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loki-hargreeves · 5 years

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Loki x Reader - Secret Rendezvous

Summary: As a Prince, Loki isn’t really allowed to join plays in the common Asgardian theatre. Some rules aren’t to stop the god of mischief, who sneaks out to join you at practice. Only you knew the talented actor was actually Loki. The two of you share a passion for theatre and often end up in some tricky situations. Then one day, Loki doesn’t show up to rehearsals and you decide to find him. He never misses rehearsals. Author’s Note: Screw the Marvel canon! This is before Thor 1 and Loki is happy. That’s it, enjoy this and if you do, please leave some feedback. Thank you :D Word Count: 4,3K Warnings: fluff, angst, vulgar language, more fluff

Your POV

“William Shake-speare? Shakes-peare? Shak-es-peare?” Loki tried to read the name of the man whose name was on a black book he was holding. We were on a little trip down on Midgard and we ended up in a big, beautiful library here in England. We weren’t in our Asgardian wear, of course not. We blended in with our coats and other common Midgardian attire. No one suspected a thing when two Asgardian gods just walked in here. Honestly, Loki and I loved the thrill, perhaps he did more than me. Loki was my friend and a damn good actor - which only I knew about. He used magic to disguise himself as a whole other person when we were at the theatre.

That’s why we were here. We wondered what Midgardian plays were like and now we were between large bookshelves, scanning them in search for something mildly interesting. And I was just happy to spend more time with my favourite god...

“William Shakespeare... A midsummer night’s dream. Do you think it’s good?” I read the title out loud. Loki was looking at me with a sweet smile on his pale face. It was hard not to focus on his beauty instead of the plays. Honestly, it sounded intriguing but it was written by a mere mortal. How great could their imagination get? I wasn’t expecting much so I could get surprised.

Loki opened the page on which the first act was on. “I don’t know. I say we take it,” he suggested with a naughty little smile. Well, it wouldn’t be the first book we took with us as a souvenir from Midgard. Some would call it stealing, we considered it borrowing.

“I agree,” The words left my mouth quietly but you could hear the mischief in my voice. Something that Loki strengthened in me, definitely. With him, I had more fun than ever before. We found ways to bend the rules without necessarily breaking them. He brought excitement to my life and he told me I brought excitement to his. He was a prince and I was just an actress.

After an hour or two later, we got outside and asked Heimdall to bring us home. We didn’t bother using the secret loopholes between worlds that Loki had discovered because Heimdall probably knew about this already. Thankfully, for Loki, Heimdall didn’t have the right to tell Odin that his son was sneaking out every other night to the common folks’ theatre.

We were in Loki’s chambers now. People were busy making appointments with Thor and Odin because they had been discussing that perhaps it would be time for Thor to be king. It wasn’t written on paper yet but there were speculations. I could tell it bothered Loki but he hadn’t talked about it much. I wanted to take his mind elsewhere and so far, I believe I was doing an alright job. We had some snacks and tea here and all the books we ‘borrowed’. We had Romeo and Juliet, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, A Doll’s House and Betrayal - to name a few. Loki sat on his extravagant emerald green chair that had gold legs and small golden details all over the seat. I was on his bed because it was truly soft and comfortable. There was a pile of books on one of his desks. We were supposed to be practising our scenes for a play next moon. Truth be told, we remembered our lines well enough so we thought it would be alright to have some fun. Besides, practising at the royal palace wasn’t a good idea. No one could know Loki’s secret.

“I must admit, this is actually quite well-written,” Loki broke the silence that had lingered around us for a while. We both had our noses up in the books so it was easy for the silence to stay. His voice caught my attention and I placed my finger on the sentence I was reading so I could look up and not get lost. Once I set my eyes on Loki, I felt happy. He was truly focused on what he was reading so I had a little moment to just admire him. Could anyone get any more elegant? He was everything and a bit more. If only we could make our play embraces and love recitements reality.

“We should pay him a visit,” I said after a while. We had done such things before and it was fun. Messing with humans was probably not allowed but showing them something that wasn’t supposed to be was worth it. Their expressions were always priceless!

