“Hmm, beautiful?”
“I love this house.”
I caught Evira’s eye and she winked back at me.
“You do?”
“Yeah. You really went out of your way to make it homely and special to each of us. Thank you. It’s perfect.”
“Well, I’m glad you like it.”
“It’s forever?”
“That was the intention.”
Evira stroked his hair. “Is that what you want, lovely?”
He nodded against my shoulder, but didn’t actually speak to it.
Evira frowned at me. I shook my head, not sure where it was rooted.
Yet.
“Aww, so sweet,” Zayn uttered, barreling on in, flour marring one cheek, grated cheese in his hair. “Lick, little puppy,” he teased Winter.
Winter laughed and gnashed his teeth at him.
Then Zayn reached him and leaned down and licked along his jaw. “Just kidding. I know you like it better when I’m the puppy.”
“Aww, hellion,” Evira crooned, stroking Zayn’s hair, before then easing him back when she and I both registered Winter getting worked up as Zayn lingered in his space with that intense and overt sexuality of his bleeding out all over the place.
He gave a nod, acknowledging it, then stepped back and snapped his fingers. “Come on. Time to eat. Dinner is served.”
“Z, I told you, there was no need to make it all from scratch.”
“Are you kidding? With that awesome kitchen Vax fitted out? You bet your sweet ass I’m gonna be cooking the non-magical way now. Pretty much all the time. And if you get in there and start eating, you might also find that there was a magical mail delivery I called in fromVantiqewhile you were taking a shower earlier.”
Winter lifted his head off my shoulder. “Frosted Moon Petal Cake?”
“Hmm, maybe. Only one way to find out.”
Winter laughed. Again.
Evira and I beamed out at Zayn. He’d now managed that twice.
His eyes sparkled at us, then he held his hand out to Winter, and eased him to his feet.
As they headed to the kitchen, I called out, “Winter, I’ll retrieve those items you listed from your dormitory now.”
He spun around. “What? Now?”
“It’s as good a time as any.” While he was immersed.
And it had to be now.
“Uh… okay, thanks. When will you be back, though?”
“I need to make a brief stop to meet with a contact of mine from the Basilisk Dominion who lives above ground to… smooth over the current situation. A couple of hours at the most.”
