“Too slow,” Wyatt drawled. “Seems to be a theme with you.”
“Oh, it’s like that?” Zephyr straightened, a strange gleam in his pale eyes I hadn’t seen before. I nervously moved back from Wyatt, then reconsidered. It was probably better to stay closer to him to keep Zephyr from hurting him.
“We don’t have to keep pretending to be civil with each other,” Wyatt said. “You don’t like me, I don’t like you. That’s that.”
“‘That’s that’?” Zephyr repeated in disbelief. “Holy shit. Aiden, call Skye. I’m gonna kill him.”
“Dude, no,” I stepped around Wyatt, angling myself semi-protectively in front of him. I was pretty sure Zephyr wasn’t serious, but he had a weird, feral edge sometimes that kept me guessing. I knew he was lethal, and I wasn’t exactly sure how serious he was whenever he threatened Wyatt. “He’s Skye’s problem, Zeph.”
“I don’t need you to block me, Aiden, I can take him.” Wyatt said.
I looked at him over my shoulder, my eyes wide. “No way, Wyatt. He’ll fuck you up.”
“MaybeI’llfuckhimup,” Wyatt shot back. “Then he can get over himself.”
“Get overmyself?!” Zephyr’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. His gaze darkened as he raised his hands and began to gather his coils into a poof at the top of his head.
Fuck.
I considered reaching out for Skye. I’d never really…calledfor her in my mind before. I wasn’t even really sure how I could do that. Would she just sense I was stressed out and call out to me instead?
“Aiden, it’s fine. We’re just gonna spar.” Zephyr said, his hand landing on my arm and squeezing lightly. It was meant to be reassuring, but I was already too freaked. Zephyr took his hand off quickly, wincing slightly from the heat.
“Yeah,” Wyatt said, cracking his knuckles. His eyes flashed in the afternoon sunlight cutting through the window. “Just gonna spar.”
I groaned. This was gonna be so bad.
“Aiden, your new nickname is killjoy.”Rafe announced.
I dropped my face to my hands while he snickered.
“She’s going to kill both of us, you probably should’ve left.” I said.
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for anything.” Rafe said cheerily. He leaned against the wall casually, cracking his knuckles like he was the one about to spar.
“Don’t worry, Aiden. She’ll kill all of us when she finds out. We’ll all be together in the afterlife.” Zephyr said before using his teeth to rip the athletic tape he’d wrapped around his knuckles. “Well, the three of us. Wyatt will be looking up at us from hell.”
“I’d prefer to be cremated,” Wyatt said, like anyone fucking cared.
“Do not do that to me,” Rafe said immediately, pointing at me.
“What? Why would you tell me that?” I asked with a grimace.
“She won’t kill you. You’ll have to make sure our final wishes are honored.” Rafe explained.
“You don’t have a choice in what happens to you, Royal Ass,” Zephyr sneered. “They’re gonna preserve you and put you on display. People you don’t even know will be sobbing like they knew you.”
“I like the sound of that, actually. Displayed like a piece of art.” Rafe rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his hand scraping over the bit of stubble he hadn’t shaved yet. He’d been doing that more, lately, and I wondered if Skye was into that.
Hmm. She’d never said anything to me about it. I rubbed my own chin for a moment, wondering how long I’d have to let my stubblegrow for it to look like Rafe’s. My facial hair, thankfully, was more brown than red.
“Aiden? Any requests?” Zephyr asked.
I blinked several times.
“For your final wishes,” Zephyr clarified.
“Oh. Cremate me,” I muttered. “She can sprinkle me on the hill by your parents.”