Loki finally faced me and it nearly caught me off guard. “We might as well bring flowers and light orbs, love,” he explained to me. “This was written in the 16th century. I doubt there is a 400-year-old man going by the name William Shakespeare there any more.”

Right. It wasn’t 1597 on Midgard anymore. I believe they were already at 2000-something. “Oh, I always forget how short their lives can be.”

“It’s humanity’s true tragedy, wouldn’t you say?” Loki played with theatrical words which made me roll my eyes playfully. He always knew what to say.

“Perhaps. But longevity can be a curse too.”

“Just like in our play,” Loki caught my hints. The play we were in was a tragedy about an Asgardian who was in love with a Midgardian. Loki actually has the part of the Asgardian man who is cursed to live thousands of years and I have the part of the woman who only lives a segment of her lover’s life. Loki had to play a part even at practice. He was disguised as a ginger Asgardian and he called himself Yormar Leifson.

“Which reminds me of, don’t we have rehearsals tomorrow?” I pondered as the thought surfaced in my mind.

Loki nodded, “At noon. We’re finally getting the costumes fitted.”

“I can’t wait!”

Next day at noon, I found myself at the street corner where I was supposed to meet with Loki. People were passing by from every direction and some stopped to say hello. That was nice, especially when they recognized me from my plays. Most Asgardians were nice, happy people. I didn’t mind chatting but I was a bit tense because Loki wasn’t here.

I just waited and waited...and waited, until we were twenty minutes late. It was probably not a big deal, but Loki never missed rehearsals, let alone arrived this late. It would still take five minutes from here to the theatre. Gosh, I already knew we would be yelled at for being late. Oh, Loki, what was he up to now?

Screw this, I thought. I knew I had to find Loki, even if it meant we missed rehearsals and costume fitting. Sure, we had the lead roles but they could do just fine without us - for now.

By using my magic, I got to the palace much quicker. I used teleportation which Loki had taught me. I wasn’t that good at it but I got there much quicker than what I would’ve by walking, and in one piece! The guard recognized me and allowed me to go inside. Although I could’ve found Loki’s chambers easily by myself, a guard walked me there for safety reasons, making sure the prince wanted guests and that I wasn’t there as a bothering pest. We arrived behind his door and the guard knocked on it before speaking up, “Prince Loki, you have a guest.”

It was quiet for a while. Then all of a sudden, the door appeared to be underneath a green film of magic and it opened, revealing a dark room. Why didn’t he have any lights in there? It seemed gloomy. I wasn’t sure what it was but my gut told me something was really off. I hoped he was good, that he just forgot but I knew it wasn’t like him.

“Who is it?” Loki called out almost angrily.

“It’s me, Loki!” I made my presence clear, probably annoying the guard but I couldn’t care less.

Silence.

The few moments were enough to make my heart beat harder and my palms to get sweaty. What if he told me to leave? I couldn’t just barge in there with the guard next to me. I would probably be banned from the palace!

“Come in.”

Thank gods!

The guard nodded and let me off the hook, walking away as I entered the room. Before I could close the door myself, Loki did so with his magic. Once the door was shut and the green glimmer of his magic vanished, it was dark again. Frankly, it took me a moment to get used to the dark, but when I did, I saw Loki standing by his window that was covered by a heavy, emerald green curtain. He didn’t face me. I saw his soft, raven black hair resting on his back and shoulders softly. It had grown a lot lately and it began to curl up at the ends. He was wearing his green cape with his black casual outfit with some pieces of his golden armour. Of course, his presence was majestic but I sensed that something was wrong. He tried to hide his feelings from me by not even looking into my eyes. Was he ashamed?

“Loki, are you alright?” I began with a stupid question because obviously, he wasn’t alright. By now, I felt like I had already pushed his buttons and I was jittery, but I wasn’t going to ignore him if he was hurting.

“It’s true, Y/N,” Loki told me with a low voice. It only raised even more questions. What in Valhalla was he talking about?

