“Give her time, man.”
“She’s had two years of time,” I growled. “How much more do you suggest I allow her?”
He shook his head but didn’t take my tone to heart. “She’s been exiled for her entire life. Two years is nothing compared to that.”
I let out a breath and eased my grip on the steering wheel. As usual, he was right. I thought I understood it when she denied me. She’d never really known my world, and who knew what kind of lies her parents had fed to her about it. They were offered clemency, but maybe she didn’t believe it.
A future chained up in a room with only her bonded keeping her alive—that was probably what she saw. I didn’t blame her for those fears. I was hurt but understanding when she disappeared. Angry when she was later discovered hiding out in some shithole, completing online classes rather than living in the comfort and luxury afforded to her new station once we completed the bond. But now, I was enraged.
“She felt me, I know she did.” I let us into the apartment and slammed the door. “Why does she still deny me?”
“Who knows? Women make no sense outside the bedroom,” Ez joked, heading straight for the fridge and cracking open a cold one.
He sat on the couch, and I kicked his legs to drop his dirty-ass shoes off the coffee table. “I didn’t spend the last two years creating this human cover and working my way into a position at this university for nothing.”
I wasn’t lying when I said I understood her fears. She needed time, so I gave it to her. I kept the tribunal off her back and let her decide her future. It was a simple matter of watching her emails to see where she’d apply and then transferring here into a position close to her.
“I’ve been patient, but no more.” Ez said nothing, but I wasn’t sure if it was from lack of opinion or because he knew I wouldn’t listen.
I thought I wanted to get to know my bond. I planned to use my resources to help her get this useless degree before going home and beginning our lives together. If she wanted to fix animals in her free time, so be it if it made her happy. The tribunal families had pets, too. But now, I wanted to destroy that fairytale.
I wanted to shut down every dream she had about living a quiet life among the humans until she only had me left to turn to. Until she was forced to beg me for forgiveness and take her rightful place at my side. Maybe that was the anger talking, but I didn’t shy away from it. I let it simmer and grow until it was a shield protecting my heart from the only girl in the world who could break it. And she didn’t even care.
Ready or not, princess. Here I come.
I paced my room. Back and forth in front of the mirror, until I wore a track in the useless rug my mother insisted I buy as I waited for her image to appear. The large mirror over my dresser revealed a smooth surface, not even a ripple.
A shallow, gold bowl rested in front of it, filled to the brim with a fresh batch of moon water and three crystals balanced in the middle—amethyst to open communication, rose quartz to focus on calling my mother specifically, and I threw in a blue kyanite for extra emotional balance.
I needed all the help I could get. My shadows had only just calmed enough for me to venture back out among the humans, and it took an entire afternoon of meditation to get it that way.
“Would you hurry up?” Ez burst into my room with a trailing cloud of cinnamon and ginger, his favorite herbs when he wanted to get lucky. “If we’re any later, the only available women left will be the ones too drunk to even know where I’m asking to stick my dick.”
I rolled my eyes and lit an extra candle for urgency. “At least you’re asking.”
“Don’t be an ass just because Mommy Dearest isn’t picking up. You know I’m big on consent.”
I heard the irritation in his voice, along with an undertone of hurt, and turned to him with a grimace. There wasn’t a whole lot of choice in my cousin’s life and insinuating that he took it lightly was a dick move.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. Why don’t you go ahead without me, and I’ll catch up?” I offered, knowing I wasn’t leaving this room tonight until my mother answered.
“That seems highly irresponsible seeing as Ezra is supposed to be guarding you.” I whirled around at the sound of my mother’s voice and caught the tail end of her materialization. The ripples in the mirror settled into a familiar stern frown. “Sending your protection away was not part of the deal, and I’m sure your cousin is aware of the consequences should he fail.”
The room grew ten degrees cooler before I could answer. Frost coated the crystals in the bowl and splintered along the edges of the mirror as Ez’s temper filled the small space.
“Hello, Auntie Mira. It’s a pleasure, as always.”
I didn’t need to see him to know his eyes were narrowed in disrespect. His normally dark complexion grew paler the more he fell into his power. I could see my breath in front of me and knew this stare-down would only result in me mopping up the room once all the ice melted if I didn’t put a stop to it.
“Go wait in the living room,” I ordered. “Mother and I will be done in a moment.” Ez left without another word, and I fixed a glare at the mirror. “Why do you do that? Why taunt him just to be cruel?”
My mother glanced down at the large ring dominating the index finger on her right hand, our family crest staring back at her. “My displeasure at you choosing that…mongrel as your second is a known fact,” she sniffed. “My brother should have dealt with him as a baby, as our rules demand.”
Being half-human, as Ezra was, was a crime in our world. Only pure blood ensured our people remained strong enough to survive, both against the changing outside world and the other factions in the tribunal seeking more than their share of power.
My uncle having an affair with a human was distasteful but not unheard of. That he bred an heir on her, that Ezra was left on his doorstep as a screaming infant for the whole community to learn about…it was shameful for the faction. But it was not “dealing with it” that my mother saw as the gravest insult.
Instead, my uncle named Ezra his rightful heir, even after the full-blooded children that followed, and then I chose him as my second.
