The night itself seemed to hold its breath with her.
The glowing seashell dealership might as well have dimmed in collective mourning.
Jade turned her head slowly toward Maddie, and for one beautiful, dangerous second, irritation glittered in her eyes — sharp enough to confirm that beneath all that luminous elegance lived a very human woman who despised having her hair touched.
Maddie knew this.
Naturally, Maddie had done it anyway, because friendship among such women was apparently affection laced with legal malice.
Jade inhaled quietly; she gathered her composure back around herself like the finest silk shawl, and looked at Phei again with a smile so impeccably composed it deserved both applause and a discreet investigation.
Behind her, Maddie and Sierra high-fived.
Jade bit her lip.
She did not show the rest.
Barely.
Phei watched the entire exchange with delighted disbelief. "I feel like I just witnessed a private war."
"You did," Sierra said cheerfully.
