“Jesus Christ,” Audrey wheezed. When I looked at her, her cheeks were flushed red just like mine were. “Talk about matching energy.”
“No, I think actually he won this round.” I tugged at the collar of my shirt and fanned myself, trying to control my racing heart. His text got me so heated, I was worried I’d start sweating right here and now.
“What are you going to say back?” Audrey asked.
“Crap, I have to think.” I rubbed the side of my neck, staring at his words on the screen, “I’m genuinely so horned up right now.” I was squeezing my legs together and everything.
Audrey hummed, then looked down at her own phone with a grin.
“What? Did Liam text you?” I asked her.
“Yeah.” She pocketed the phone and stood from her chair. “He’s just making sure we’re ready. We’re not sailing into Hyvenmere this time.
“Oh shit.” I stood up, too. “How are we going?”
“We’re lyskifting,” Audrey replied, but then stopped to give me a funny look. “You haven’t done that yet, have you?” I gave her a look of disbelief.
“No. Believe it or not, I haven’t teleported yet.”
“I meant to ask,wehaven’t lyskifted with you yet?” Audrey chuckled to herself. “It’s a lot faster than sailing. This way, if things go south at Bandthral, we can escape without having to leave your boat in Hyvenmere.”
I quirked my lips to the side in thought. Made sense, though I couldn’t deny that the thought of me teleporting intimidated me.
Audrey stared at me again, a new kind of hopefulness in her expression. “I know you and I haven’t had a lot offuntogether recently.” Ah, that’s what her previous look was for. “But I love sharing this with you. Not hiding anything. Not having any more secrets. It almost feels like we’re us again.”
I grinned. “That’s all I want. And if that means teleporting with you to snoop through magical castles in magical realms,then I’ll take it. My boat has probably got more mileage on it in the last few weeks than it has in years, anyway.”
Audrey bit her bottom lip, a look of guilt passing over her expression. “Van?”
“Yeah?” I turned to grab my jacket off the back of our couch.
“You know you don’t actually have a distant aunt that died and left you an inheritance, right?”
I froze. “What?”
“That was Liam.” Audrey grimaced when she saw whatever expression I was making. “I told him I wanted you to be protected from all of this. How you and I didn’t have much. And he, well…bought some old woman’s estate. He managed to beef up the accounts, too. That way, if anything happened to me, you’d be set.”
“Audrey.” I gaped at her, thoroughly astonished. “You’re telling me I bought the Sun Bean and own a boat because of Liam’s wealth?”
Audrey tugged on the hem of her shirt as she shrank away from me. “Yeah…”
I let her sit in the silence for several moments. The discomfort from this revelation settled over her like a weighted cloak, drawing her shoulders up higher and higher the longer I let her absorb this. The thought of all my success being because Liam decided to throw his wealth at me, even when I wasn’t aware of his world or true existence, made my pride take a hit. But, he was also spending half his nights here in our apartment, sleeping in Audrey’s bed platonically, helping us stay safe even though Ilia’s men haven’t come searching for me again.
“Well.” I lifted a shoulder. “Whatever.”
Audrey blinked. “Whatever?”
“Yeah, whatever. I guess I’m okay with taking handouts from the one percent.”
Audrey’s eyes widened with amusement, and an unsure laugh erupted from her lips.
“You consider Liam the one percent?”
“He was able to dump money into our accounts and gift me a boat just like that.” I emphasized my words with a snap of my fingers.
“Okay, the boat was never meant to be a significant part of this. I’m still genuinely surprised I convinced you to keep it. But anyway, Liam’s part of an entirely different socio-economic structure?—”
“He’s still basically a millionaire—hell, maybe even a billionaire. So, yeah…” I waved her off. “I’m not upset that Liam provided me with financial security. It’s the least he could do after kidnapping you and making our friendship weird for two years, honestly.”