“What’s true?” I pushed him a little bit in ought for answers. Slowly but surely, I walked closer to him. As I did, I saw the side of his face. His cheeks were flushed, almost like he had been either yelling out of anger or even crying. He turned around and looked at me, revealing what I feared. His beautiful eyes, a mixture of green and blue, were glossy and full of broken veins. Something or someone had truly resented him. Seeing him like that hurt because I wanted him to be happy. Loki had gone through enough. I wanted to do everything in my power to wipe away those dried tears.

“Thor...he’s- our father is making him king,” Loki let me know what was upsetting him. The second I heard his brother’s name, I already knew. My heart sunk and I genuinely felt bad for Loki for numerous reasons. I couldn’t imagine how hopeless he felt right now and I understood very well why he hadn’t shown up earlier. Loki had fought ten times harder than Thor to prove his worthiness but Thor was still ahead of him - for reasons unknown!

“Oh, Loki-” I attempted to speak so I could comfort him, but he wasn’t in the mood for that quite yet.

All of a sudden, that sadness morphed into rage. “He doesn’t want to be king!” Loki yelled, probably loud enough for it to carry further than his chambers. It surprised me but I wasn’t startled. I expected him to let out all those bottled up emotions sooner or later and I was happy to be here for him. Once he had yelled, spat and hissed enough, he would need a shoulder to lean on. Sure, seeing him like this made my heart ache. I couldn’t understand why he was left in the shadows. Loki was a great prince, intelligent too. No one saw that.

“That buffoon only knows how to fight wars and other nonsense things. What does he truly know about ruling? Planning battles? He just sees the enemy and flies towards it, head first like a fool!” Loki continued complaining, his voice staying loud as he trashed his brother’s name. At the end of the day, Loki spoke the truth. No one could claim those statements to be lies, no one. Although Loki didn’t say it, I knew he was thinking about it. He probably thought people saw him as someone even worse. I wish I knew how to convince him and the people of his greatness.

“All my life, Odin had told me that one of us will be king. I don’t understand why he’d choose Thor, a warrior, not a king. Am I really that worthless to him? Does he truly not see that I am at least just as alright as the mighty son of Odin? Or am I actually the prince living in Thor’s shadow?” Loki pondered deeply and stopped yelling. His emotions began to surface more and he hurried to face away from me again. He didn’t want me to see his face when he struggled to keep it straight.

My heart hurt in my chest. How could I let Loki believe he was less great than Thor? It was so wrong that anyone would believe that but the sad truth was that Asgard did forget about the other Prince quite often. I could never. Words were spinning around my mind but I couldn’t find the right ones in the heat of the moment, so I closed the distance between us and put my hand on Loki’s shoulder gently, attracting his attention. He was breathing heavily and all his muscles were tense. He froze when I touched him but he didn’t push me away. After a while, he sighed and relaxed a little bit, allowing me to wrap my arms around his waist. Loki didn’t mind it when I hugged him and nuzzled my face against his chest so I could hear his untamed heartbeat. Soon enough, I felt his arms safely around me and he leaned against my body a little bit, seeking comfort. Holding him felt good but now I had to make him feel better, one way or another. I wanted to do that.

My hands drew simple patterns on his back, underneath his cape that was now around me too, thanks to him hugging me. It was a nice warm contrast against Loki’s cool body. “People don’t know just how great you truly are. It’s a shame, Loki. I wish I could enlighten them but sadly, the gullible, hot-headed fools tend to gain the attention of those who only look at the surface.”

“I wish our father could see us as equals, if no one else, at least him. It’s all I bargain for,” Loki whispered to me quietly. These words were familiar to me. During our long friendship, I had heard this so many times but now I heard the rawest emotions of it. Loki was heartbroken and no one could see that. I held him a little tighter. I noticed that Loki’s body was trembling slightly. He was trying to hold himself together so desperately but I could literally feel him crumbling in my arms. I didn’t wish to push him but I knew he had to experience and deal with these bags of pain.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I’ve ruined rehearsals and loathed in self-pity, I..I just-”

“Loki, don’t worry about. Hey-” I stopped so I could look at his face. He had a few silent tears on his cheeks which made him the opposite of the picture he put up of himself; he was vulnerable with me. “It’s alright,” I promised him. It’s like those two words were like music to his ears. He bit his lips together and had to sit down on a couch near his fireplace, dragging me with him. As I sat down comfortably, Loki just melted into me. He put his weary head on my lap and allowed me to play with his hair - which I had learned calmed him down. His arm was draped over my lap and his fingertips reached my ankles. Slowly but surely, I felt him relax. He stopped quivering and he breathed slowly, relaxing his muscles with each breath. We were surrounded by a comfortable silence which I assumed he needed right now.

