Charm (Crave #5)

by Tracy Wolff

“Oh, Jaxy-Waxy. My goth little vampire. You’re so strong and sooooo fooked up. I just love you soooo much.”

real LMAOOOO

the cabinets are filled with more of my regular snacks. Peanut butter crackers. Popcorn. Salt and vinegar chips. And half of a twenty-pack of my beloved Dr Pepper.

am i grace or something

Not that I’ll ever let him know that—especially

you already thought it soooo

“You’re welcome to take the other side. I promise not to sink my fangs into you while you sleep.” “It’s not your fangs I’m worried about,”

SCREAMING

And finally, there’s another string I can’t pull my gaze from in this tangle of connections. It’s a bright, electric blue, and it’s gossamer thin, but it is very definitely there. And it’s glowing ever so slightly. And somehow I know, even before I reach out a fingertip to touch it, that it connects to me.

NO WAY HE CAN SEE THEIR DORMANT MATING BOND

the girl makes connections with everyone and everything. Just because one has apparently formed between us doesn’t mean anything.

oh buddy, it means EVERYTHING

It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be friends or anything like that. And it doesn’t mean that we’re going to be stuck here for a long time, either.

both wrong but okay

“Those were Versace,” I tell her, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t keep the horror out of my voice. What kind of a monster does something like this? “They still are,” she responds cheerfully.

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭GRACE

I’ve seen a lot of different facets of Grace over the last year that we’ve been locked up here.

please don’t tell me my math is right and they end up stuck in here for TWO YEARS omg

I don’t mention I also looked the day of the great shower incident. And every day since. I couldn’t help myself from checking, confirming that what I’d noticed the day before and the day before that was really true. The mating bond to Jaxon was gone.

OH

and for baking a pumpkin pie with me.

which you haven’t eaten, just btw

the crust has a strangely gummy consistency—but

because you didn’t bake it first

he puts a finger under my chin and tips my face up to his.

oh no

Hudson grabs me and throws me onto his back. I instinctively wrap my legs around his waist, my arms around his shoulders.

better hold on tight, spider monkey LMFAOOOO

he—and positioned where I am, I sadly know for a fact that this thing is a he—turns

WAS THAT INSERT NECESSARY

“Grace and Hudson will be sleeping in the spare room,”

let me guess. only one bed.

Trying to coexist in this tiny room, with its very big bed, is something else entirely.

yep. one bed. lmaoooo

and notice for the millionth time since I got up here that there’s only one bed.

WE GET IT LMAO

I want to apologize, to tell her that of course we’re friends. But the truth is, I don’t know what we are.

You literally snuggled with her the other night, wdym

“Wait a minute. The leeches made you think about me feeding?” I don’t know whether to be amused or insulted. Maybe both. Probably both. “What the fuck did Jaxon do to you?”

💀💀💀💀💀

What am I supposed to do when all I really want to say is, Yes, please.

Maybe just say exactly that??

Hunger is a wild animal within me, clawing at my guts. Tearing at my soul with every breath I take. I can keep it in check, but not if I drink from Grace. Not if I taste her. She thinks I’m being stubborn, but she has no idea what’s inside me at this very moment.

does he end up taking too much? is that why he always freaked about how much blood he took in the previous books?

Still, the offer she made me this afternoon touched me in a way few things ever have. She was so embarrassed even bringing it up, but she did it. For me.

and then you bitched her out for it

I’m nothing special to Grace Foster, and she’s not anything special to me.

suuuuuure

So I pull the pocketknife out of the backpack. Open it up. Slice a tiny cut in my index finger—just big enough for a few drops of blood to squeeze through. And then I wait.

all hell is gonna break loose huh

So I lift her hand to my mouth and press a soft, open-mouthed kiss against her palm in silent thanks.

wait why is that hot

“Caoimhe almost threw her panties at you. So did Orebon and Lumi.” Hudson raises one brow, his turbulent blue eyes as fathomless as the ocean, and asks, “What about you?”

OH

“Who says I’m wearing any?”

….OH

I’m about to tell her Hudson isn’t my man, fine or otherwise, but the reminder that Noromar is about to have three straight days of darkness

what perfect timing

“Shut Up and Dance” come through my phone’s speaker.

the amount of things hudson remembered afterward that grace completely forgot is KILLING me with this book 😭 he is so in love with her

And then he presses Play and the opening lyrics for “Rewrite the Stars” fill the night sky around us.

OH MY FUCKING GOD

It makes so much sense that I almost believe it…right up until the people down below us start to scream.

they just can’t get a fucking break huh

One of the portraits showcases Souil holding a tennis racket, wearing the shortest white tennis shorts I’ve ever seen in my life. But my personal favorite—in an “oh my God that can’t be real” kind of way—is the center one, where he’s wearing a bright red caftan and lying down in a full centerfold pose.

Effie trinket vibes

We turn as one to find Souil standing on the center landing of the circular staircase in a white disco suit à la John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Although standing might be a bit of an exaggeration, since he’s currently draped along the banister like he’s having a sudden attack of the vapors—or posing for Playboy.

I take it back. Caesar Flickermann vibes.

“Kill a dragon?” Hudson asks doubtfully. “Kill a guardian of the barrier,” the mayor counters.

okay so that’s why the dragon was so fucking peeved at them

So the God of Time created guardians to watch over the barrier and repair the rifts immediately.”

that explains why the dragons are such cunts. like father like child.

I’ve spent the majority of my life wearing designer clothes I’ve got no interest in—mainly

yeah that’s why you’re a purist about versace and armani

“Careful, Grace. You keep trying to cover me up, and I’m going to start thinking my half-naked physique makes you uncomfortable,” I tease. “It does,” she answers, deadpan. “It makes me want to climb you like a tree, wrap my legs around your hips, and persuade you to have your way with me.”

LMFAOOO GRACEEE YOU NAUGHTY DOG

Except I don’t need to be taken care of right now. I just need to be taken.

oh okay

Smokey comes racing through the night. I have one millisecond to yell for her to stay back, to get down, but it’s too late. She throws herself between the dragon’s fire and me. And she takes it all.

LITERALLY ANYONE BUT SMOKEY

The swinging disco balls connect with the side of Orebon’s head—and rips it half off. Flesh and brains fly everywhere, and he crumples to the ground in a pool of his own purple blood.

what the fuck

“Artelya,” she fills in.

WAIT

when he first made the promise to love me until the sun grew cold and the stars grew old.

STOP IF THATS THE PROMISE HE MADE IN GIANT CITY-

“And yet you gave me a promise ring when we were in Giant City. You repeated the same words—the same promise to me there that you made me in the Shadow Realm.” He nods. “I did. Yes.”

SCREAMINGGGGGGGG

“If this is what you getting your memories back gets me, I vote for amnesia,”

BROOOOOO

“Well, I’m not one hundred percent sure here, but have you considered the possibility that Smokey didn’t die? I think she just went back to a different point in time.”

SMOKEYYYYYY