“The big guy is trying to step you through one-by-one, I think,” the gargoyle says. She takes a drink of the scotch and tilts the bottle at me. I notice it’s almost gone and grin as she adds, “But with this whole fight-to-the-death thing, that makes that path kinda dumb. Your magic will be one thing that keeps you alive in whatever nightmare shit they throw your group into, especially if you don’t have proper control over your animals.”
“Should I tell them that?”
“Ha!” Rogue’s tail flicks as she snorts her amusement. “You cantry, but I’d bet they protest that you’re not familiar with how this works. Dudes won’tmeanto subscribe to their patriarchal leaning to support the man’s plan, but they do it out of habit. It might be easier if you convinceoneof them it’s flawed, and that one helps you grease the wheels.”
I scowl at her. “But that’s letting them off the hook for being misogynists.”
She rolls her eyes over to Morgana. “Help me explain to her that sometimes, you let one thing go to make others go more smoothly.”
“It’s true,” the older hybrid says with a sigh. “My guys—even the ones not yet in the inner circle—are decent and not truly misogynist. Occasionally, though, the world they grew up in bleeds through, and I have to decide if arguing is worth it when I know that’s not how they feel because of how they treat me and each other.”
Thinking about that for a moment, I scratch my chin. “Really? Because every time I’ve ignored things when I saw red flags in the past, it bit me in the ass pretty hard.”
“Don’t ignore things that really piss you off or seem like they need addressing,” Rogue replies as she gestures for the wine. When she gets it, she frowns. “We need more of this.”
“I’ll go see what Salem has,” I reply as I roll to my feet. “No worries.”
Morgana calls out as I move, “We just mean that not everything is worth being right about unless you’re trying to get angry sex or maybe even make-up sex.”
That feels out of my league too, and I have nothing to say in response.
Rummaging in the cabinet, I frown when I don’t see any more Fae wine. “Damn it. Our cabinet is bare. Stay here with the animals, and I’m going to sneak over to one of the guys’ rooms to see if they have some stowed. It’ll only take a second.”
They clink the bottles from the floor, and I guess that means ‘okay’, so I head for the door. I leave it cracked so I can get back in quickly as I go into the hallway. Looking at the other doors with a frown, I consider which room I want to raid. Jasper’s probablyhaswhat I need, but I don’t want to go in there while we’re still not speaking. It feels rude, and though the dragon isbeing shitty to me, I don’t want to stoop to his level. I’ve been in X and Slash’s room before, and I don’t remember them having booze anywhere obvious on entry. Zav’s room is packed with tech shit and geeky toys, so maybe not him.
That leaves Oriel, whose room I haven’t been in,butI could get into one of his hoards without a problem. Hemighthave booze in there for his brooding, and he steals stuff from others, too.
Yep, that’s the best place to start, I think.
Creeping down the hall to the dark wooden door, I look at the simplistic entry skeptically. Oriel would never leave his shit open, nor would he use a plain-old lock. There has to be something I need to do to get it open, but I see nothing that looks like a secret panel. “Damn it, Kat, you had to get tipsy. Now you’re not sharp enough to figure out how to getmoretipsy juice. How ironic.”
No one answers me, of course, because I’m alone. I don’t want to call the other girls to break it, but I also really want to get inside. This sleepover with them is the best time I’ve had with other women ever, and I actually feel like I’m part of a group. I don’t want it to end because I get too wound up to talk freely. Leaning my head on the door, I curse in frustration for a few seconds before suddenly it opens and I tumble inside.
Holy fuck, the damn thing let me in when I touched it.
I don’t have time to process that before my eyes focus on the darkness and discover that Oriel’s room is so jam-packed with random shit that it looks like he’s onHoarders. Frowning as I get to my feet and close the door, I wonder when this happened. I know he has hoards for his stolen shit, and I can’t imagine him living like this all the time. No way he’s waking up surroundedby completely random shit and hobbling over piles to get to his clothes. It’s just not practical, nor is it necessary, based on what I know.
“Has he done this all… recently?” I wonder aloud because the emotions within me are too incredulous to contain. Is it possible that my withdrawal from the guys while I deal with the Jasper bullshit is affecting them negatively? Slash said something about their animals, and the girls keep mentioning that the shifter sides get really pushy about mates. Has my denial made his crow lose its fucking mind?
Sighing as I push my fear away until I’m back where I can query the others about it, I search for the booze. There’s an odd system to how this is sorted, I think, and I’m trying to figure it out when a wave of emotion hits me. It’s oddly warm and sparkly, flowing through my veins differently than the magic I associate with my demon or my shifts. Squirming uncomfortably, I try to ignore it as I bend over and rummage through a pile thatmighthave what I’m looking for in it. It has plates and flatware, and something that looks like fancy olive oil? I have no idea why O stole that, but I guess if his crow’s out of control…
The energy pricking along my limbs intensifies as I continue to rifle through piles of stuff, and I wiggle a bit more as I push it away. I have no idea what the fuck is happening, but it’s annoying, and if it’s some hex Oriel put on his room, I’m gonna punch him in the nuts. Moving to the area near his bed, I frown and study the thefted shit there with a narrowed gaze. The scent of my broody bird fills my nostrils, and it makes me stop scowling for a second to inhale the peppery rose and amber smell of his sheets.
Okay, fine. Maybe I do really want to do stuff with them, and I’m attached a lot more than I intended—so sue me.
Nineteen
ORIEL
The alarm hits me, and I whip around to look at the others in my group. We headed to the lowest floor inCanto IVfirst, deciding that if we cleared our own building, it would make it easier to leave the women upstairs without worrying.
Okay, Slash decided that, but X and I told the others to listen; he’s pretty edgy right now.
We’ve been able to scan or search areas from the lobby up to two floors below ours without finding more than some spells on dorm rooms that violate school policy and more people fucking than I would have assumed. Nothing tripped our radar, but the alert in my room is a big red flag. Walking over to X, I lean in to murmur in his ear, “I have to go. The security on my room just flared, and I don’t know who the fuck got inside, but it can’t be good.”
“Because KK and the ladies are snuggled up tight in her room, right?” X says with a smirk. “You think someone’s testing our shit to get to her, right?”
“I do,” I reply with a grimace. “But if we tell the big guy, he’ll go storming up like a fucking tank and we’ll lose the element of surprise. Can you keep him, the lion, and the Prince busy?”
