Watching him sit in front of her and type away, and seeing her eyes light up when he responds, stirs something within me. A possible twinge of jealousy, sure. No one’s ever looked at me the way she’s looking at this screen.
I quietly wonder what that’s like.
I make friends with Pack for the next ten minutes, and Juniper seems to be so consumed with her texts that she doesn’t notice her dog playing with a shadow.
“Pack! You ready girl?” I eventually hear Juniper call out.
Even her voice is fucking melodic.
Blaze makes his way down behind her as Pack meets Juniper in the surf. He crosses the space between us to stand at my side, and the two of us watch them together.
“What happened last night? Did you find the sprites?” I ask him.
“Five,” he answers.
“And how did that go?”
A muscle feathers in his jaw, and the fact that he doesn’t look at me is nearly enough to make me dance.
“I still have one left to interrogate,” he says. “The others weren’t so helpful.”
I glance at his pocketed hands. “Let me see your palms.”
“What?”
“Come on. Show them,” I say.
Because I want to see the glitter on his fingers from where he squashed them.
Blaze sighs heavily. “You’re annoying,” he says as he takes his hands from his pockets.
The corners of my lips immediately tug upward. The blood of sprites is pink and iridescent, leaving a stain behind no matter how much you scrub and scrub.
And my brother’s palms arecovered.
“You look like you jerked off a unicorn,” I say.
Blaze rolls his eyes and shoves me sideways, making me stumble off balance as I laugh.
“Shut up,” he mutters. “It doesn’t come off.”
“Yes, which is why you know to wear gloves,” I remind him.
Another heavy exhale leaves him as if he remembered the caveat after expiring the first one. “It’s been a long time.”
My laughter wanes as I straighten, pride swelling within me. “My brother. Back to ridding the world of his mother’s minions over a human woman. The world is right-side up once again,” I taunt him.
It’s been forever since I’ve seen him enact any revenge on a creature deserving of it. He’s been so lonely and tormented since his punishment…
Blaze peers my way, and my smile widens.
“What? You can’t fault me for being excited about this. You’re one step closer to your old self. I’ve missed you,” I say.
He stuffs his hands back into his pockets and peers Juniper’s way once more. “I forgot how piercing their screams are,” he says lowly.
I beam. “There’s my beloved brother.”
Blaze scoffs and shakes his head, though there’s a distant pride behind his stern facade that’s unmistakable.
