“Rose, open the door,” Nox called from outside my room, his loud knock making me jump from my bed.
I closed my eyes. “Now isn’t a good time, Nox.”
A rustle of wind brushed against my skin. “We weren’t asking.”
My heart leapt up my throat as Arowyn appeared beside me, arms crossed over her full chest.
I let out a flustered exhale and grumbled, “What did I say about doing that?”
She shrugged, then crossed to the door to let Nox in. His ear-length, wavy hair was perfectly mussed, the rings on his fingers glittering as he brandished a bottle of green wine at me.
“You’re not getting out of this one, darling,” he said. “We’ve only a few nights left to thoroughly corrupt one another, and you’ve been avoiding us all week.”
“I’ve been busy.”
Arowyn sank into the chair by my bed. “You’ve been a coward.”
I shot her a look, and she raised an eyebrow. “What? Scared one of us will beat you in the third trial?” she taunted.
“You know I don’t care about that,” I said, rolling my eyes and pulling a blanket over my legs to cover my father’s Grimoire.
“I know. Just trying to get you to admit it,” she said.
“Admit what?”
Nox threw himself onto the bed next to me. “That youloveus,” he said dramatically, drawing out the words. “That you’re so heartbroken to never see us again that you’ve locked yourself away.”
I nestled further into the raised pillow at my back. “You two think you’re so smart.”
“We are,” Arowyn responded. “I guess we also wanted to make sure you were still alive.”
Nox cut in. “And catch you up on the latest news. You’ve missed a lot in this cage of yours.”
I stared him down, tapping my finger against my side, neither of us willing to break, until…
I sighed. “Fine, what’s the latest news?”
He smirked. “Arowyn saw one of the architects sneaking out of Callum’s room two nights ago.”
“What? Why?”
Arowyn snorted. “Why do you think? She was either killing him, helping him, or screwing him, and I saw him heading to the training room yesterday, so he’s obviously not dead yet.”
“I wish someone would kill him,” I mumbled.
Nox handed me the green bottle of Luxe with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Drink up, darling. There’s a lot more where that came from.”
Arowyn leaned forward and snatched the bottle. “To our last night of normalcy,” she toasted, then took a swig. I laughed along with Nox, the sound unfamiliar to my ears after being tucked away for so many days.
Perhaps moments like this would be worth having to say goodbye.
Several hours later,Nox and Arowyn had their fill of Luxe and were experiencing the after effects of its exhilarating relaxation. I’d only had a few sips of the green wine, finding the idea of my mind being ripe for the plucking uncomfortable. Arowyn lounged on the ground against my window, where she threw her sharp little daggers at a spot on the wall across the room, striding to retrieve them every time she ran out. At first I’d protested, thenrealized…it was the palace’s room. Why did I care if she mutilated it?
Nox lay next to me on the bed, humming a hauntingly melodic tune I didn’t recognize. Every once in a while I’d catch his fingers shifting to sharp claws and back again. I couldn’t make out what kind of animal they belonged to. As much as I itched to ask, I didn’t want to take advantage of his alcohol-induced state if it wasn’t information he was willing to share.
“You’re awfully somber, viper,” he drawled. “What’s on your mind?”
I ran my tongue along my teeth, considering my words. My mind had been preoccupied with thoughts about the curse and magic. I’d gone through my father’s Grimoire and more books in the library than I could count, but nothing stuck out to me. I needed to see things in a new way, to approach it from a different direction.
