Pathetic excuse,Aidon chimes in my head.
Right?I don’t pretend it isn’t, to which Aidon smiles, planting a butterfly in my stomach.
“And you are?” Zulu pulls Jestin by his arm while halting before Aidon, batting her ridiculous eyelashes on him.
“Taken,” he replies just as I step forward, determined to wipe that absurd smile from her face.
Why do I react like that?
“Even better,” she teases, and fucking winks at me.
Jestin scowls and steers her into a nearby corridor, then walks off quickly without a backwards glance. “I’ll be right back,” he calls over his shoulder.
As their steps quiet down, I finally pull the handle, my fingers shaking.
Gorok please, I don’t want to be here.
“You’re so whiny,” Aidon states, but I ignore it when the familiarity of that room hits me right in the solar plexus. Or heart. The impact sucks the air out of my lungs.
The ambience is as cosy as I remember, sunlight slipping through the cream shades painting the room in soft gold. The air carries that perfect, impossible balance, cool enough to soothe and warm enough to stay.
I sigh and make my way to the enormous couch, sinking into the cushions while avoiding the ridiculously comfortable bed like a plague.
Everything here is too inviting. The silk drapes, the faint scent of Jestin, the quiet hum of magic keeping the temperature pleasant. Portraits of him and me hang on the walls, our younger faces smiling. Small chests of sand sit neatly on low tables so he can access his magic whenever he pleases. Scattered among them are little souvenirs from childhood, delicate reminders of who we once were.
It feels like this room is a trap designed to make me forget where I am, what I have done, what waits outside those doors. This place feels more like home than my own.
I am in fucking trouble here.
Aidon rolls his eyes.
“Stop listening if you don’t want to be inconvenienced!”
“Sure,” he answers, mocking me with a sly grin.
“Get lost.”
I’ve spent many hours here as a pup. Jestin was my friend long before we shook the sheets, and damn, we shook them. Ifought it hard. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. But spending months attending his court, mostly under the influence of Fae wine, made that a fool’s errand. It was impossible not to cross that line. The chemistry between us was my first aid.
I don’t know what to do with that friendship now, after I’ve tasted him.
Forever contaminated.
Happy to hear you keep him in such low regard.
Irritated, I glance at Aidon, who has shifted into a majestic cat and now lounges on Jestin’s pillow, silently intruding on my thoughts.
Ballsy.
“I wanted to see you shift,” I whine. “Did you just roll your eyes? I didn’t know animals could do that.”
And I thought you were supposed to have a superior education,Aidon remarks in my mind.
Getting nervous, I bite onto my cuticles. The magical silver nail polish I did a week ago is impossible to bite, so cuticles it is.
Tch. Absolutely no manners.
Is he a punishment from the Gods for my crimes?
