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lips.
    The ant disappeared into Nyx’s hair, and I followed it with my finger, laughing.
    He poked his sharp nose into my palm. “Like you smiling, Jade-Jade.” He spread the last of the crystals on the back of his bony hand and held it under my nose.
    I cringed inwardly, though my dry mouth stung and the four margaritas and three salty shots and who knew what else running around in my head did happy somersaults. So much for not wrecking myself. I bent and inhaled, the sharp citrus taste of blue swirling with Nyx’s sweet apple sweat.
    Thudding pulse rushed in my ears. The river’s surface glared, and I squinted watery eyes. I felt bright and shiny, like a cool and distant star, and vaguely I recalled I had something to be unhappy about, but it wouldn’t focus and I let it drift away.
    I laughed, licking blue dust remnants from his knuckles. He tasted nice, sugary and comforting, his skin smooth on my tongue. He giggled, wriggling slender pink-clad legs, and cartwheeled into the river with a splash.
    More laughter bubbled inside me, and I hugged my aching ribs and let it take me. It felt good to laugh, and when he surfaced with a spray of brown water and a happy whoop, I laughed still more. Sweet, silly Nyx. He didn’t have to be here, cheering up the most determinedly miserable woman in Melbourne. Didn’t have to spend time with me or buy me drinks or share his manic sense of fun. He just did it, and even safe inside my glittering high, I was damned if I knew why.
    He fluttered free, rainbow wings shining, and wobbled onto the bank like a drunken butterfly. He shook himself, doglike, showering me with smelly river water from his flying yellow hair. I shoved him, laughing, and together we stumbled away, leaning on each other lest we fall.
    The riverbank was almost deserted, just a few drunks throwing empty cans at each other, and a lone banshee curled up atop a concrete pillar asleep, her bright blue mane swaying in the breeze. As we staggered into the dark concrete breezeway beneath the spire, a wailing brown spriggan wearing nothing but a paper party hat hurtled by on a skateboard, black toenails digging into the concrete to push her along. Nyx pointed at her with a shiny claw and laughed like he’d crack his wings off, water spraying from his hair to saturate me again.
    I wiped my face, only to get wetter as he dropped his slender green arm around my shoulder, giggling and hoping to stay upright. Instead we staggered against the pebbled wall, limbs tangling in a sprinkle of water from his wings.
    “You fucking idiot, you’re drenched.” Already his rough silky hair was trying to spring back to its normal wild vertical tangle. I dragged clumsy fists through it, and warm water tumbled out, spilling down my arms to soak my tank top. I tried the same with his shirt, and my fingers slipped down his slender green midriff to where he was bare, his starved fairy muscles tight and wet.
    He felt nice, smooth, safe. I wanted to slide my hand inside his shirt, caress him, soak up his warmth. Heat kindled inside me as my rapture murmured and stretched, awakening. . . .
    God, what was I thinking? My face heated, even though the light was dim and he wouldn’t see. The banshee drug sloshed about in my head, elevating my senses, befuddling me. Awkwardness twisted my guts, and I pulled my hand away. “Sorry.”
    But Nyx grabbed it and pressed it against his chest, his long lime fingers folding over mine. His breathing pulsed against my palm, slow and definite, and my treacherous heartbeat quickened. He leaned his damp forearm against the wall above me, sheltering me in a bower of glowing blue-green wings, and his ruby gaze shimmied shyly onto mine. “Jade-Jade?”
    The catch in his musical voice tore my heart, so akin to my own lonely ache that it stripped me bare. His green lips quivered, shining, moving closer to mine, and I tried not to look at them, not to think of kissing them, of pulling him close and losing myself in