The final drawing was the most detailed of all.
Priscilla and Purdy sat side by side in a spaceship, the stars scattered around them like spilled glitter. Both of them were smiling widely as they waved goodbye to the small blue curve of the planet below.
The caption was written carefully:
Neither Priscilla nor Purdy ever fit in. But instead of changing, they decided to leave everyone behind and travel the galaxies together.
Chapter 27. Caitlyn
As I stared at the empty sliver of bed beside me and then at the two unopened pairs of earbuds on the nightstand, I winced.Poor Ambrose. I wondered just how early in the morning I’d woken him up.
To my other side, Blaise was miraculously still asleep, my outstretched hand entwined in his. He mumbled something when I slid my fingers free but didn’t stir.
After a much-needed stretch to dispel the stiffness that came with sleeping like a starfish, I climbed out of bed and froze. A pile of fresh clothes sat neatly folded on the chest at the foot of the bed.
I glanced around warily, half expecting Creep to be lurking somewhere, ready to spring out with a silentGotcha!when the overalls revealed a dead raccoon or something equally horrifying as I picked them up.
But the room was empty.
This new side of Creep was... going to take some getting used to.
Not wanting to jinx it, I hurried into the bathroom for a quick wash and to brush my teeth, then pulled on the clothes and set off to find Ambrose.
He was sitting at the kitchen table, a mug of cocoa cradled in his hands, leaning in and whispering conspiratorially to Creep. She sat perched on the tabletop, looking—for the first time ever—like an ordinary doll rather than something that might require an exorcism.
That illusion shattered the moment her head swiveled a full one-eighty to fix on me.
Instead of flinching, Ambrose smiled down at her. Creep’s painted cheeks seemed to deepen in color before he lifted his gaze to me, his expression softening further.
“Good morning, Caitlyn.”
And just like that, my own cheeks warmed.
Ambrose had an ease about him—a quiet smoothness that contrasted perfectly with Blaise’s rough-edged energy. Where Blaise would have been on his feet already, itching to do something, Ambrose seemed entirely content to simplybe. To sit in the moment. To spend his morning whispering to Creep instead of searching for something to fill the time.
The dynamic worked for all three of us—and perhaps for Creep most of all.
Where I secretly enjoyed the chaos she caused, and Blaise took endless delight in provoking it, neither of us were especially good at the quieter parts. The stillness. The patience. The unspoken work of listening and interpreting silence.
Watching Ambrose do it so naturally made my chest ache in the best way.
My heart swelled as I realized just how completely he fit into our mating trio.
And then my stomach fluttered when I caught sight of the faint, healed bite mark on his wrist—the one I’d given him last night. Ambrose seemed to know exactly where my thoughts had gone. His gaze dipped to the mark, lingering for a moment, before lifting to meet mine again.
I wasn’t exactly well-versed in mating bites. My parents had sat me down the day before my first Samhain summoning to explain the basics of summoning an incubus—most of which I’d promptly scorched from my memory, because listening to your parents talk about that kind of thing was deeply and profoundly gross.
But I did remember my dad mentioning the bites.
Most creatures with more primal instincts used bites to seal a mating bond. Incubi did. Witches didn’t. He’d told me not to worry if I wasn’t comfortable receiving one, or if I didn’t feel the urge to give one in return.
I’d always tucked that knowledge away as something theoretical—one of those things that probably wouldn’t apply to me. Because what was so special about a bite, really?
But last night, I’d felt it.
Before, sex had always been an itch to scratch. A way to mentally reset. I enjoyed it, for the most part. But I was quick to embarrass, quick to overthink, and quicker still to retreat once it was over.
Blaise had been so gentle with Ambrose. I could have watched them until the end of my days—not just because it was ridiculously hot (though it absolutely was the hottest thing I’d ever witnessed), but because it was so much more than sex. It felt like I was bearing witness to something long overdue, to my two mates finally stepping into what they were always meant to be.
