And that was what the four of us were determined to do, what we’d fought for.
To really live, love, and be.
Be us.
In all our chaotic, wild, and unconventional glory.
With absolutely no fucking apologies.
22
~Zayn~
The place was hopping.
Adamorwas what they’d named it.
It meantdiamond-love, something that definitely fit well with how cute Ambrose and Ketheron were together, and also because of the house design itself.
On the outside, it was this big black stone structure with navy glass all over it and even actual diamonds. Really fancy and all“lavish otherworldly couture”as Vax had called it.
The inside had dark stone mirror-like floors with pale gray walls, black crystals and golden flames lighting the place. Dark gray seating was prettied up and given some flavor with sapphire, purple, and ivory throws and cushions. And there were a whole lot of plants around too.
Ketheron had thrown himself into decorating the house for the party with streamers, sparkling fairy lights of all colors strewn all over the place, glowing balloons that glittered, and severalHappy Housewarmingbanners hanging proudly.
I’d overheard Ambrose telling Sylas over a drink that he would be magically transporting the entire house to another location immediately after the party, because with Ketheronsending out an invitation for this housewarming, now so many people in the supernatural world knew about it. And given the nature of Ambrose’s work, he insisted on his location being unknown. It was sweet how he’d accommodated the complications it had posed, all for Ketheron, sweet how they accommodated each other.
Like me and my loves. We had that going on in spades.
And I fucking loved every moment of it, everything about it, all that we now shared.
We’d been having a blast tonight, first grabbing some drinks and mingling with the Celestial children. I’d been hoping to see Taen, a friend of Vax’s who’d helped him out, but he was apparently a recluse, so he hadn’t shown. The four of us had met a bunch of Ambrose’s proteges, including a contact of Vax’s, Jacob Everett. He was kind of haughty, but nice enough. Didn’t seem like he knew how to have fun, though. He’d just been sitting in a dark corner watching everyone else until Vax had noticed him and we’d all chatted with him for a bit. Each to their own, though. I had seen Ketheron hanging out with him too, and he'd actually made Jacob laugh, the dark robe of the guy’s hood falling back, revealing his brown ponytail beneath.
After the drinks and initial mingling, I’d had my eye on some dancing.
Yeah, Ketheron had made a makeshift dance floor—at a housewarming. He was really something.
Vorzyr had been the first to step up there, taking Nyx with him. Then the energy had brought a bunch of other guests into the dancing mood.
Including the four of us.
Well, I’d had to wait for Win to finish talking to one of his friends when Evira had already been leading Vax onto the dance floor, so I’d gotten delayed—and distracted watching the show of the two of them.
Vax didn’t dance so much ascoilwith that serpentine agility and grace, all elegant yet so fucking sexy about it, as he’d moved with her. Evira had brought her own dragon-style energy to the mix, though, slamming him against her, a little ass-grabbing here and there.
Tame compared to what hadaccidentallygone down between Win and me after I’d managed to drag him onto the dance floor when his catch-up with his Celestial friend, Christalyn, had been taking way too long for me.
No surprise, I’d gotten a little carried away. Win didn’t usually like public displays of anything, but he’d actually fallen into it with me, and it’d ended up becoming some real dirty dancing, to the point where I’d been seconds away from snagging Evira and Vax and pulling them outside to fuck hardcore in the grass.
But then Win’s parents had walked into the area with Lazriel wanting to dance, witnessed a little too much, and we’d broken it up.
Aside from that, Win was in a really good mood.
Sylas had finished theliving warmthconcoction and Win was now wearing a clear shimmering bracelet on his left wrist that imbued him with that—on his own terms and without messing with his equilibrium. He was still getting used to it, drawing in peaceful breaths every now and then, letting out little groans as he adjusted to the sensation. We’d gone with him to Aetheric Wing up at the Guardian Compound where Rex Crowley had been lying in stasis, and Sylas had spelled a bracelet onto him as well with a mildly adjusted version of what Win had, which had healed his mind permanently. When Rex had roused, it had been really emotional, especially when the other five necromancers had shown up. We’d all hung out with them for a while afterward, Win introducing us, telling us all about them.
Evira had finished up an integral meeting to her new role just a couple of hours before we’d come here that had been at Cornelius and Warlow’s place. Afterward, she’d told us that River and Octana had gotten engaged. Octana’s father had even “blessed it”, whatever that meant. As if Octana would let that stop her now with how far she’d come beyond his control of her. The fucker had to play it really safe from now on, so that’d clearly gone into him being cool about it. After him mobilizing forces like that and Ryker bringing the hammer down… yeah, he really had to watch himself.
A couple of days ago, Vax had met with some key figures in the Basilisk Dominion to sort the situation going on there of them calling on him. He’d told us that he was gonna step up, do the whole sovereign thing, but he wanted to do it carefully without causing a war, without his people suffering from his parents’ wrath as a result. So it was in a delicate kind of stage right now. With Evira’s help, he’d also been securing support from other heads of state, realms, even some of the big covens like Maven and Lotus. Ryker had pledged his support via the Guardian Movement, so that was absolutely major.
