The club felt different now.
For the first time since I had stepped foot inside it, I felt like I belonged here. Not a mortal fish in a supernatural sea, but something different entirely.
Just like Wye.
As he had told me of his origins not long after we returned from meeting his father. Oblivion's powers returned instantly the second we left the Null. He had also told me of his father’s obsession with his mother and vowed to find her again one day, rules of their world be damned. Of course, Wye had laughed when I told him I thought it sounded romantic, pointing out,
“You didn’t think it was romantic when I kidnapped you, so what do you think my father intends to do with my mother if he ever finds where she is hiding?” My answer was a simple,
“Fair point.”
As for now, I shifted slightly in my seat, smoothing my hand over the fabric of my dress as I adjusted against the newly expanded throne. The space beside Wye was no longer something borrowed from his lap but carved out as though it had always been meant for me.
“Okay,” I admitted, glancing up at him with a small smile,
“This is definitely comfier than Walder’s couch,” Wye huffed softly beside me, the corner of his mouth lifting in a way that still caught me off guard sometimes. Because it came easier now, that rare, devastating smile was no longer something rationed out like a weapon, but something warmer, something real.
Something frequent.
“Well,” he replied, his voice carrying that familiar dry edge, though it lacked the bite it once had,
“You did spend far too long praising his seat. I thought it was about time I remedied that.”
Before I could respond, his hands were already moving, sliding beneath my legs as he lifted them with ease and draped them across his lap anyway. Completely undoing the purpose of the wider throne in a single, effortless motion.
I laughed, shaking my head as I looked at him.
“I thought the whole point of getting this was so I didn’t have to sit on your lap all the time.”
“Call it a compromise,” he murmured, his hands already tracing slowly along my bare legs, entirely unbothered by the fact that we were very much not alone.
I arched a brow at him.
“Feeling me up in front of your entire club is a compromise?”
He tilted his head slightly, that wicked glint flashing in his eyes as he looked up at me.
“What do you think?”
“Careful, my lord…” Iridessa’s voice cut in smoothly from nearby, her tone dry, though there was something lighter in it now. Something far removed from the broken, lifeless state I had first seen her in,
“…that smirk and wink will only get you so far.”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face at that, glancing toward her as I nodded.
“Exactly. That’s what I keep telling him.”
Torin let out a low chuckle from where he stood nearby, arms folded as he watched the exchange with clear amusement. The tension that had once defined him now eased into something steadier, though no less imposing.
And as for Iridessa…
We had become great friends.
The sickness that had once crawled beneath her skin was gone, leaving nothing behind but the faint memory of it. And if anything, it had only seemed to harden her further, steel layered over something already formidable.
Strangely, the one good thing to come from my foolish decision to get us all trapped in the Null… was that it had saved her life. It turned out that having another woman around who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind was…refreshing.
Even if she did occasionally enjoy reminding Wye that he wasn’t quite as untouchable as he liked to think.
