After a long, hot shower and finding an unused toothbrush in a bathroom drawer, I climb into bed beside a sleeping Seven, dressed in a pair of his sweatpants and an old Van Halen T-shirt I dug out of his dresser. I’m happy to see there’s nothing left on his plate and the bottle of juice is empty. I snuggle into his backside and wrap my arm around him. He’s bigger than me, and this would be easier if he were spooning me rather than the other way around, but right now, after what he’s been through, I think he needs it more.
“I love you,” he mumbles.
I’m not sure he’s even awake. His breath is even and his eyes stay closed.
“I love you too,” I whisper. And then I drift off to sleep.
* * *
I wake warm and content.The light through the window sheers is silvery, and a glance at the clock on the bedside table tells me it’s early. Barely six a.m. Sometime during the night we’ve switched positions and Seven is wrapped around me, his hand tucked under my shirt and splayed across my abdomen. His lips brush the back of my neck, and I hear him draw in a deep breath.
“Are you smelling me?” I ask through a grin.
“You’re awake?” He lifts onto one arm, and I turn my head to kiss him. “Smelling you comforts me. A day ago, I wasn’t sure I’d ever smell you again.” His eyes turn stormy.
“What exactly happened, Seven?”
A dark cloud moves across his expression. “They jumped me and Saul the moment we stepped out of the car at their offices. I wasn’t focused on protecting us. I never thought I needed to be. I’d dealt with Hearst before, but I guess my father was involved with a lot more behind the scenes than I ever knew about. I was in blue-iron cuffs before I knew what hit me. They asked me where the malivite was and then tore apart our car looking for it. When I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about, they didn’t believe me. Claimed Lucky Enterprises had taken their payment and the shipment was late. Accused me and my father of underhanded business practices. Filthy fae, they called us. You saw what they did next. They did the same to Saul. They only returned me because I promised I’d talk to my father and come back with the shipment. Saul was their insurance.”
“Shit.” I shake my head. “You’re lucky to have made it out of there alive. We’ll get Saul back. We will. We’ll find a way.”
He rolls me under him, settles between my thighs. “Facing it… Experiencing that kind of pain and wondering if I’d ever make it back to you… Sophia, I don’t want to keep us a secret anymore. You are as much family to me as Eva and of course Arden—the three of you are the only family I have left and the only thing I thought about when I was having blue iron sewn into my chest.” His voice turns raspy, and he swallows hard against the horrific memory.
I take his face in my hands. “Then I have good news because I don’t want to do this anymore either. Arden made her decision. She wants to stay. She’s already applied to Elderflame University. She’s only waiting to tell you before she announces it to everyone else.”
His face lights up with joy, and his eyes grow wet. “We’re going to be a family. A real family. I never believed it could happen. I knew she’d make the right choice though. She’s a brilliant girl, just like you. She must have realized it was better staying here and living her truth than hiding what she is from the world.”
“That and she’s dating a boy,” I say. “I’d like to think it’s more living her truth than boy, but you know teenage hormones.”
Seven’s entire body stiffens in my arms. “She’s dating a boy? Since when?”
“Since before graduation, although I just found out recently. He came to dinner Friday night. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about him because—”
“Who is it?” he asks tersely.
“Edmund Faust.”
Seven scrambles off me so fast I get a chill. “No.”
“Huh?”
“Tell her to break up with him, now. Forbid her from seeing him ever again.” His jaw clenches.
I give a low, throaty laugh. “Oh, my sweet summer child. It’s very clear to me that you have never, in fact, raised a teenager, especially a girl. Telling Arden, who is going to be a legal adult in less than a year and a half, to break up with Edmund, whom she says she’s in love with, and forbidding her from ever seeing him again is the surest way for her to instantly become pregnant by him and never speak to us again. It’s practically a law of nature. You don’t want to go there.”
He settles back on his heels. The wound in his chest is already so much better, and some other scratches and abrasions I remember from last night are almost completely healed. Being a leprechaun definitely has its perks.
“There’s something you should know about the Fausts.”
“That you were once engaged to Edmund’s mother? My grandmother told me.”
A muscle in his jaw twitches like the memory is horribly uncomfortable. “I was never engaged to her, Sophia. She told theDaily Hatterwe were engaged to try to manipulate me into marriage.”
“My grandmother also mentioned speculation about that,” I say softly.
“We’d dated, casually, for a short period.” He waves a hand through the air. “You’d been gone a long time, and I was lonely—”
“You don’t owe me an explanation.”
