He helps me into the bathroom, and I’m instantly aware of how fucking sore my vagina is.
“I don’t think my vag is going to go back to its usual size,” I tell him once we’re in the shower.
“I promise it will,” he laughs.
Joking with him makes me feel so much lighter. He’s back to his regular form, though I can see the scars on him. They’re no longer hidden beneath a veil of shadows, no longer a taboo subject he’s trying to avoid.
My heart is full watching his smile reach his eyes.
He’s towel drying my hair and hugging the towel around us when I, at last, sink against his chest, head tilted back to look at him. He sighs and cups my face, staring at me as intensely as I’m staring at him.
“Will you tell me?” I ask.
His jaw feathers. “Which part?”
“How you lost everything. And how you got these scars,” I say, finger brushing a particularly thick one.
“Lucky for you, it’s the same story.”
Chapter 24
Blaze
The question rocks me, though I try hard to hide the heaviness of the topic from my face. I know I don’t have to hide from her, especially not now. She looked at North and I both in our forms and stayed instead of running.
I rub her arms and peer down at the scar she’s tracing, my stomach twisting as the memory flashes behind my eyes.
“Let’s sit down,” I manage.
Juniper grabs an oversized sweater and shorts out of her dresser, then tosses me a pair of her own clean leggings. I chuckle as I hold the stretchy pants in my hands, then slip them onto my long legs.
She bites her lip once I have everything tucked away. “Hot,” she says.
I laugh. “North will be jealous.”
“He can wear this red pair,” she says, grabbing out another legging.
“He’ll love that.”
I settle on the end of her bed and sigh looking her over—her ass cheeks hanging out, soft belly accentuated so fucking sexily in those spandex shorts. Her sweater forms around her tits and curves up on the sides, showing off her hips.
I could get hard just staring at her like this.
Juniper stretches her neck sideways as she sits onto the bed at my side, and when she turns toward me and crosses her legs beneath her, she reaches out to trace another scar.
“There’s so many,” she notes.
“The small ones, I did myself,” I admit.
“What?”
“I didn’t have much magic in my prison, but I had enough to make an ice shard from the small amount of water I was given. Each of these is a notch for every day I was imprisoned.”
Juniper’s brows narrow. “I think we’re going to have to start at the beginning.”
I almost smile as I bend my knee in to face her—not because of the subject, because the subject is brutal. But because she’s eager to hear it, to understand what I went through and what I’llnevergo through again.
“I told you I lost everything because of who I fell in love with… I fell in love with a human woman. It was during a time when I thought I was untouchable. I had figured out how to strengthen my magic, and when I met Adeline, I thought this is who I need to complete my life. I was so in love with her. Still, I didn’t realize just how bad things would go by falling for her. You see, we have this Codex—it’s like a bound set of rules and spells, and it includes the history of the Nether Realm. Only a few people can read it. I’m one of those few people. I was just supposed to be transcribing it, but what I learned… I took advantage of it. One winter, things changed. It started out no different from any other winter. We came to the human world, did our job, had a bit of fun. And then, I met Adeline. It started out as just courting her, and it kept progressing. By the time the spring equinox came around, I was obsessed. I was ready to introduce her to my mother and the Nether Realm, to take her home. But three days before, my mother found out about it. Shestarted sending letters warning me not to bring her home, that the Council would charge me with treason if I did. Three letters. I ignored it. I thought all she needed to do was meet Adeline and things would be fine.”
