I turn back to look at Nox, my chest flooding with relief at him voicing thoughts similar to my own. Without regard to the small gathering around us, he leans down to kiss me, and everything settles at his touch—the ringing in my ears, the magic writhing beneath my skin, my rapidly beating heart. All answering swiftly to his claiming display. When we break apart, Nox’s eyes speak promises of what will come later once we’re alone in his room.
“Well, I’m not sure I’ll ever getthatimage out of my mind,” Cassius teases with a scowl.
My eyes can’t help but draw back to Haylee, expecting to see confusion or perhaps even anger given her earlier comment. But her face looksserene.As if the attitude I thought was there earlier was imagined.
“You act as if we haven’t all had to live through your many public displays with your various lovers,” Nox replies, his arm wrapping around my waist.
“Nox missed the spring of Bastian. You both might as well have shared a single shirt for how often you were fused together,” Daje chimes in, crossing his muscular arms over his chest.
“Then there was screaming Sorina,” Haylee recounts smoothly, causing Cassius to shudder.
“Why was shescreamingSorina?” Nox asks.
“Because if they weren’t fighting, they were fucking, or close to it, in very public places,” she replies, giving Cassius a pointed look.
He shrugs, clasping his hands behind his back. “I suppose you should be glad you weren’t here for that one, Nox. She would have tried to convince you to have a threesome with us.” He pauses, looking me over as his lip curls up. “A foursome, actually. Not saying I would necessarily have beenopposedto that—”
“You would fuck anything that welcomed it,” Daje cuts in as Nox’s hand flexes on my hip.
Cassius chuckles, sending a wink in his direction. “Except you.”
“Then it is good that I don’tfuckingwelcomeit.”
I listen quietly as the group continues playfully arguing with each other, my body leaning back against Nox’s in comfort. They laugh and talk with the familiarity of friends who have known one another for ages. I’d be remiss not to admit to myself that I’m jealous of that—of the bonds they’ve formed and the history they have. Even with Nox and Cassius including me in the conversation, I doubt I will ever have the ease that they do while speaking with each other.
After a while, Daje and Haylee say goodbye, and Cassius and Nox go back to introducing me to fighting stances and defensive maneuvers. By the time the sun begins to set, my leg muscles are completely useless. When I express how sore I am, Nox placeshis hands on my thighs, the feel of his magic sinking into me immediately easing my pain.
“You know I can heal myself,” I remind him.
He shrugs before wrapping his arm around me. “Any chance I have to take care of you, I will take.”
We part ways with Cassius as we walk back to the palace, and my gaze wanders to the thickly wooded forest, the greens and blues of the leaves around and above us never ceasing to cause a wondrous feeling to bloom inside of me. I lean in closer to Nox, my arm going around his waist. He has felt like home to me for a while, but this is the first moment that the Mage Kingdom feels like it could be home for me too. Like I truly can have a future full of the things I missed out on living in that tower.
Part Three
Wanting to fall to my knees should be a foreign feeling—something only reserved for my crown and my kingdom. But she rules above them all, a goddess that shines brighter than any star, and I crave to surrender only to her.
Chapter Forty-Two: Bahira
I tap my penon the table in the experiment room, my other hand cradling my head as I look over my notes. There doesn’t seem to be any discernible traits between any of the shifters that are stuck in their animal forms. Huffing out a breath, my chair scrapes against the wood floor as I push it back and stand, stretching my arms overhead. I head out into the hall and down the stairs, making my way to the courtyard behind the palace for some fresh air.
A few marble statues dot around its border, and I follow a stone path that is cut into the grass to the first one. My fingers trace along its gray and white edges—the bust is that of a male with a broad chin and a crown similar to the one Kai wore at the dinner to honor his father. Leaning closer, I inspect the image carved on the bust’s shoulder. It’s an animal of some sort with an elongated face, and horns protruding from its head that strike recognition in me.
“Bahira! There you are!” Jahlee’s voice startles me as I jolt back from the statue, my hand flying to my chest.
“Fuck,Jahlee,” I rasp, earning a laugh from her as she walks towards me.
“Why are you studying Kai’s great-grandfather so intently?” She lifts a brow, the sun gleaming over her wavy brown hair and the cream and gold dress that wraps nearly sheer fabric strategically around her body, ending right above her knees.
“This is his ancestor?”
She nods, her sandals scuffing against the stone as she attempts to link her arm with mine. I step to the side, sliding away from her and earning a snort. “It is. I keep telling Kai to let the palace sculptor carve a bust of him, but it’s like he doesn’t want himself memorialized here at all.”
I can’t say that I’m exactly surprised by that. Kai doesn’t strike me as the type of male who cares about that sort of thing. My focus goes back to the carved animal. “What is this?” I ask, pointing to it.
“An oryx. It used to be the old Crown’s sigil before Kai’s father changed it to the wolf.”
An oryx.It isn’t an animal I’m familiar with, certainly not one I have read about dwelling in the Mage Kingdom. Why would the rebels wear the skull of an animal associated with the family of the very king they are trying to overthrow?