“What have I done to deserve you, Y/N? Why do you stick with me even when I throw these tantrums? Even when you know how restricting my life can be,” Loki wondered. He had time to think of this and now he sought answers. Before I could answer, he sat up straight and really looked at me, as if he was studying me. I just smiled.

“Loki, you’re perfect just the way you are. I couldn’t ask for a better best friend,” I admitted to him. Yes, he was my best friend but I wanted more, so saying it was always slightly uneasy for me. It was a reminder that we were just that, friends, but we could be so much more. I always assumed that we had been friends for so long that any chances of us ending up together were already up in ashes. He needed me as a friend and if it made him happy, so be it.

Loki’s eyes narrowed. I could tell he wanted to say something but he was holding back. Then he let out a frustrated sigh.

“You believe in me when no one else does. Thank you for that, truly. I don’t know where I would be without you,” Loki admitted and finally cracked a smile that honestly lit up my world.

“That’s what friends are for, right?”

Loki chuckled now, hiding all traces from his meltdown. “More like partners in crime, I think,” he corrected me. Partners in crime, I loved that. It didn’t have the word friend which was a reminder of reality to me. Besides, partners in crime sounded much better.

“That’s more like it,” I chirped and playfully tapped his shoulder. Loki grabbed my wrist gently before I could pull it away and his touch sent shivers down my spine.

What was he doing?

He noticed what he did and let go, looking at my hand for a while as he seemingly fell into his thoughts again.

“Don’t you think partners sounds, well, rather astonishing?” Loki asked me out of the blue. It’s like someone turned on a switch on him and he got courage from somewhere. I didn’t want my mind to go to different realms but what else could he be hinting?

“What are you saying?”

Loki locked his eyes with mine and I swear to the gods in Valhalla his gaze was warm, inviting, loving. He still had flushed, rosy cheeks from earlier but now he smiled. He was so calm, like the calm after a storm. “Be mine, Y/N. You’re my rock, my best friend, my partner in crime. I know it might be wrong but when I look back to my good and bad days, I see you. I might be pushing it but I honestly think we could do this partnership, don’t you?”

My heart jumped to my throat and I could feel the heat on my cheeks radiating.

I studied Loki’s face and I genuinely couldn’t see a sign of regret. He meant every word he said. I don’t know what made him reveal that now but whatever it was, I was happy about it.

That’s when I nearly pinched myself to see if I was awake or asleep. Did Loki just say all that?

“Loki, are you for real?” I had to be sure, although I doubted he’d pull a trick this mean on me.

“Would I lie to you?” That was a very good point. As the god of mischief and lies, Loki did his best to be honest with me at all times. He even told me about his actor disguise when he started it because he went to the same theatre as me. “There’s no one else I can picture myself with through the hardest times and the good ones. I’ve liked you for a while now, I understand if this seems rushed-”

I couldn’t let him loathe in self-doubt anymore. The courage it took for him to say that must’ve been great and he was probably growing nervous. To convince him I was on the same page, I decided to let my actions speak louder than words. Loki saw it coming as I neared him. Gently, I grabbed his perfectly sculpted face and stopped as our noses brushed against one another’s. Loki drew in his breath and I felt how he touched my waist, carefully, as if I was a flower. Then we kissed which was something I felt we both had wanted for years. The moment our lips moulded together like liquid gold and magic, I forgot about the world around us. There was only me, him and the sparkling sensation pulsing throughout our bodies from the passionate, long-awaited kiss.

“We’re not supposed to be together, my love!” Azeyn,, the character Loki was playing, said right into my face with raw desperation and pain in his voice. We were on stage in front of a full theatre on opening night. Our play was reaching its peak and I could feel how everyone’s attention was on us. Even our co-actors’ gazes lingered on us either from on stage or backstage.

