There never has been and never will be anyone but you for me. Twisted souls like ours can't help belonging together, will of the gods be damned. Quintet or not, bound or not, I was always going to be yours, darling.
Wherever you rest your pretty head, keep this under your pillow until I return to you. And please dream of me, for if I could dream, it would always be of you.
Gods. Why does he have to be so…poetic?
This kind of sweetness normally nauseates me, but for some reason, my stomach decides to flutter instead. My face feels warm. It's unclear why Engela Zuma herself dropped off these notes from Crypt, but I know one thing: there must be a good reason he had to leave Everbound if someone in the Immortal Quintet was involved.
It only stokes my curiosity about the Nightmare Prince.
"Ready, baby?" Baelfire asks, cutting into my thoughts as he emerges from the hallway, his dirty blond hair even darker when wet.
I nod, but when Silas joins us barely a second later, having also showered, I pause and tip my head, unable to keep the curious words from escaping.
"Did you shower together?"
Silas recoils in disgust. Baelfire gags.
"Hell to the motherfucking no. The only way I'm ever going to be naked near this jackass in a shower is if you're naked between us. That, I could get behind. Or in front of. You'd get to pick, of course."
My neck heats, but I do my best to ignore that sensual visual as I ask the natural follow-up question. "Would any of you go for each other?"
"I'd rather lop off my left testicle than play with any of their pricks," Bael says decisively.
Silas grimaces as if I asked them to lick mold. "Agreed. Are you asking because that thought excites you,sangfluir?"
I hadn't considered it until this exact second, but the more I think about it, the more I can't picture any of my matches wanting to fuck each other. They'd all much rather get in a bloody fistfight, except they seem to be begrudgingly buddying up for our temporary quintet.
"Not really. But what would you have done if the gods had put you in an all-male quintet?"
"Remained platonic."
"What about Everett? Or Crypt?"
Baelfire does a theatrical full-body shudder. "No idea, and I'm glad. I take it back when I said all cards on the table—I donotwant to know about DeLune's previous love life. I didn't even want to know about Snowflake's, but here we fucking are."
I'm tempted to ask what that means, but then I glimpse a large, decorative clock hanging nearby and realize dinner won't last much longer. Either the Immortal Quintet or their legacy minions will be keeping a close watch on all students, and curfew is laughably early, so we don't have much time for what I have in mind.
And killing this changeling is essential. On the off chance that the changeling plans on targeting any more of the Immortal Quintet, I really need to kill it before it puts that plan in motion and robs me of my mission. Not to mention, I plan on torturing it until it tells me where Kenzie is.
Killing it might give me enough boost in magic to tear through Everbound's magical wards to find her. Fingers crossed.
"Come on." I lead them out of the apartment.
The halls are mostly empty since most legacies are in the dining hall for food after a long, danger-and-death-filled day. However, we still pass a couple of other groups and the occasional unmatched legacy. Anytime we do, Baelfire bares his teeth at them, and Silas's eye starts to twitch.
When the blood fae starts muttering nonsense under his breath again, I brace myself and briefly brush my fingers along his jaw. Even that tiny contact sends a wave of both tingles and chills down my arm, but he snaps to attention and blinks down at me.
"You touched me."
"Exposure therapy," I remind them.
Baelfire frowns down at me as we turn into another hall. "You sure you actually want that, Mayflower? Don't get me wrong, I'd touch you and hold you every fucking second of every day if I could, but if you don't like it?—"
I stop to look up at him. Maybe I'm being too vulnerable, but I want them to understand this part of me clearly.
"It's not that I don't like it. I was conditioned. It's psychological, and I need to get over it. Iwantto enjoy touch, and more than that, I can't let anyone use it to fuck with me again."
Baelfire's expression hardens, and his pupils shift into a dragon's. His shifter emotions swing so fast that I'm taken off guard, and suddenly, he's shaking with fury.
