“If I regret this.” Kai’s mouth brushed his ever so slightly. “I don’t,” he rasped, “just so we’re clear.”
There was a yearning in Baz’s eyes. “Thanks for clearing that up.”
“Anytime.” With another teasing brush of the lips, Kai drew himself up and plopped down on the sofa.
Baz cleared his throat, visibly flustered as he righted his glasses and pulled at his sleeves. Still, he couldn’t hide the small smile playing on his lips, and Kai couldn’t help but like him even more than he already did.
When Baz finally met Kai’s gaze, it was with some of that earlier confidence. “So where does this leave us?” he asked.
Kai wanted to tell him he was all in, that he would follow Baz’s lead and be whatever he needed him to be because this waseverythingto him. Instead, he asked, “Where do you want this to leave us?”
“I don’t know. I’m not exactly good at this, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“Brysden, I’ve been noticing every little thing about you since the first moment I saw you.” Kai gave him a crooked smile. “In caseyouhadn’t noticed.”
Heat rose to Baz’s cheeks, but he held Kai’s gaze. “I noticed. It just… took me a while to make sense of it.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. I’m a tough one to crack.”
Baz studied him in earnest, the firelight dancing in his glasses. “You don’t have to hide behind that armor of yours,” he said. “Not from me.”
The words broke through whatever flimsy layer of armor still remained around his heart. “I won’t,” Kai whispered. He realized he never really had—not like he hid from other people. He’d never wanted to.
Kai must have fallen asleep on the sofa as he kept Baz company while he studied—because yes, even after the moment they’d shared, Basil fucking Brysden would obviously take the time to study.
Kai found himself seeking out the others in his sleep. Funny how the sleepscape used to be such a solitary place, and now he wasflitting from mind to mind, following the tug on his soul wherever it took him. Clover. Luce. Baz, always. Emory, though he couldn’t feel her in the sleepscape at present. Thames was nowhere to be found tonight either. Maybe unable to sleep.
But Kai slept.Trulyslept, drifting from the sleepscape and falling into a magicless slumber, for once unencumbered by nightmares.
54BAZ
“MORNING.” KAI GREETED HIM WITHa cup of coffee.
Their fingers brushed as Baz reached for it, his heart fluttering in his chest like a caged bird. His cheeks warmed as Kai’s gaze lingered on his mouth. He didn’t know what to say, his mind too full of the memory of Kai’s lips on his. Tides, was this how he’d be now—acting like a lovesick fool anytime Kai so much as looked at him? Baz drowned himself in his cup, hoping the words would come—only to choke on the strongest coffee he’d ever tasted.
“Tides, what did youdo?”
Kai snatched the cup back, taking a careful sip. He grimaced. “Oh.”
“Ohis right. Out of the way, I’m in charge of the coffee from now on.”
Kai did not get out of the way. In fact, he remained firmly in Baz’s way so that they were in each other’s space, making the bird in Baz’s chest go wild again.
“Have either of you seen Thames?”
Baz jumped away from Kai at Polina’s voice. She was coming down the stairs, her pale face drawn with worry, not seeming to have noticed the intimacy she’d interrupted.
“Haven’t seen him, no,” Baz sputtered.
Polina worried her lip. “I heard him leaving in the middle of the night, and he never came back. That’s not like him.” To Kai, she asked, “Did you encounter him in the sleepscape?”
“No. But I’m sure he’s fine.”
Polina didn’t look so certain as she wrung her hands. “You don’t think… I mean, he wasn’t participating in the games. Surely he can’t have turned up like those other students, right?”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Baz repeated, though he suddenly didn’t feel certain in the slightest.
They promised Polina to keep an eye out for him before she left for class. When Baz got to the Decrescens library for his usual meeting with Clover, he couldn’t help but stop by the marble busts guarding the archway to the Vault. No sign of blood. No dead body.