“But we’re meant to be! Can’t you see? They can try to pry us apart as much as they want but they can never separate our hearts!” I replied, mimicking the pain in his voice but I tried to sound hopeful. Our characters, Azeyn and Olivia, were in the middle of a war. The Asgardian soldiers, including Azeyn, were on Midgard to defend humanity from frost giants. Azeyn and Olivia met in battle because he had to save her from danger. Now the battle was frozen: the Midgardians, the Asgardians and the Jotuns were watching as the two were fighting for their love. The Asgardians didn’t want them to be together, the Midgardians were in shock and the Jotuns tried to cheer them on. It was up to our characters to mould their destiny, which could be happy and shortlived, or tragic without each other. Although we were acting, I had tears in my eyes. This play meant a lot to us.

“Time is our enemy. We can forget our people’s opinions but nevertheless, in a few decades, which is all eternity for you but only a moment for me, we will be separated!” Azeyn explained which made the play even more tragic.

I walked closer to him and grabbed his wrists, making him drop his sword. Our eyes locked. It reminded me of our kiss we shared a while ago, only Loki was in his disguise as a cute ginger warrior.

“Would you rather live your entire life without me or be happy during the time we have together? Each second we spend debating our future, we lose of the time we could enjoy, the time we should use for loving!”

Azeyn sighed and gave me a painful yet longing gaze.

This was it.

The moment that would make the play a tragedy

with a happy ending

“I know it’s against others’ wishes but I must put my own first. I’d choose a second with you over a decade without you. I love you, Olivia,” He revealed dramatically and proceeded to cup my face. I had fake blood on my cheek that transferred onto his palm and it spread as he touched me, which was intended to make this kiss dramatic, raw yet hopeful. We were bloody, tired and left alone but we still had each other.

Then we kissed. Little did the audience know the passion was real. Loki’s lips felt like heaven on mine and I knew it looked too good to be true. I heard cheering all around us. People were happy with the end result.

Our lips stayed together for a bit too long. As we parted, Loki looked at me. I knew it was time for us to turn around and bow and curtsy to the audience but for some reason, it felt impossible to look away from him. It’s like we had actually just experienced the things our characters did. Now we were just looking at each other, as if we had fallen into a trance, in front of thousands of Asgardians, even Loki’s family that were invited as guests.

“Oh, to hell with it,” Loki whispered so quietly that I only heard him.

“What?” I pardoned, confused by his behaviour. That’s when he did something I never could’ve foreseen. Loki lifted his magic, transforming into his true self. The ginger hair turned back to raven black, his skin got paler, his true features popped out again. He was completely, fully himself, in front of everyone. Loki just revealed his big secret and I was in shock. But damn, I was proud of him. He was himself for once and it was a big ‘screw you’ to the rules that had led him into a disguise in the first place. Now Asgard knew that their prince was a brilliant actor. If I wasn’t so shocked, I would’ve probably noticed the silence and few gasps from the people in the first row.

“I love you, Y/N,” Loki confessed to me and returned to my lips. My heart was racing in my chest and I could almost feel the adrenaline and dopamine in my system. It was almost overwhelming in all the good ways! Loki’s bold attitude was contagious and I didn’t hesitate as I kissed him back just as fiercely. Our true kiss made the audience erupt into a new fit of cheers. I could only picture Odin’s face now. If Loki’s lips wouldn’t have been so addictive, I would’ve turned to look, but I preferred to smooch him in front of the people to show that we were a thing.

Once we parted and people were applauding both the play and Loki’s big reveal, I smiled at him. “I love you too, Loki.”

“Let all of Asgard know that.”

Author’s Note: I obviously write fluff-ish stuff rarely but I tried! This was heavily inspired by Shakespeare and norse mythology. In this fic, I tried to bring forward a more vulnerable Loki, before Thor 1 when he was still kind of hopeful and a bit more innocent.

