I press my lips together and refuse to meet her faerie eyes. “Mmhm.”
She pokes me in the cheek. “So…if it wasjust like that, with no other details to share, why are you blushing?”
“Oh, no reason. Maybe I have a fever. I read how that might be a symptom.”
Sly, Zahra says, “What did you do, DaniBird?”
“How dare you accuse a sick person of misbehavior.” I whip my innocent, red, face away—then I flinch.
Zahra drops her teasing. “Are you okay?”
Swallowing hard, I lift my hand to my chest, where a steady and solid pain disconnected from me twinges. “I am… I don’t know if Castor is, though.”
Zahra arches a brow and looks me over. “You can already feel the soul bond?”
“Yeah, I’ve been practicing since I got back from Willow and Zylus’s yesterday. It’s getting easier to pick up the sensations.”
Zahra’s colorful lashes flutter. “Huh. But you’re still human. I couldn’t feel even a whisper of that darned thing while I was still human.” She folds her arms and drifts to the floor beside my hanging bed. “To be fair, I also wasn’t learning magic before I was fully fae, either. Any idea what you are yet? Must be crazy powerful.”
“I think I’m something that has to do with fire.”
Zahra’s lips quirk. “That’s cute. Castor likes arson.”
I find a smile amid the rising anguish. “He’s really cute.”
“He’s something, that’s for sure. I’m not ready to confirmcuteas the best word for it. Xios is cute. Castor is…” Her voice trails, then she snaps. “A goober.”
“A sweet, and also cute, goober.”
“He keeps you in a cage in his bedroom,” she deadpans.
To protect me at night. And he lets me out whenever I want. And, lo, the door is wide open right now. Dreamily, I croon, “Forromance.”
She sighs. “You’ve really fallen all the way under his spell, haven’t you?”
If I weren’t on the precipice of agony and worried about the unsettle tripping along my mate’s soul bond, I might be so inclined to giggle. “He makes me breakfast in bed. And it’s often shaped like little animals. And he’s lowkey kinda hot, too. Like. Have you seen the way he ties back his sleeves when he’s cleaning?” I melt, a bit. “He uses histeethto tighten the knot, Zahr. Histeeth.”
“Oh yeah, no, for sure. The man is super attractive. But have you met a faerie thatisn’t? I haven’t. All the fae menfolk are pretty in various ways. I’m pretty sure the scale is just how muchshoulderyou want.” She lifts her hands and wiggles the left one. “Over here, Xios. Shoulders are purely functional and relatively broad in a graceful anime lead kinda way.” She wiggles her right hand. “This, is Pollux.”
“Oh, one hundred percent. That man is terribly large. I wouldn’t have believed he was a doctor if he hadn’t whipped out a whole hand-held ultrasound from his medical bag. It was crazy. He just straight up materialized by Castor’s bed in a black lab coat as though it was normal, then he told me to drink some random fruity concoction that made me feel roughly fifty percent better, then he diagnosed me.”Then, he smacked Castor upside the head and judged our blossoming romance. “I think I have to admit it; I stan Dr. Pollux.”
Zahra stares at me, then looks toward the glass ceiling. “Right.Doctor. That’s what he is. I keep forgetting.”
“Is he not a doctor?”
“Technically he is? It’s just hard not to think of him as a mad scientist with the way that Kass so often and so casually mentions his experiments blowing up.”
“Oh.” Note to self: perhaps more caution should be exhibited prior to drinking random fruity beverages that men in black lab coats hand to me.
“The point is,” Zahra gets us back on task, “shoulder girth. They’re allhot, but how much shoulder do you want?”
I jut my lip and consider. The consideration doesn’t take long. “Castor levels of shoulder, please.”
Zahra plants her hands at her hips. “Yeah, you’re whipped.”
Sticking my nose in the air, I say, “Just like the cream Castor homemakes for my pancakes and pairs with a dozen strawberry hearts.”
Zahra snorts. “Maybe it’s a mutual whipping, then. That’s a relief. I think.”
