“But,” Jake added quickly, “if she’s from a different siren lineage—which, as I said, I’m inclined to believe she is—then her compulsion would be significantly weaker. She’d likely need to stay physically close to maintain it. Even with a meaningful shell, it probably wouldn’t hold for more than a few hours at most before the magic drains. She’d have to keep singing into it for the effect to last.”
I glanced at Ambrose. The tightness in his chest eased just a fraction.
“What do you keep looking at?” Jake asked.
I tilted the phone as Ambrose shuffled into frame.
Jake’s eyes widened, surprise melting instantly into delight. “Hi, dude!” he said to Ambrose. “I’m guessing you’re Ambrose? Lochran told me all about the remaining demons, which I don’t think he was supposed to do, but I managed to get it out of him. Oh my Gods!” he said to me. “Lex is going to bethrilledyou’ve stumbled across your mate!”
“Mates,” I corrected, a little sheepish. “I kind of have two. Blaise is still asleep.”
Jake leaned so far back his face vanished from the shaking screen, leaving only a flop of russet hair visible as he apparently kicked his legs in excitement.
When he resurfaced, his face was practically pressed to the camera. “Please, please,pleasetell me I can be the one to tell Lex and Lochran,” he begged. “They really need it, what with Lochran being shot and the trial coming up.”
Ice flooded through me as the words registered.
“Lochran—what?” I sputtered at the exact same time Ambrose said, “Lochran was shot?”
Jake, meanwhile, seemed completely nonplussed. “Oh, yeah. You wouldn’t have known—” His eyes flicked suddenly to something beyond the screen, and he flushed deeply as a door slammed somewhere in front of him. “Oh—hi, Billy,” he said. “I, um, I thought you weren’t getting here until a little later.” The camera shifted as he moved. “Lex and Lochran are just at Mom and Dad’s, to, uh...” He trailed off awkwardly. “But it’s nice to see you again.” He shrugged, far too casually. “I was just, y’know, hanging out with the house.” Another shrug. “Because, y’know—” He stopped. Blinked. His gaze dropped to the phone as if only just remembering he was on a call. “Oh! I’m just talking to Caitlyn!”
Oh my Gods, this was the most painful thing I’d ever had to watch. Was I this bad when I rambled?
He swiveled the camera around to reveal a startled, caught-in-the-headlights Billy standing in the doorway, a broom enthusiastically sweeping around her like a puppy whose favorite person had just walked into the room.
The camera swung back to Jake as he got to his feet. “I, um—well, it was nice to see you again,” he said, already movingthrough the house. “I just wanted to sayhi... and I guessbyetoo, since I’m leaving tonight...”
He seemed to forget again that he was still on a phone call. The phone dropped to his side, and for a brief second I caught a glimpse of Billy, still frozen in place, eyes wide and cheeks flushed.
“You’re leaving?” she asked.
“Yup,” Jake said. “Last-minute PhD thing. I, um...” He reached for the doorknob. “I have to pack, but... maybe, if you’re not busy later, I could stop by and, like—” He fumbled for a second before settling on “—tell you what my PhD is about, or, whatever.”
Before she could answer, he bolted through the door.
His phone dangled uselessly at his side as he ran down the lane, chanting under his breath, “Don’t think about it, don’t think about it. She can literally read your mind.Do not think about it.”
Deciding to leave Jake to whatever the hells that was, I hung up the phone.
“How dangerous is it for an incubus to get shot?” I asked Ambrose.
He considered it for a moment before shrugging. “Probably not very dangerous. We heal almost instantly.”
Between Ambrose’s calm answer and Jake’s total nonchalance about the whole thing, I figured Lex didn’t need a panicked phone call on top of everything else. I’d be heading home soon enough anyway—I could check in on her then.
Chapter 28. Blaise
This morning had to be the most glorious anyone had ever experienced.
Mates.
I hadtwo.
The most beautiful, intelligent, ambitious, and delightfully strange witch to ever walk the earth—and my best friend, who I suspected I’d always been a little bit in love with, even when I’d pretended otherwise.
Life was so godsdamn perfect in this moment that I was pretty sure I might actually spontaneously combust.
With a spring in my step, I headed for the bathroom, where I spent a full five minutes admiring the perfect mating bite Ambrose had given me last night. I turned my head this way and that in the mirror, watching how it caught the light, already wondering where Caitlyn planned to mark me next.
