Oriel waves at Kat as she slowly walks out of her room towards us, the change in her scent from hellspring swimmer to spritzed with spicy bathroom stuff obvious. “I have something for you, too.”
“It’s not my birthday, and didn’t some philosopher say ‘beware of Trojans and horses’ or something? That was in class recently, right?” Her eyes narrow as she looks from one of us to another suspiciously. “And I’m not the one who’s?—”
“Ah, ah,” I interrupt as I waggle a finger at her. “Let’s not kick up bad vibes by finishing that sentence. We’re all pretty calm right now, as you notice.”
Looking around again, she takes in the dimmed lights and the incense oil Xerxes fetched from their room to help set the scene. “I suppose so. But then, I’m not sure what a demon brothel looks like, so I could be mixing it with… this.”
Slash snorts, slapping his knee as he grins. Everyone turns to stare at him except Kat, and the big guy crosses his arms over his chest. “I told you that it felt like an Arabian Nights knock-off. You laughed at me, and I feel very vindicated.”
“But comfy on your stack of cathouse pillows, I suppose?” This time, I snicker as X gets their dig in with a smug smirk. X and Anton were adamant about setting a scene, and it was lucky that KK took a bit to get herself cleaned up so we could transform the space while she was fiddling. It wassupposedto be ready when she first walked in, but my ass was waiting for the crunkleberry delights in the hall so…
C’est la vie—we’re all good now, even if she thinks it looks like the best little whorehouse in Hell.
“This is a very nice gesture,” Kat says as she pads over to the circle of comfy blankets and pillows and things on the floor. Her eyes skate from the stack of books by Annie to Zav finishing his TV shit and then over to my trays of yummy foods and drinks I placed just out of accident range. “It’s like a weird-ass guy slumber party—I mean, I think. I never went to one, so I only know from TV, but…”
“You’ve never been to a slumber party?” Oriel’s brows shoot up, and my leg moves quickly to kick his shin before he spills the whole ‘girl’ thing like a dumbass. That dude is not the one I expected to be bad about secrets, but by the way X is sniggering, I guess I was wrong. “I mean, I thought guys did… something like that, too… up there?”
“Wow.” X doesn’t even have to say anything else to draw attention to how lamethatsentence was. They tilt their head at the spot we left for Kat, smiling prettily. “Since O is incapable of keeping his foot out of his mouth, come sit with us and we can show you all the fun stuff.”
“What about Jasper?” Kat frowns as she looks at the grumpy prince where he’s sulking like a dark cloud on the horizon. “It seems like he needs more cheering up than I do. I’m pretty okay.”
Jasper snorts, arching a brow at her. “Shifted on your own, then?”
Slash makes a warning sound, but Kat waves her hands as she steps into the circle and walks over to our leader. She looks down at him with her arms crossed over her chest in the baggy sweats, foot tapping. “No. Not really. But I tried, and I made progress. That’s all I can ask of myself when I’m learning something new—at least, according to the coachyouassigned to me.”
Uh-oh.
“Mmm. I’m sure that will save your ass in the Games when you can’t do anything and we have to save you. Or it’ll make us feel better when someone getsmaimedtrying to save you. Then you’ll feel like me, and it will all make sense.” The dragon reaches for his glass, but Kat gets in his way, and his eyes fill with irritated fire. “Move, shrimp.”
“Look, dude,” she says as she steps closer and sinks to the floor on her knees in front of him. “I know you had it fucking rough as a kid, and you don’t talk about it. Out of everyone, Ireallyunderstand that—we’re not exactly the same, obviously. But I. Get. It.”
The prince gives her a dirty look, but he stays eerily quiet as Kat looks at him seriously.
“There are probably terrible things that only Slash knows, or Zav knows, or maybe evennobodyknows about what your fuckface dad and his merry gang of murdering rebels did to you and whoever else they abused to get their rocks off for centuries. I’d probably want to hurl my guts up and then rage about how bad it sucked for hours if you told me.”
All she gets is a snort, but the rest of us are watching with bated breath.
“So, no, I’m not going to play ‘my trauma is worse than yours’ with you because you got liquored up and want to make yourself a villain.” Kat blows out a slow breath, and I worry for a moment she’s lost her thread, but then she says, “Just because peoplewantyou to be something doesn’t mean you are. They don’t get to define us under their terms—victim, villain, prude, prince, thief, turncoat, rebel, reject, lazy, liar, soldier, spy… It doesn’t matter, Jasper. We are who we are, not what they would have us be.”
“What if I’m not who I would have myself be?”
I blink, eyes going wide as I look over at Slash. He doesn’t seem to know where this is going either, but he looks like he’s going to spring into motion if need be. Zav, however, has turned away from the screen, and his expression is…hopeful.
“Then stop letting other people define you and take back the reins. Otherwise, you’re making a pawn out of yourself and thanking them for the privilege.” Kat shrugs again, and I notice her posture relaxing a little. “Your father’s bullshit isn’t your responsibility, and you can’t let him live rent-free in your head. That fucker can afford to pay for his own lodging.”
That gets a snicker out of the drunken royal, and I feel myself relax a little now, too.
“And how would you suggest I do that when I am forced to watch his minions torture my caliphate—mychosenfamily—for amusement and yet I cannot prevent it?”
“By first admitting that your guilt isn’t the main issue here, knothead.” Slash chuckles, and even Zav laughs softly as Jasper frowns. “And then maybe… I don’t know. Be normal and ask someone for a hug or something. Let someone help you process the emotion healthily instead of loading up on Johnny Black and acting like one of my fucking foster dads. Satan wept, Jasper, it’s not hard.”
“Ask for help.”
“Yes.”
“That’s what Zavvie says.”
Kat snorts. “He’s smart and has cute tails, so why he puts up with you, I don’t know.”
