Only wo or three more, to get to the stage. Plus, I bet it’s because it’s me.”

  “Huh?”

  “It might not be an absolute cooldown. Might be indepeo each person.”

  “Oh. So, like, every girl has their own?”

  Jordan shrugged. “It’s the first thing that came to mind.”

  She didn’t sound bothered by that. Though, why would she? It wasn’t like she and Jordan were a thing. What would she care about Natalie and someone else coupling up?

  Ugh … these kisses of theirs were definitely leaving Natalie more of a fused mess than they should. She o rein herself in. They didn’t mean anything. Natalie didn’t want them to mean anything. She liked what she and Jordan had. Best friends, since forever. She wouldn’t risk that for anything

  “Guess I’ll have to figure it out.”

  Jordan nodded, still uned. Natalie had a good read on her; she really must not care if Natalie was with someone else. Whether that was because she had open views oionships, or because she didn’t have feelings for Natalie …

  Of course she didn’t have feelings. What was Natalie thinking? Ugh. Kissing anirl had never left her a mess like this. Receiving her css had left her more disoriehahought. And Jordan’s kisses. Why was she so good at them? Natalie thought Jordan had only had one or two partners. Why was she so good, then?

  Pull it together.

  “Later, though,” Natalie said. “Uh. So. Letti know is going to be weird. Hope it’s not a problem.”

  “Being a mage hybrid css?” Jordan said.

  Natalie he lewder parts of her css, she just wouldn’t divulge.

  “Hm,” Jordan said. “Padins are more fighters than they’re casters, aren’t they?”

  “I guess it depends?” Natalie, like Jordan, had spent plenty of time learning the endless amount of on adventuring csses. But there were too many to know ih. There were as many csses as there were grains of sand on a beach. Infinite, more less … though maybe not actually. “I think most padins are more fighter than mage? But even if it’s just a small part of my kit …”

  “You’ll figure it out,” Jordan said firmly. “It’s not your strength, but that’s fine. You’ll work through it. If there’s anything yood at, it’s persevering.”

  For a sed, Natalie held Jordan’s serious gaze. The words washed through her, f in a way even her parents couldn’t have managed. How did Jordan say something like that with such fidence? Like she knew what she was saying was right. That she wasn’t trying to be f, but speaking with total vi. No doubt in her mind. A fo. Natalie would figure out her ill-fitting css, and that was that.

  Natalie gnced away. “Yeah. I guess. Thanks.”

  “You’ll just have to be extra good at pung people, until then,” Jordan said, bumping shoulders.

  Natalie ughed. “I mahat, at least.”

  Jordan smiled, too. A brief silence. “Padin, though. That’s going to be iing. Having a patron. Is that how it works?”

  “No clue. Probably? Who do you think it is?” Natalie asked.

  “Hm.”

  Jordan wasn’t especially religious, the same as Natalie, but she absorbed informatioer than Natalie did. She always seemed to know what was going on, when it came to anything. Even half-zoned out, their weekly gregations at the church left more lingering knowledge in Jordan than it did Natalie. She might know who the ‘goddess of lust’ was.

  Jordan had always been a sponge when it came to academiatalie might have cheated her way through csses using her, once or twice. She’d determined not to do so at Te … not that academics were particurly a focus, there.

  “Niemh?” Jordan finally said. “Goddess of love and passion? That seems most likely. Could be others. Ffien, of beauty? Some interpretations have her as an i of lust. Eyrlis, fertility and agriculture?”

  “Eyrlis is Upper Pantheon,” Natalie protested.

  “And?”

  Natalie paused. She didn’t know where she was going with that. It just seemed absurd for Natalie’s patron to be Upper Pantheon.

  “Not that it matters who it is,” Natalie said. “Padins and gods don’t vene. Not literally.”

  Jordan paused. “Well. The gods are silent, but that they did exist at some point seems beyond reproach. So maybe worship is required? That they’d … what, disown you, if you didn’t?” She hesitated. “But probably not. Dunno.”

  There was merit to what she was saying … certain records were vihat deities oned and ied with sapient life … but Natalie wasn’t so sure. Aexts were nothing if not unreliable. She didn’t know if she bought into the divine, as bsphemous as it might be to say. Just, there weren’t a records of such. Even padin csses, while holding to certain gods, never spoke to them. And who else, if not a padin? Or a priestess, she guessed. But the same argument applied.

  “Yeah,” Natalie said. “I guess.” It wasn’t the time to get into that.

  Jordan colpsed bato her bed, spying out. “I ’t believe we’ll be heading off to Te in a few days. You’re really cutting it close with your birthday.”

  “I’ll let my parents know they should’ve been more siderate with their timing,” Natalie said dryly.

  Jordan snorted.

  A brief pause.

  “I guess I should be heading back,” Natalie said. Her parents would be expeg her. They’d known Natalie would hang out with Jordan, briefly, to celebrate, but she still had a curfew, even if it was her unlog. With how much trouble Natalie got in on a regur basis, a curfew was iable. And while she wouldn’t be afraid to break it, and annoy her parents, now wasn’t the night. Might as well keep the peace for the two days left until she shipped off to Te.

  Plus … she ime to think. Jordan’s presence was distinctly not putting Natalie at ease, like it normally would. Or, it was, but it also wasn’t. Seeing her id out across her bed, shirt bunched half her stomach … their experimental kisses had Natalie’s thoughts turning in dires they really shouldn’t.

  “Ah,” Jordan said. “Right. Okay. I’ll see you ter?”

  “Tomorrow,” Natalie said. “But yeah, they’re waiting. Should get going. And I’m pretty tired.”

  “It’s a lot to take in,” Jordan said with a nod, reading Natalie as easily as she always did. Except … not wholly, because it wasn’t just Natalie’s css that had her head spinning. “Try to get some sleep. There’s plenty of time to figure things out.” She sat up, then patted Natalie’s knee. “And you have me, to help. Don’t fet that.”

  Natalie didn’t think she could.