If you liked it, I would love to hear your feedback! Thank you <3

#Loki #Loki fanfiction #Loki x Reader #Loki x You #Loki X Y/N #Loki imagine #Loki Odinson Imagine #Loki Laufeyson Imagine #Loki Laufeyson x Reader

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ciceroisthefamilycat · 3 years

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My Fiery Heart reread response (my Indigo Spell one here, my first-time Fiery Heart one here from 7.5 years ago)

before I get into it, I remembered looking up the Iolanthe coven name Sydney used; that wasn’t something I looked up until after reading it the first time though, so I didn’t realize the fairy court connection to Sydney recommending Zoe do her literature assignment on Midsummer Night’s Dream... I’m very certain it was an intentional reference to that opera now (even though the purple flower meaning was enough on its own)... if they get around to adapting this one, I half want to see Amberwood Prep put on a production of MND where Jill is helping with the costumes and Zoe gets to play Titania or something; I never got around to reading Richard III (Zoe’s original pick) but it’s interesting that free will/fatalism is apparently a major theme, and that Richard contrived to have his brother Clarence sent to the Tower of London...

also, I’m not sure if I cared about “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane all those years ago, but I got a thrill seeing it referenced this go around.

we get the first namedrop for Cicero (though we had heard about his propensity for killing birds and some other mention in the earlier BL books ETA, 7/19: “My family had a cat back in Utah that I was pretty sure was more responsible than Angeline” pg 31 TGL

Anyway, gosh Sydney makes bad decisions in this one. And it’s not because she has too much to do- she has no real outside strenuous challenges to protecting Jill or her group this go around. The friend group actually had to decide “yeah let’s go hunt down a Strigoi in LA” for there to be a major action scene. I realize she’s in her late teens and the burdens put on her are unfair, but she’s a great example of someone who thrives under pressure and falls apart when she’s given too much free time.

The switch to dual narrators was unnecessary. It wasn’t bad, but it was clearly only to set up for the big cliffhanger at the end, and so feels a bit pointless in this one. Btw, Rose didn’t lose her spirit link into Lissa’s mind after Lissa went on antidepressants. Now admittedly, the chemicals in Adrian’s mood stabilizers would have probably worked differently, or maybe Richelle was trying to retroactively make things more consistent (since alcohol could affect the bond), or maybe it was “Adrian and Jill’s bond is less established, so Jill can’t break through like Rose could”... but the sudden decision mid book (with no repercussions- Adrian doesn’t even bring it up to Sydney to be like “hey, one of your main concerns about having sex is taken care of”) is so pointless and really goes to the minimal page-time of the larger ensemble. I said it the first time I read the book, the absence of Kristin and Julia, and Micah, and even more important characters like Angeline or Trey is so frustrating. I realize Richelle couldn’t write a book that was 900 pages long, but I would have gladly taken any of those characters instead of the completely unnecessary Terwilliger/Malachi romance. Especially to see Jill’s reaction to getting to be a more typical high school human, since I think she would have gotten even more attached to Amberwood than Sydney did. I also just... really, the Alchemists decided to have Sydney’s bio sister on campus... pretending to be a cousin... while she was playing sister to Jill? I get they kind of backed themselves into a corner, but weird. That being said, I was happy to have Rowena and Cassie around. (give me Adrian and Rowena being wlw besties excellence to make me really happy)

Sydney’s coven initiation taking place in chapter 2, then she meets Inez (who gives her the books on charms)... and we never see a witch other than Jackie again in this book? Honestly, why bother with writing the initiation at that rate? I still like the cloak they made Sydney though. On reread, there’s the randomest bit where Trey’s like “is Neil even really British” and I wonder if that was a dropped storyline where Neil was faking. Olive and Nina are still pleasant characters, and I liked that they had a “unique” background, but knowing how those stories end was kind of a buzzkill on reread. Olive, especially, deserved better.

