“Good enough. Get dressed, then.” Neri works his way off the bed and gets to his feet, grabbing his discarded shirt from the floor. “We don’t have much time.”
Reconstructing my mental wards, I reach for a pillow and use it to cover myself, suddenly feeling like someone poured a bucket of cold creek water over my head. “You’re really just going to leave? To walk away like I’m not sitting here naked and—”
“Horny asfuck?” He tugs on his shirt and twists to look at me as he shimmies the fabric down his rippled abdomen, cocking his head with an appreciative once-over that drags from my head to my feet. A wicked grin spreads across his face. “I am. Actually, I’m going to walk next door while you prepare for our little outing and jack off my throbbing dick until I am thoroughly and utterly spent of every waiting drop of cum in my extremely blue balls.”
I glare at him, not believing this. “You are evil, wolf. I hate you.”
Laughing, he moves to the door but turns back with a wink. “I’m a god. We might be greedy bastards, but we know how to wait for what we want. Experiments are fun, don’t you think, little bird?”
With a growl of my own, I launch the pillow at him, just as he vanishes into the hall.
22
NERI
Nephele and I arrive on the grounds of the Northland Watch barracks an hour later, but not thanks to me.
A sigh of relief leaves her as she slides her hands down from around my neck and peers up at me from under her hood, raindrops already dripping from the cowl. We stand under a wide-limbed tree providing too little shelter from the early afternoon downpour.
“You did it,” I say, a note of pride in my voice even I can hear.
Iamproud of her, though I don’t know how this impossible ability to control the aether is even a thing to be proud of. More an anomaly to be dissected and scrutinized. She didn’t even require the sliphs. The aether just came to her.
But I can’t stop thinking about what I’m feeling. I’ve never known pride for anyone outside myself.
It strikes me that I’ve been feeling a bevy of human emotions I’ve never known before. Worry. Empathy. Concern. Protectiveness. And so many more. Desire is normal. Lust, too. Aggression. Envy. Dominance. Anything selfish or that serves my needs has been all that’s ever mattered. Feelings that affectmeandmybalance of power within the world.
Never have I felt more for another being than for myself.
Until now.
Nephele takes a deep breath of damp air. “Yes, I did it. But I didn’t get usinsidethe secret room. Or even inside the barracks. I tried, but I obviously missed.”
“The aether is sometimes difficult to wield when it first learns you. I had the same issue when I came into being. But once it does, it becomes a friend. Always there when you call.”
With a glint of something like sadness in her eyes, she glances at the ground around us.
I already know the aether is rejecting me. Not as severely as before, which tells me her theory on the blood curse is very likely correct. But perhaps I require larger doses of blood than what I received today in a bowl of stew and a kiss to restore the power being taken from me by the grove’s curse.
“I’m sorry this is happening to you,” she says. “But you have to let me try to take us North tonight. Please.”
Again, I’m struck by feelings I shouldn’t have. Worry, for one. For her safety.
“We’ll discuss it later,” I say over the wet hush washing across the world. “Let’s get to your secret room for now. We don’t have much time before Thibault finds us missing and loses his godsdamn mind.”
“He’s beginning to scare me,” she says, as though she needs to speak that truth aloud.
“Because he’s becoming Un Drallag again. He’s facing a looming war. Thamaos is back. People are threatening his land. And now his woman is gone, his best friend is gone, and his old friend Fleurie is gone again, too. The only control he has over protecting his pack is with you. And you’re consorting with me, his enemy. So much as I hate that fucking bastard, I can understand his plight.” My words seem to soak into her as she stares up at me, raindrops collecting on her long eyelashes. I wipe them away and say, “Go on. Give it a go. Let’s do this.”
In seconds, we’re standing in a long hallway where a woman exits an apartment. We dip our heads in greeting as she passes, but I can sense her wariness over two strangers wandering her dormitories. She moves on regardless and hurries down the stairs before shoving through the wooden door and into the rain.
Nephele guides me past a few apartments before she slows to a stop in front of a blank wall. I press my fingertips to it, sensing. Curious.
“Your father wasn’t lying.” I lay my palm flat. “There’s certainly magick on the other side.”
She lowers her wet hood, revealing damp hair, every curl a bit tighter around her delicate face. She’s fucking lovely. And adorable. And I just want to kiss her and make her laugh so I can see that bright smile again.
The fact I’m thinking such a thing takes me aback. I’m beginning not to recognize myself anymore. What has this woman done to me?
