A Power Unbound (The Last Binding, #3)

by Freya Marske

Many of Spinet’s queerer rooms

All of its rooms are queer now

The idea of Edwin Courcey, of all people, attending an all-night social affair that left guests draped over fountainry was bizarre.

The Blyth siblings had the stubbornness of two people who had each adopted a stray cat with a terrible personality and were determined to have them cohabit.

probably not even average, certainly much shorter than Price—

He’s just a little guy!!!

even if Alan was the least qualified man in London to pass judgement on feminine beauty.

Gay ass

Or about gay sex

He’d forgotten that the edges of it crossed boundaries where it stopped feeling like hatred and became something wilder and more dangerous.

“We’re not magic,” said Alan. “We’re Catholic.”

“Why, m’lord Hawthorn,” he said, as obnoxiously common as possible. “I wrote ’em.”

KNEW IIIIIT

“Not as vigorous as the boys I write about, but I do try.”

He reached up to absently touch the doorframe as he did so, an adopted habit of his mother’s that travelled from house to house and created a shiny-smooth patch in any place that the Rossi family inhabited for long enough.

This felt so crypto-jew-y to me and then nothing else ever showed up 😭😭 but they are in my heart

And also, did she and Maud really think they’d managed to behave on that ship like two people who weren’t fucking?

Alan smiled. He felt at home among couples like this, who had nothing quiet or sedate about the way they loved.

“I don’t think anyone’s ever described Robin as subtle before,” Courcey said. “He’ll enjoy the novelty.”

Edwin, clearly one of nature’s explainers,

“That explains why the warding’s so powerful,” Edwin said, even though no it fucking didn’t.

“Oh, cake,” said Miss Morrissey, descending upon the tray. She lit up at the first taste of lemon cake in much the same way that Edwin had when Sir Robert entered the room.

Feels very aroace coded haha

Blast, I hate riddles.” “No, you don’t,” murmured Sir Robert.

Jack had never in his life felt the slightest urge to fuck Robin Blyth, but it was enough to make him briefly wonder if he was missing out on something.

like that men born into houses full of silver hear the long words I use and will give me a few more inches,

😏😏

closed the door to keep in the warmth,

Uh huh

And Jack knew there were reasons he’d considered this a bad idea, but right now he couldn’t remember a single one.

Hell yeah Jacky boy! That’s what I like to hear!

A lie. All he could think of now was kissing it.

Alan wanted to snap at Edwin—Stop giving me more things to have in common with this man.

Tehehe

Last night had been an act of unforgivable self-indulgence.

Boooooooo

Jack was leaning on one of the other doors, arms crossed. He seemed unable to exist without something to lounge in or against.

people were running through, some with papers or cups of tea still in their hands.

I hate British people

“To my willpower? I wasn’t exerting any.”

There were indeed two baths drawn in the large bathroom that was part of Lord Hawthorn’s suite of rooms.

“There was only one bathtub”? No. In this house we have two bathtubs. Two bros, sitting in separate bathtubs, five feet apart…

But tonight, Alan ducked his head beneath the fragrant water and let it wash away the last residue of his shame, his grime, his secrets.

🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Unlike Edwin, Jack was not a natural list-maker. The distraction hadn’t worked at all.

Jack was never going to rid himself of any of these people.

Good!

Prolonged eye contact often gave Edwin the air of a man straining to hold a weight steady.

He is SO!

He wanted to crack open his rib cage and place Alan Ross inside it, the better to warm him with Jack’s own blood.

Edwin in flannels looked like a tourist postcard designed expressly to make fun of the English,

That’s so harsh 😭😭😭😭

Fucking hell. He should have been taking notes.

Need an Alan-Jack collab pamphlet

Being thoroughly fucked had been wonderful, yes, but this was a revelation: the surprising care in Jack’s motions as he scrubbed and wiped both himself and Alan clean with the cool soaked flannel.

They’ve finally discovered aftercare :’)

“Alan, we’re in a house so full of inverts that Wilde could write a play about it,

Above the shadowy figure of George appeared a new shadow, like a small and shifting cloud. Swarming. It was drawing down, and closer. There was a short, muffled cry as the shadows merged and became for a while a single, thrashing, collapsing shape. And then silence.

HELL YEAH BEES

Jack said, as dry and lordly as he could: “Would anyone like to express a dissenting opinion?”

But the spell gathering around his fingers was the Barrel’s destruction in miniature.

Hey you guys were mad that he destroyed your magical office building but turns out you don’t need it anymore! (Ed)win win!

Take your blood loss and go to bed.”

Robin persuaded Edwin away to the wing that held their rooms,

Still pretending to have separate rooms in this house of inverts? Smh

The part of Jack that enjoyed being right and was generally convinced of his own rightness tried to tell him that he wasn’t surprised. But he was.

It could have been a sweet statement, but for his hand landing deliberately on Jack’s prick.

NOTHING LIKE SEVERAL NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES

Jack had quite honestly had no idea that hearts were on the table at all.

Dumbass!

“I want to kiss you until your mouth forgets it exists for any reason but to let me taste it. I want to kiss you so well, and so long, that every narrator in your books will crawl off their pages and die from sheer jealousy.”

I would write you into immortality. I would trap you in ink and wear the pages next to my skin until they fell apart. Kiss me until I know you. Kiss me until you know me, and unmake me, and love me anyway.

“Yes, I do,” said Jack.

“Make me a snowflake,” said Robin.