It's that afternoon after school when Bella next visits the Witchnook. (She already made another nighttime visit to pick up her powder, and it's safely stashed under the false bottom in the box full of notebooks under her bed.) This time she just needs beetle wings and a reasonably clear chunk of quartz. Her books and the goldvine bramble she ordered aren't in yet.
Angie asks Bella to stick around a little longer, after eating. Renée agrees on the phone to come pick her up after dark - this is a stupid precaution, considering, but Renée and the Webbers don't know that - and she hangs out with Angie in the living room, talking about miscellaneous things - their friends, their classes, the upcoming USADI recruitment drive for the senior class.
Going without magic makes her irritable, especially by day three, and maintaining a poker face with the uniformed witch takes about all she has. She hustles to the Witchnook after school to get fixings for a pick-me-up; the USADI drive is over with and no more witches who might want to draft her are going to encounter her anytime soon.
"They'd be redundant with each other, somebody'd notice if I had an extra -" She starts scanning the shelves, biting her lip. "Fucking plumber, I could've done it, fucking Charlie, Renée'd be fine with it but he's worried and him being fucking worried only gets me into worse trouble, good job, father of the year - are you guys still out of potion-quality sage?"
"Pretty fucking convoluted and her dad's a suspicious ass sometimes, might get it looked at, might trace it - why don't you have any fucking potion quality sage, I could just make a healing potion, I like those, they're useful, they're a good dose, is it that hard to keep the damn stuff in stock -" She stalks up and down the aisles, scowling.
"Oh, fucking hell," she snarls.
"Of course you do, you have me exactly where you felt like putting me, you're invincible, you're up to whatever you're up to and it's all going according to plan, why would you give a shit about me," she says, and then suddenly she's not scowling, she's crying, sitting on the floor of the shop hugging her knees.
"Maybe I've done something to fucking offend you and you suspect I wouldn't like it and your vindictive streak is operative and you could've had plausible deniability about it so I wouldn't call the US fucking ADI on you, come on, tell me," she says, rubbing at one eye.
"You know what," she says, checking for the car again, finding it still parked, "take the scrying water back, I'll buy mint oil and - and a divining lens -" She gets up and puts the water bottle on the counter. "And then you can prove it, if you want." She has named the ingredients for a lie detection spell.
She relaxes, obviously, massively, when the magic goes through her, and then she caps the rest of her mint oil, puts it in her bag, and turns around and holds up the oiled lens in front of one of her eyes.
"Something to say?" she murmurs.
"I like you, as ridiculous as that is. I am upset that you're upset and I want to help. Vampires can form meaningful personal connections, we just usually don't with humans because most of us think of you as ambulatory juiceboxes. I was never going to kill you, and while I'm at it I also don't mean to kill anyone else in this town, or on this planet, or ever again if I can help it. Is that enough truth for you or would you like some more?"
"Brilliant," he says dryly. "I'm on a roll, why stop now. Losing Tony felt like being messily deprived of all my vital organs and it did not stop feeling like that after I woke up. I went after the Gem of Amara because in the year since that time I've regularly contemplated killing myself and the only thing that puts off the urge is having something interesting to do with my time. For reasons that escape me me, this business with going to high school qualifies as worth living for, but it probably won't do that forever. You're a far likelier prospect but if you find my company that distressing I might just prefer to leave town. Questions?"
This is the last thing she needs for a spell to destroy the Gem of Amara.
She's probably not going to do it while it's on his person at high noon. But there could still appear scenarios where she'd want to.