Melvin snorted.“Hickinbottom.”
Mare waved her hand impatiently.“Like I said, Belinda Hickeybottom.Heckin’booty?Whatever!”
He pushed himself to his feet, then paused to stare at the two guys standing in the doorway.“What happened to your knights, there,Mary Sue?”
Mare whirled to see where he was looking, then narrowed her eyes at him.“Don’t even start with that shit, Mel.You ever call me that name again and I’ll turn you into a toad.”
He grinned.“Still, they don’t look too great.”
Cassius and Draven were kind of…stuck in between.It was like their true selves were peeking out of the illusion, and it was fucking weird.They were all…distorted.
“I…” Cass said, pausing to swallow hard.His eyes looked sharper now, though still a little confused.“Mel?”
Melvin took pity on the guy and went to pull him into a hug.“It’s okay, Cass.We’ll sort it out and get you out of there.I promise.”
Mel pulled back from Cass to find Draven watching him with round brown eyes.“Why do I want berries and a nap?”
Melvin let out a manic laugh.“I’ll do my best to explain, then hopefully we can get the fuck out of here.But first, I’d like to stop feeling like a hunk of seared ribeye.”He gestured at the worst of the blisters, which had just broken open and started to weep.
Mare rolled her eyes and shoved them all out the door.“Come on, then.Everything about this mauve nightmare is making my headache worse.”
Once they were settled in the kitchen, Melvin did his best to guide Mare through a healing spell.Witch magic and sorcerer magic were two completely different things.But he understood the basic principals, and Mare seemed to be remembering more and more of who she was, now that he’d broken the curse of thePerfect Petal Pink.Mel shuddered.No more pink in their lives after this.Ever.
He sighed in relief as Mare spritzed the cooled tincture on his skin, activating it with a little wave of her hand and a connection to the earth.Thank all the powers that were listening that she stillhada connection to the natural world, here in whatever aether they currently occupied.It wasn’t her best patch job.But he could hardly complain about a few more scars, given how badly he was already marked up from years of experiments and hairbrained, last minute spellwork.
“Better?”Mare said at last, leaning back to peer into his eyes, her expression conveying all the concern and love she wouldn’t ever let show on the surface.People thought she was tough and scary, his Mare—but she was the most fiercelylovingperson he knew.She’d just never been given permission to show it until they all came into her life.
He nodded.“Much better.”Then he set about trying to explain their weird, unconventional, exciting, often dangerous, but wouldn’t-trade-it-for-the-world life.
Chapter 10
Irubbedmyforehead,tryingto ease the headache that had settled between my eyes as Mel spoke.Things were coming back, the memories flowing in like water equalizing.But I could still feel the way my mind had been fucked with, and it left a dull ache behind.The floor under us rumbled with a fine tremor as Melvin finished up with his accounting of things.This whole damned world was on the brink of collapse.I sat there in silence for a few minutes as I tried to center myself, to process and realign.
My guys.
I’d been alone for a long time before I had the premonition about my lovers.My visions were intermittent and weak.Premonition was the weakest and most unreliable of my poorly trained witch magic, so at first, I’d brushed it off as fantasy.Until I met the strange sorcerer on a job for the national university of magic.
I’d recognized him immediately, of course, and I had felt myself drawn to him just as fast.He was all bound energy and an eager desire for adventure.It was clear that hehatedbeing tied to the university—a fate that befellallstrong sorcerers, so they could be kept in line, filed away as educators or curators of the magical library andawayfrom trouble.I’d seen a kindred spirit in those eager hazel eyes.So…I stole him.
I had always been at the outskirts of the magic community.My witch skills weren’t as strong as some, and I hated being made to behave.I found a job with the local law enforcement agency, doing investigation and research that the others didn’t want to handle.But stealing Melvin from the sacred halls of the prestigious university while he was supposed to be helping me with research into a pixy dust smuggling ring?That was my first true act of the defiant mayhem that would become my life.
I squeezed his hand in mine as he told me about our first meeting.It all came back to me in a wave of warmth and love—how we’d met, how our crazy adventures had led to so much more.I’d never been in love before.I didn’t have the first clue how to go about loving him.But he’d taken that in stride, with eagerness and a sense of adventure, just like everything else he did.
Then I’d come across Cassius.Fairies were generally a pain in the ass to deal with, too flighty and distractible to carry on a decent conversation and a pain in the ass to interview when I was on a job.Officially, I’d went into the small fairy village on the outskirts of my hometown to investigate a kidnapping that was probably carried out by someone wanting fairy parts for spells.Unofficially,I’d also hoped to swipe some fairy dust while I was at it.It came in handy for spells, but cost a fucking year’s wages for an ounce of the good stuff.
Cassius had caught me red-handed.But instead of turning me in or forgetting what he was doing and getting distracted by some shiny new thought the way another fairy might…he’d asked to help.He wanted out of his life and his predetermined box just as much as Melvin had.And Cassius had one more thing going for him—blackmail.I’d recognized his sharp, ready wit and mischievous mind the moment I looked into those summer-sky eyes.It was either let him help so he wouldn’t die of boredom, or he’d turn me in…so he wouldn’t die of boredom.
By the time that job was over, I’d found a way to make Cassius human-sized, and I’d added one demanding, beautiful, Machiavellian fairy to my team.And my bed.
I watched Cassisus’s eyes brighten as Mel started recounting his story.But I soon took over, all the memories rushing back.The longer I talked, the more the illusion faded, until the man sitting in the chair in front of me was no longer a cardboard cut-out of some human bodybuilder.He sat up tall, stretching to his full height, his iridescent dragon-fly wings flicking, then humming into excited motion as he regained himself.His pretty, elfin face stretched into a wide smile as he darted forward to grip my face between his graceful hands.
“Mare!I swear on all the dew in the morning, I thought I was…human.And not even aninterestinghuman.It was awful!”
I laughed and pressed a kiss to his sweet lips.“I know.Downright disgusting.I’m so glad you’re back.”A shimmer of fairy dust settled on my hands and clothes as he stood, moving about the room in quick, graceful motions.“Bring Draven back.We’ve got to figure this out.I need to see the sky, smell the grass!”
I smothered a smile and turned to Draven, who was looking a bit more with it, but still confused.Melvin started to explain how we’d met the bear shifter, but I waved him away.I remembered now.All of it.All ofthem.
I gripped Draven’s strong fingers in my own.“You were the hardest one to convince,” I said softly.“These two boneheads were just dying to escape.But you…I had to pry you out of your cave and force you to join us.”