This is another one where I forgot quite a few events- Adrian getting drunk and the pawnshop (I think I remembered that obliquely, but not so much on it), or the trip to Texas (which actually came before the pawnshop but oh well). I was happy to finally get some actual Christian content again, although I regret we didn’t get more from Sydney & Rose or more Sydney & Lissa. On Adrian’s mental health storyline... I am less impressed by it than I was the first time (though I didn’t remember being super-impressed, but according to my first review?). I do actually like Adrian being insistent, once he’s started taking meds, that he’s going to continue, but the diagnosis of bipolar disorder doesn’t actually feel like it fits? I will say, I find Adrian’s “chicken or egg” pondering over whether spirit causes mental illness or mental illness means a predisposition to specializing in spirit is fascinating (though it’s probably for the best Richelle never actually answered it).

The way Adrian spoke (or thought) about Zoe really pissed me off. Like, one, you’re an adult, stop antagonizing the sister of the girl you like and just be cordial (which is less suspicious than suddenly acting like you and Sydney don’t get along at all), and two... Adrian’s super protective over Sydney after realizing the emotional abuse Jared heaped on, but somehow doesn’t realize that this fifteen year old has been spending time with said father’s attention solely focused on her for ages now, and he has no sympathy for her? Instead of seeing Zoe being like “Sydney shouldn’t have to provide for you all the time” and being like “aww, that’s a nice protective sister instinct even if she needs an attitude adjustment” he taunts a 15 year old about drinking from her the way he did to 20-something actual-predator Keith. He could have engaged yet another Sage sister in talking about his awesome car on the drive over, or at least made other good faith efforts.

The dabbling stuff made me more uncomfortable this time around (I think). Especially Sydney comparing her getting Keith’s eye ripped out to Adrian’s assault of a human girl... that was some real false equivalency on Richelle’s part. But other parts of it, like “oh here comes Adrian to save the day and at least he’s changed from these guys he used to hang out with (oh, look at that convenient statement that even back in the day Adrian wasn’t on the same level of bad as them)” was really frustrating, or the fact that Adrian was very deliberately withholding information from her in his own chapters and it made me question his trustworthiness in her chapters. Or the “oh, hey, he made the concession of getting treatment for his mental illness, so all is forgiven” handwaving. Like, Richelle brought this in to be an obstacle to their relationship, but it’s addressed so quickly (with maybe a pittance effort of later being like “oh, at least Adrian didn’t take advantage when Sydney accidentally absorbed some Moroi endorphins- he learned his lessons!) that it doesn’t merit the actual consideration of so important a topic Idk. I do feel like I enjoy the Sydrian relationship more in this book than the others, but I also have some huge issues with it.

Adaptation-wise, I think genderbent Adrian would definitely mean a change to the dabbling storyline (yes, women can be sexual predators, but I don’t think this storyline would be maintained with different social expectations). Honestly, give me an Adrian who, instead of having victimized someone, doesn’t immediately fully grasp how upsetting this idea of vampires preying on her species (and risking exposure) is to Sydney... Adrian being like “it isn’t sexual, those guys would never consider sleeping with a human” but the consent even to give blood still being critical to Sydney. And you know what? Let Lissa “compelled a guy to almost hit himself over the head with a baseball bat for molesting a Feeder” Dragomir have a spirit freak out moment of rage and go off on these subjects of hers the way that was deserved (and then once she cools down, maybe she can’t punish them fully, but she uses it to leverage their royal families’ agreement to the Family Rule amendment). And just finish that law by the end of the season, so that when the Alchemists pull out Sydney and Zoe, they’re actually closing down the whole Palm Springs operation in a rage. (if I remember correctly Alicia kidnapped Jill between books 5 and 6, but that was a stupid plotline imo- let Sydney and her coven take care of Alicia in the downtime of this book instead) Let Rose figure out that Sydney and Adrian are in love- she’s smart and she would pick up on that; let her celebrate them and encourage them to be happy together. Also the “Sydney and Adrian get three days at an inn to sex it all up” was stupid... like I’m happy for them but am I really supposed to buy that they could afford all that time away from Palm Springs?

As bad as I feel for Syd, and Adrian, and Eddie, and Jill, and Jackie at the end of TFH, I do remember that I’m going to feel worst for Hopper. I’m sorry that demon dragon Calistana has my heart and I remember one scene from Silver Shadows featuring the little guy prominently...

#I'm a VA girl

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