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The elemental flinches, grief crossing his scarred face, and for the first time in my entire life, I decide I should have tempered my tongue.
“I won’t fuck it up this time,” he promises quietly. “I’ve got her.” I believe him.
“I’ll make you a bouquet of fingers from the soon-to-be fingerless legacy who dared confine you in that and put that fucking tape over your mouth,” Crypt promises.
“Get close to any of them again, and I will split your skull open, scoop out what little brain matter exists in there, and shove it in your mouth so you can taste how stupid you are for trying to fuck with me.”
“Even if it was,” I say, fixing them with my most deranged death glare and enunciating well so they won’t miss this. “I will watch Amadeus’s power consume this world and everything in it before I lift a single fucking finger to help megalomaniacal cowards as morally repugnant and soulless as you two.”
Finally, Daphne sputters, “Surely, you don’t mean that.” “Every fucking word.”
“You’re really going to kill me? Your own father? You son of a bitch.” “Yeah, well, it’s not my fault Mom was a bitch. Now choose.”
Silas is still zoned out in his insanity, etching runes into one of the shards of ice nearby and whispering to the voices in his head.
The Nightmare Prince immediately stoops to pick up those godsdamned fingers that he apparently dropped before turning and offering them to Maven, entirely earnest as he gazes at her hopefully. “Forgive me now, love?”
If you say another word after that, I’ll freeze your tongue, snap it off, and shove it up your ass.” Crypt grins, pointing at me with one of the dismembered fingers. “Good gods! Is this a version of Frost I could actually get on with?”
“It is absolutely because you’re all a bunch of fucking softies,” she inserts. “Incredibly sexy softies, but softies nonetheless.”
Fortunately for us, the leprechaun was still alive, and Everett found everything that was confiscated from us.
“I almost forgot you’re insane off your fucking ass for a moment. Good job.” Asshole.
“Naked and insane does seem to be my type.” On cue, Baelfire quickly starts stripping out of the few clothes he has on, making our keeper laugh. Gods, that sound is sublime.
We lost you once because of our own ineptitude. You have my word that we will be much more useful monsters for you now.”
Still, insanity dips into my mind, stealing moments away from me as I strive to remain in this sensual, perfect moment.
better yet, you could’ve asked Maven to ask him. He would never say no to her.” “I would’ve, but the dyspeptic unicorns wouldn’t let me leave my old dorm room.” “Oh, right,” I laugh. “Forgot all about those pesky, deceptive unicorns.” “Dyspeptic,” Silas corrects, like that’s the real problem here.
Let’s get this over with and get to ima sangfluir ante fhada.” This time, when he realizes he’s not using words we understand, he just tosses his hands in the air and storms through the doors into the courtyard with us right behind him.
I run smack into Silas’s back. He’s stopped to glower at one of the many nearby ice sculptures. “What did you just say?” he seethes. Everett sighs. “No one said anything. They’re frozen, remember?”
“Holy fuck,” I scoff. “You froze all these people and monsters and shit?” Everett gives me a look like I’m slow. “What did you think they were?” “I guess I thought you hired people to carve a ton of sculptures for your weird-ass high-end rich person taste in art,” I shrug. “That makes no sense.” “Makes more sense than you keeping a garden of living Popsicles.”
On the one hand, I absolutely know Lillian must be using my morbid delights to distract me for a reason. But on the other hand… Well, who wouldn’t want to see their own grave?
“Asher often brings his hellhound here to play fetch.” Playing fetch with a hellhound? Not bad.
I have my own way of getting answers now. Turning to the ravens still perched on the greenhouse, I focus on the big one. “Find out where my quintet is and report back.”
Ok. So. I LOVE THIS. Very game of thrones 😆 also Poe.
“If it’s any consolation, I missed out on having Amato as a father, too. I got Amadeus.” He grunts, rubbing his tattooed neck. “That does help, actually. Explains a lot about your freaky half-god ass, too. Zombie see, zombie do.”
“What’s happening to him?” Crypt is…dying.
Silas jumps through the snow like he's crossing a chasm of some kind. I don't have the heart to tell the lunatic that this is the flattest, safest terrain we've come across so far.
