Baelfire is quiet as he watches me pour a glass of whiskey, but then he glances longingly at the front door. "Think she'll still go to the Matched Ball with us? I mean…it's mandatory, right?"
"I doubt it very much. She hates us," I remind him.
The dragon shifter huffs. "For now. She hates usfor now.But we were making solid progress with her before Everett went all Frost on us and ruined it. Call me a fucking optimist, but I say if we ignore that stupid bet like it never happened and work on earning her trust, she'll finally start to open up to us. And once we all get our heads out of our asses, I think she'll love being our keeper."
"Fucking optimist."
He smirks, reaching into his pocket before tossing my red-stained bleeding crystal to me. "You're not gonna like this next part, but if we want Maven to start trusting us with all the secrets she's keeping in that pretty head of hers, we need to make the first move."
"Meaning?"
"Trust is a two-way street. Maybe we should all tell her what our curses are. Who knows? Maybe we'll start to trust each other more, too." He makes a face. "Except Everett. Fuck that guy."
I nod in agreement to the last part but carefully consider the rest of his words.
I don't give my trust away to anyone. Even when I was younger, my parents and their quintet taught me to fend for myself first and foremost. We all kept secrets from each other. I doubt they knew one another's curses before they were bound together to break them—speaking about individual curses is a taboo in the world of legacies, even among matched quintets.
But whether I like it or not, Crypt and Baelfire both already know my curse. I know so little about Maven that I can't possibly trust her yet in all the ways I want to, but her learning the state of my mental health wouldn't be the end of the world.
However, Baelfire's suggestion about forgetting our little wager entirely isn’t an option. I'll need to get those dragon scales.
But first, I need to find a way to show Maven exactly how sorry I am.
4
MAVEN
After I knock,the door creaks open, and poor little Vivienne bursts into tears at the sight of me. She reaches out like she wants a shoulder to cry on, but panic shoots through me at the incoming touch.
Instead, I grasp her arms through her long sleeves and put on the softest smile I can muster.
"Can I come in?"
"K—Kenzie is m—missing," she hiccups, shaking her head hard. "We've l—looked everywhere, and I don't know if she's even still…"
She can't finish the thought and begins sobbing again, the tears rolling down her cheeks and dripping freely.
Fuck.
I’mawfulat comforting crying people.
I blame it on my upbringing since showing any significant amount of emotion around others was an invitation to get beaten to a pulp and fed to nightmarish creatures. Someone shedding tears out in the open is an entirely foreign concept to me.
It's unbearably awkward for a moment as I let her go of her arms and glance behind her through the doorway. Morning sunlight shines through the windows in Kenzie's apartment, lighting everything with a warm glow.
"Is…anyone else here?"
Preferably someone whose face isn't leaking.
Dirk hears me with his shifter hearing and comes to the door. He’s in just as bad shape as Vivienne, but he's not crying hysterically. Thank the universe for that. He invites me in, and I enter their shared living and dining room area.
For a moment, I'm surprised that I don't feel Crypt follow behind me—he's been trailing me ever since I left their quintet apartment fifteen minutes ago. But then I notice the dreamcatcher dangling beside the front door of Kenzie's apartment. There's another one beside the large window in their dining room.
"Kenzie hung up a bunch of those right after she met your, uh…DeLune," Dirk says, scratching at his neck. Then his face crumbles. "Please—you're her best friend. Do you have any idea where she is? We've looked everywhere.Everywhere.She just vanished without a trace and…"
His eyes grow moist, his cheeks ruddy. Oh, gods. If I don't start talking, he'll start crying, too.
It's like a fucking pandemic that I am entirely unequipped to handle.
