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He sucked in a frustrated breath and opened his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair, somehow making it look even better than before without needing a mirror. “Fuck.”
I grabbed his wrist, rubbed my thumb in circles. He opened his mouth but didn’t speak. “Just relax,” I said, locking eyes with him. “You’ve got this. Tune everything out. Focus on the power that’s already inside of you. It’s like when I channel my ice—I have to trust myself first. I have to know that I can do it.”
“I don’t know if I can, Madds.”
My nickname.
It came from him so naturally, rolling off his lips like a song I wanted to play again and again until I memorized every fucking word.
“You can,” I said. “I know you can.”
He nodded and shut his eyes again. I didn’t let go of his wrist, rubbing him in soft, gentle circles. I waited, giving him the space to work. The powers of a Marvel were vastly different to the powers of a dragon. We didn’t have to manipulate or weave any threads to shift to our dragon forms or use our abilities, so I didn’t fully understand what Caleb had to do, which meant all I could really offer was my support.
Moments later, thick ocean-blue threads of mana appeared in the air, shimmering and glittering as they flowed off Caleb’s arm and wrapped around the mask and wig in his hand. Almost like a snake wrapping around the items, the blue seeping into the black mask and neon yellow wig. Caleb had his eyes open now as he redirected another thread of light blue mana onto the wig and mask in my hands. The items shimmered for a moment before the threads disappeared altogether.
Caleb looked pleased, which instantly made me happy. A pleased Caleb was a sexy one.
“There,” he said. “The enchantment should last a good thirty minutes. Think that’s enough?”
“Should be,” I said, putting the mask on my face, followed by the scratchy wig. I blinked and spat away some of the synthetic fibers that landed in my mouth. “Did it work?”
“Judge for yourself,” Caleb said and motioned behind me. I turned to see tinted shop windows reflecting someone that looked like me but also didn’t. I was still the same height and size, but my hair was now about shoulder-length and a deep brown, nothing like my actual ink-black short hair or the bright yellow hair that I could still see in the periphery of my vision. And the blue perma-scales that had marked the space above my eyebrow were no longer there, my eyes also a different color and my nose a different shape, more rounded and blunt than my sharper nose.
“You did it. I knew you could.” I turned back around to see a different Caleb standing in front of me. His hair was curly and black and his left eye framed by a large birthmark. His nose also changed to be thinner, his normally well-cared-for eyebrows now looking bushy and untamed.
“It was your genius idea that helped. I doubt I could have pulled this off without the mask and wig.”
“Stop doubting yourself, Caleb. You’re a Marvel. You have the power to make us all think the street has turned to lava and the sky to fire if you wanted.” I shot him a smirk. “And on top of that, you have an incredible ass. You’re basically unstoppable.”
He laughed but didn’t deny it. We were getting somewhere. Good. I wanted Caleb to feel as confident as I did on a daily basis. Even on days when the world and my own inner thoughts were on a mission to take me down, I never let my confidence falter. It helped me get through a lot of difficult situations, moments that would have shattered me otherwise. Caleb deserved that same level of confidence.
Plus, it was sexy. And since Caleb was already the sexiest man alive to me, I couldn’t see how a boost of confidence would hurt.
“Alright, Madds. Ready to infiltrate a cult with me?”
There it was again, my nickname.
“With you? I’m ready for anything.”
His true smile, the one under the illusion, shone right through. My heart did a flutter and a skip. Odd. That rarely ever happened, not with anyone I’d been with before.
I held on to that as we walked down Hollywood Boulevard, the stars under our feet a good representation of just how high I felt.
Chapter 19
Welcome to the Center
Caleb
I couldn’t believe his idea actually worked. I couldn’t believe I actually pulled it off.
But most of all, I really couldn’t believe I called Maddox by his nickname.
What the hell was that about? I wasn’t even entirely sure if that was a name he liked or used, but I said it as though I’d been saying it for years now. It happened out of nowhere, and I ran with it. It was nice. Whatever was happening between us was beginning to feel like it had more to do with fate than with anything else.