“Damn. I’m still not sure,” the blood fae frowns. “If the stick had exploded, I would have had my answer, but it’s clearly unharmed.” I rub my scarred face. “Fucking gods, we are so screwed.”
the entire time that Maven’s old tormentor burns, Baelfire holds him high in the air, watching with pure, satisfied menace on his typically smiley face.
I instead realize they’re all watching me. Silas’s brows are raised, and Crypt is outright grinning. Even the previously uptight Frost looks pleasantly surprised.
one thing that hasn’t changed? My heart still goes fucking berserk every time I’m around my strong, incredible mate.
“Just take it out,” I snap. He clearly thinks I’m the one who’s lost my mind. Crypt is openly laughing as he enjoys watching all of this, while Everett looks like he’s questioning how his life brought him to this exact moment.
“You promised you wouldn’t leave me again,” I remind her quietly. Seconds pass. Minutes. Almost another half an hour. And then finally—fucking finally—I hear it. The faint flutter of a renewed heartbeat.
“I’ve tried for two days straight, Crane. Whatever holy magic she used, it’s kept me out of her beautiful mind.” His voice turns into a soft whisper near my ear. “I’m ravenous for you, love. Come back to us.”
draws a surprised laugh from me. If I thought they looked happy to see me awake before, now my entire quintet looks delighted to see me laughing.
Everett’s swallow is audible, but his blue gaze is piercing. “We should give you more time to recover.” “Pass. Any other objections?”
“Ut ath’ann lei fhuil, la’restituas orm ais d’chal,” he says with a wicked smile. Which means, What a beautiful sight that welcomes me back to sanity.
With the heart pumping steadily in my emblem-marked chest, I feel stronger, too. The difference is so clear to me now that it’s no wonder I felt like my holy magic was so weak. It was all going toward keeping me alive.
“What?” they all shout at once as Baelfire accidentally snaps the stirring spoon in half. Their voices are surprisingly harmonious together, but now probably isn’t the time to mention it when they’re all swearing and reacting so strongly.
“At this point, I’m going to make you make a fucking blood oath to stop making blood oaths,” Baelfire grits, storming back to the oven to turn off the timer.
“The problem is, you’re too fucking self-sacrificing. You literally went through hell to get humans you didn’t even know out of the Nether. What if your blood oath had to do with getting back here, huh? How much more would you choose to suffer just to return to us?” “A lot more,”
“How is it possible that you fell from fucking Paradise to get back to us, and you still think it’s weird to say the ‘L-word’ out loud?” Everett asks, baffled.
“I love a good threat, so go ahead. You’ll what?” He makes up his mind. “I’ll only serve you green Jell-O for the rest of our lives.” Now that’s just cruel.
“Hold up,” Baelfire cuts him off with a glare. “Someone else is obsessed with Maven? Fuck that—my mate already has four obsessive freaks. We don’t have room for more. Who is this caster?”
My brows go up, and I exchange a look with Baelfire, who looks equally surprised. Gods above. These are the two who were running the show while we were out of order? I’ve gathered that Everett changed a bit over the last six months, but a full extermination order is extreme, even for us.
Crypt, Everett, Baelfire, and I gather around to get a good look at this list. Crypt grins. “Written in crayon, as all good hit lists are.”
Crypt coughs like he would laugh if the situation were different. Baelfire and I stare at her, and I’m positive that, like me, he’s considering the possibility that we may actually need to get her into therapy. Everett pinches the bridge of his nose. “Nope. Too soon.”
“Stop being so fucking cute,” he groans, setting Maven down to kiss her forehead. “It’s making me hard.” I roll my eyes. “Everything she does makes you hard, you oversexed lizard.” “Like you’re any better, you horny bloodsucker,” Everett scoffs.
Oh, my gods. Not a single hesitation to jump to extremes. They’re all so fucking unhinged now. I love it.
“I just came to see if you five finally dragged yourselves out of bed before the cult leader does something stupid,” he grumbles. “But please, for the love of all the gods, just stop being the fucking weirdest quintet I’ve ever had the displeasure of working for.”
Stop doing that, I scowl at it inside my head. Baelfire grins, scanning the awed crowd for any sign of danger toward me. She’s talking to her heart again.
