Chapter 22. Blaise
There was something wrong with Caitlyn.
I mean—understandably so.
Her unsummoned, unsolicited, and entirely unready fated mate had randomly appeared in her life. He’d put on a shockingly poor performance the first time they were intimate, admitted he was still in love with someone else—someone who happened to be his best friend—and, less than an hour ago, had promised to do his best to move on.
Only for that same best friend to turn up on her doorstep and announce that he wasalsoher fated mate.
It was safe to say that Caitlyn was not handling it well.
And I had a horrible suspicion that the truth clawing its way up my throat—the one I desperately wanted to shout from the rooftops—was going to send her straight over the edge.
Because the moment I’d splayed my hand over Ambrose’s chest, I’d felt it too.
That thing that had always existed between us, hiding under the comfortable guise of friendship and the assumption that we were meant for other people. The thing that always had us gravitating toward each other since the very beginning.
Now, finally, it made sense.
Ambrose was my mate too.
And, just like Caitlyn, he didn’t seem to be handling the news particularly well either.
He followed Caitlyn into the kitchen, his dulled gaze flicking between the back of her head and glancing over his shoulder at me.
Maybe hehadn’tfelt it yet. The bond between us.
Because the look he gave me wasn’tOh, gee, Blaise, looks like Fate’s been quietly nudging us together all along!but far moreHow can my mate also be your mate?
Now I felt like laughing just as manically as Caitlyn.
Because how hadIbecome the emotionally intelligent one in the group?
Caitlyn—alternating between breathless laughter and muttering mild curses under her breath—dropped her bags onto the kitchen counter. Creep sat there already, glass eyes narrowed, as though none of this was unfolding according to plan.
Ambrose’s attention snapped to the doll. “Wasn’t that thing just out there?” he asked, suspicion sharpening his tone. “How is it now in here?”
Caitlyn spun on her heel, her smile stretched a little too wide to be comforting. “Oh, that’s Creep. She’s the physical manifestation of the house.”
She gestured cheerfully at the doll.
“She enjoys pranks. Like trapping additional fated mates that no one knew anything about inside, so her witch has absolutely no time to emotionally or physically prepare for meeting them.” Caitlyn leaned down slightly, still smiling. “Say hi, Creep.”
Creep’s answer was an eerily slow swivel of her head toward Ambrose, who to his credit only flinched the barest amount, and a begrudging little wave.
Apparently unsatisfied with Ambrose’s lack of instant fear, Creep suddenly leapt off the counter. Ambrose startled properly this time, complete with a full-body flinch, and the doll pitter-pattered sweetly across the floor toward the stove. She scrambled onto a chair and peered into the pan of milk simmering gently for cocoa, as though she hadn’t just shaved years off someone’s life expectancy.
“You get used to her,” I said.
When Caitlyn shot me a narrowed look, I amended, “Kinda.”
Ambrose stared at me. Something in his expression softened, and for a heartbeat I thought,There it is. He feels it too.
Then he shook his head, as though physically dispelling the thought.
“Well?” Caitlyn prompted. Her smile was still firmly in place, but her Converse tapped against the floor in sharp, irritated beats. “Care to explain how you showed up on my doorstep?” She tilted her head. “I mean,Iaccidentally hired the first incubus-slash-fated mate, but I can’t quite work out how you stumbled across my threshold.” She paused, but just as Ambrose opened his mouth, she continued, “Oh. Right. I momentarily forgot.” She ticked off a finger. “Best friends.” Another finger. “Fucked.” A third. “Presumably realized you’re in love with him too and came here to confess but accidentally acquired a mate instead.”
Probably not the way I would have phrased it, but at least my mate had saved me the job of awkwardly stumbling through anI love youto Ambrose.
