She shoves my shoulder and starts to walk up the beach. I trot after her. “Let’s go and have some fun, then.”
Rachel drags me straight into an arcade, where we play the 2p machines until I finally win a sparkly keyring and we’re both outof coins. Margot joins us later in the afternoon, happy to snatch up a half dozen piping-hot doughnuts, and we retreat back to the sands. My hands are gritty and sticky with sugar, and my cheeks hurt from smiling.
“We’ll come visit you,” Margot says, “but maybe when this mess with the fae has smoothed over.”
“Hopefully, that won’t take years,” I mutter. Who knows, after all. The fae live impossibly long lives.
“Fine, within the year if the fae aren’t sorted,” Rachel says. “But if you want to come here in the meantime, we’ve got room for you.”
Even Margot seems surprised at that, brows drawing together, but she smiles at me encouragingly all the same.
“Thanks.”
They leave not long after that, just as the sun is beginning to dip towards the horizon. Orange streaks paint the sky and I stretch my legs out in the sand to watch it go down, occasionally munching on one of the leftover doughnuts.
Vlad joins me about ten minutes after it gets dark. He lowers himself into the sand by my side and when I pass him half a doughnut, he takes a bite and lets out a contented hum.
“It went well?” he asks. There are too many lights here to really see the stars, but I tip my head back to try to get a glimpse of them anyway.
“Better than I could have hoped for. I asked about my parents.”
“And?”
“I need to think on it for a while. But they’re okay, Rachel said. At least I know.”
“Good.” Vlad kisses my temple, arm a welcome weight around my shoulders, and I’m not against the idea of going back, goinghome, but part of me would like to stay here forever. It’s a perfectmoment in a long line of perfect moments that stretch ahead of us.
“We should go back to the hotel,” I say. “Get packed up.”
Vlad huffs. “I did that,” he replies, as though it should be obvious. “The bags are in the car, and we are all checked out. I had time today.”
“Are you saying I’m a distraction?” I turn and really look at him. He’s still wearing suit trousers and a shirt, but the top two buttons of the shirt are unfastened and my eyes drop to that patch of exposed skin. “You’re the distraction.”
Vlad laughs and kisses me. I taste sugar on his lips, in his mouth. He gentles it when I try to climb into his lap, holding me in place.
“We are not exactly alone.”
He’s not wrong. I kiss him again, tug his beard, and brush off the soles of my feet before I pull on my shoes. “I know. We should head back, anyway.”
“We have time.”
“We’ll come back. Won’t we?”
“Of course.”
I jump to my feet and when I hold out a hand to help him up, he doesn’t hesitate to take it. We walk to the car like that, hand in hand, and I think Vlad would never let go at all except he needs both hands to drive us back.
The journey is nice. I roll my window down, breathing in the cool night air, and chatter away as Vlad drives. I want to spend more time with Quinn—when he’s not with Asher and I’m not with Vlad, of course. I want to meet his pack. Once everything is safer, I want to have more people in our home, but not all the time because I want time for me and Vlad, too.
I don’t notice how quiet Vlad has gone until we pull up outside the base. He shuts off the engine and I listen as it begins to cool.The bond tells me nothing, and I don’t really want it to. I want to be able to read him all on my own.
“What’s going on? Things aren’t going to be different now that we’re back, are they?”
“No, of course not.”
“Because you’re mine now. You said it. My boyfriend, partner, whatever.”
“Grant.” He says my name with such fondness, and I still. “I have no doubts about us. I have no compunction about telling the others. I am preparing myself for what the consequences may be.”
