“It has many talents,” I whispered knowingly.
She flushed and knocked her shoulder against mine before I caught movement from the corner of my eye. Ig had left the group and was walking away to meet Archer, who was striding towards us.
“We’re leaving,” I said without hesitation, pulling Quentin to her feet.
Archer truly was proving to be the most difficult obstacle that I couldn’t remove. His infatuation with Quentin ran deeper than I originally assumed, and I couldn’t decipher the reasoning behind it, and I didn’t care. He needed to stay away from her.
Unfurling my aura, I cloaked it around Quentin, but wisps of green infiltrated it before the three of us landed back in the living room of our home.
“Get out!” I barked at Archer, pushing Quentin behind me.
“What are you doing here?” Quentin asked, moving next to me again.
Archer focused on her. “I wanted to see if you’d like to join me in lower Elysia again. Spend some time with your kin since we were so rudely interrupted. So many of them are still waiting for an introduction, but it appears I’ve walked in on a cosy afternoon. Please, correct me if I’m wrong.”
“What exactly do you think you saw?” I asked him, keeping my aura around.
“You both seem very close,” Archer answered. “And don’t brush me off, saying you’re just friends. I don’t look at mine like that. Then again, if that friend were Quentin…”
A muscle in my jaw twitched as he took her in from head to toe.
“Maybe it’s a friends-with-benefits scenario,” he continued. “I don’t blame you there, Grayson. There were plenty of eyes on her at the gifting ball.” He sighed, focusing on her. “I’m trying to figure out what’s going on here, Quentin. Though I would have hoped you would be a little more intelligent than to be seduced by him.”
She narrowed her eyes, upset with the swipe at her intelligence.
“Get out of my house,” I demanded.
Archer took a step towards her, but I let my aura build a wall between them.
“Always so protective of her. If she’s a quick fuck, why go to all this effort? And if she’s a quick fuck, you won’t mind sharing.”
Logic and sense had never prevailed where I was concerned. Not when anger and chaos simmered close to the surface. And they didn’t just simmer but scorched through my veins as my aura slammed him against the wall with such impact that the plaster fractured. Quentin grabbed my arm just as Archer unleashed his aura.
“Don’t you dare speak about her like that!” I thundered.
“Why not?” Archer asked, picking himself up from the floor. “Just another conquest in your long line, right?”
I struck out again, but Archer blocked the attack.
“I only came to offer her my company,” Archer mused.
“It’s not happening, Archer,” Quen spat.
“And why not, angel?”
Quentin moved towards him with defiant purpose, but a tendril of my aura wrapped around her waist, pulling her back. She lost her balance, arms flailing and hand dragging across the table in the room as she tried to stabilise herself. Quen crashed into my chest as the table transformed from black to gold.
Archer’s face contorted. “Are you serious?”
“I asked you to leave,” I told him darkly.
“She loves you? You! After everything you’ve done?”
I turned away from Archer, Quentin still pressed against my chest as I shielded her. “Go to Erik’s,” I instructed.
“Gray—"
“Just go!” I roared, releasing her from my aura.
