hexes for exes

chapter twenty-four, love you, love you not

THE CALVERT-EGERTON HOUSE was quiet at midnight. The lights had been turned off long ago, and the two of them were quiet as they entered the house.

Amphion glanced at the shoe rack and frowned. They hadn't seen Zeth's car outside either.

"He's not here," Livia muttered. "Hasn't come back yet, from the look of it. Is he still with Brie?"

"That's strange, isn't it?" It's been more than an hour since the two of them left together. Zeth should have been back ages ago. "I'll text him."

"We both know he's not going to answer," Livia replied. "I'll call Brie."

They both whipped out their phones at the same time. They shared a look, rolled their eyes, and got on with their respective ways. Livia walked into the living room, turned one of the lights on, and sat down to find Brie's number. Amphion flopped on the sofa and started furiously typing away on his screen.

The fifth ring, and Brie still did not respond. Livia's eyes narrowed.

Amphion glanced over after a few minutes. "He hasn't been online since this evening, when we left for the party. No idea where he is."

"Brie's not answering."

"Fucking hell," Amphion swore under his breath. "Should we look for them?"

"Where?" Livia asked incredulously. "We can't really just show up to Brie's house, can we? What if she's like, asleep or something? Besides, she has Lila."

"But Zeth..."

"If he's not here, he probably doesn't want to be found," Livia pointed out. "I'll stay here for a little bit, just in case he responds. I need to use your toilet."

"You know the way,"Amphion said. "I'll try calling him again. Or maybe he went back to the party. I'll call Aurelius."

"Alright." Livia left for the bathroom, taking the turns still far too familiar to her, still imprinted in her mind. She knew the Calvert-Egerton house like the back of her hand. She's been here thousands of times over the years.

When she went back to the living room, Amphion was on a call with someone. Aurelius, most likely. "Yeah, okay. I'll go check. Yeah, thanks, Au. I'll do that." He looked up as he placed down his phone. "Zeth is not at the party. Aurelius says he thinks Zeth might be out and about."

"At this time? Alone?" Livia exclaimed.

"That's what I thought. I'm going to go look for him."

"We don't even have a car."

"Aurelius says he thinks he knows where Zeth is. You know The Sleeping Briar?"

"Of course I do." The Sleeping Briar was a local bar, around a ten minutes walk away. Livia hadn't been there before, since she'd only turned eighteen this year, and she wasn't particularly interested in bars anyways. "Don't tell me he's wasting away at a pub."

"Apparently, Zeth quite liked going there a while ago. And Aurelius says he suspects he's there drinking his life away."

"How has Aurelius been there?" Livia asked, flummoxed. "He's not eighteen."

"He hasn't," Amphion replied. "I don't even know how he knows, honestly. But Aurelius knows Zeth quite well."

"Better than you?"

"In some aspects, yes. I'm going to go there now."

Livia shook her head. "I'll go with you. But I need to change first. Give me ten minutes? I'll pop back over to my house and change and meet you in your yard."