More than reassurance.
More than a sense of belonging.
And more than affection or even adoration.
It was our way of being now.
As a whole.
I couldn’t sleep.
My mind was too busy.
With what had happened to Win, which had been made worse by not being able to talk to him because he was still asleep.
And with what Evira had told us when we’d retired to the guestroom that Win’s family had made up for us.
She’d given up her title.
Shit.That was a big fucking deal. I mean, she’d done her best to try to downplay it and even claimed it was for the best because she was away from the Dracoryn Realm anyway, and would be for the next four years of her studies at Loxley. But it had still been a part of her identity and now that had been taken away. Well, she’d agreed to it, been given a choice. But how much of a choice had there really been? If she’d refused, it would have caused a whole fuckfest in the Dracoryn Realm because of how they saw Win—as a threat.
I was fucking sick of it.
Win was the farthest thing from a threat.
If they knew him, if they even spent just a few moments with him, they’d see that. Everyone would.
Evira was taking it so well, though. She really was a fucking queen.
Vax had pointed out that we couldn’t shift Dracoryn Realm politics overnight, or make it better for her from that perspective, but we could make her time with us happy and amazing—we could help her that way.
Of course he was right. He usually was. And he had an intricate understanding of political bullshit and bigger picture matters and narratives.
But it didn’t make it easy or instant to accept all of this. No, not accept it—live with it as things currently were.
And when there were issues with people wielding their power in fucked-up ways that hurt others, it got under my skin.
Like a relentless fucking itch.
I wasn’t at the point where I was gonna explode or anything, but I was in an unsettled state, meaning I couldn’t sleep.
Fortunately, I had a load of distractions around me right now in this room ofGlacialis Arx. They called itEntertainment Hub,and it was basically a big-time den.
Well, there was nothing basic about it.
His family had gone all out when they’d created it.
No wonder with the restrictions Win had lived with.
I lounged back on the oversized ivory sectional that was covered with amethyst throws, the same stunning color of Win’s eyes.Shit,those fucking eyes of his, I missed looking into them. I wanted him to wake up. Soon. Real damn soon.
I blinked and focused back on the massive screen opposite me on the gray stone wall, the kind that could be split into multiple feeds—a really cool setup.
It had taken me some time rummaging through the drawers and cabinets in the big-ass entertainment unit beneath the screen that took up a whole wall, before I’d found the fighting games. They’d been tucked away. Win’s doing, no doubt. He didn’t care for them, not exactly a fan of the violence of it all. He’d been all about the exploration games, something he and Ketheron had gotten into together. Lazriel had been all for the fighting stuff like me and we’d played a few times when I’d stayed here. I’d even come across one of the controllers that he’d used that had bite and claw marks in it, because he got crazy immersed. Cassius had gotten into the whole video game thing too, but he’d gone for strategy games.
Velra had been more focused on what was behind me over in the far corner of the massive space—the arcade games.
There was a magical firing range opposite all that with swirling targets that could move at different speeds and patterns, something Sylas liked playing around with.
