Chapter 8
ELWIN
A knockon our door pulled my attention away from the view from beyond the balcony where I’d been sipping my morning coffee with Alexandra. Kylo and Lucien bolted up from the bed at the sound, but I waved them off as I headed past them to get it.
“I’ve got it. Just go shower and get dressed for the day.”
I hoped Zurie was at our door with the tonic, so we could chat more about what our plan was moving forward. This morning, I’d had to repeatedly calm Alexandra down after finding her sitting on the balcony alone, lost in her thoughts and scared of all of the unknown still to come.
Upon opening the door, I indeed found Zurie beaming up at me. She held up four bottles of a pearlescent liquid that reminded me of the mist hanging around this home. “Morning! I’ve got the tonic. You each need to drink a full bottle, despite the taste. It’s very important you don’t miss a drop—it’s a very precise measurement. No more and no less.”
Her high level of energy wasn’t something I was accustomed to, but I tried to force a smile on my groggy face. She’d been a kind host so far, and very understanding when Lucien and Alexandra needed to leave suddenly last night. I didn’t want her to think we were unappreciative just because I wasn’t a morning person. Hell, none of us really were.
“Perfect,” I answered, grabbing the glass bottles from her carefully before holding them to my chest. “I promise I’ll ensure they drink every drop. Do we need to wait a certain amount of time for it to work before we come over?”
Her wavy hair bounced around as she shook her head and chirped, “Nope! Just come on over when you’re ready for breakfast. The guys are wrapping up cooking now but take your time. We can always warm it back up for you guys.”
With a nod of acknowledgement from me, she waved and turned on her heel to skip across the clouds back to their house. The thought of Ama and Zurie growing up together pulled a smirk to my face. Despite her kind heart, I couldn’t imagine Ama skipping across clouds—she just didn’t give me those vibes.
“One of those for me?”
Alexandra’s soft voice had me kicking the door closed with my foot before holding one out for her. “Make sure you drink it all. Zurie warned that it tastes foul, but you can’t miss a single drop.”
With a shrug, she grabbed it and popped the cork off before tilting it to her lips and guzzling the full thing down. Her face screwed up in disgust as she shuddered. “Ugh! She was not kidding. That’s gross.”
Crossing to the kitchen on the right, I set down two on the counter before tossing my own down the proverbial hatch. I’d braced myself for a foul taste, but the preparation didn’t stop the instinctive curl of my lip and desire to scrape my tongue off after I finished it.
“I don’t even know how to describe that taste,” I murmured, shaking my head from side to side quickly, as if I could get rid of the taste that way, but to no avail.
Alexandra scoffed as she crossed to set her empty vial on the counter. “I’d say it’s a mix of soil, old sweat drops, and maybe some brussel sprouts.”
I grabbed her hand before dragging her to rest against my front. After dropping a kiss to the top of her head, I murmured, “I’m both alarmed and impressed that you could be so specific with pinpointing those tastes exactly.”
“What’s that?” Lucien inquired as he sauntered out of the room, water drops still falling from his damp hair and soaking his black shirt. “The amazing taste of my c—”
“Oh my god, it is too early for this, Lucien,” Kylo groaned from inside the bedroom, loud enough for us all to hear and effectively cutting Lucien off.
He was absolutely going to say his cum. I thought it was hilarious, and so did Alexandra if her muffled giggles against my chest were an indicator.
After I’d instructed Lucien to drink the tonic, I actually contemplated whether he was a psychopath. He didn’t grimace or complain about the taste at all, as if it didn’t phase him one bit.
“Hey, Ky?” Lucien called out as he leaned against the counter next to me, crossing his arms. “Do you have splinters in your asshole from the wooden stick that’s constantly up there? I mean, really, that sounds really unpleasant.”
I felt tension growing between them in recent days, and at first I thought it was the stress of the situation impending on our lives. However, the more I sat back and observed them, the quicker I realized it was just the growing pains of us all living together and learning how to coexist.
Before we came to life, our memories of being together consisted of only time spent with Alexandra. We never had the chance to live together in a communal space and had plenty of alone time away from each other. What we were experiencing now was a massive adjustment, but we’d been so focused on building our relationships with Alexandra, it seemed we’d forgotten that we needed to build ours as well.
Kylo stomped out of the room as he pulled on a plain white tee and rolled his eyes. Ignoring Lucien’s question, he nodded toward the vial left next to him. “Is that what I need to drink?”
I saw the twitch in Lucien’s jaw at being ignored, and I decided I’d had enough of their weird spat. I typically wasn’t one to raise my voice or get involved in issues, but this was going to impact our family if they didn’t get their shit together. We had way too much going on right now, and the last thing we needed was to be squabbling amongst ourselves.
“You two need to cut your shit out,” I snapped.
Alexandra’s head popped up, staring up at me for a quick moment before turning to look at Lucien and Kylo. We’d spoken briefly this morning about her conversation with Lucien, and when she mentioned that her words left him feeling as if he wasn’t okay just the way he was, I felt the urge on the tip of my tongue to tell her what I had observed. That the insecurity had probably been brewing inside of him for some time with the way Kylo was treating him. But I didn’t want to add to her mental plate of worries.
No, we’d air all of this shit out now, in front of us all, and squash it before leaving this house.
Kylo gave me a ‘what the fuck’ look, like he hadn’t the slightest clue what I was talking about. Meanwhile, Lucien glowered at the side of his face.
