Jasper finally groans, looking at the two of us with a helpless expression. “I can’t resist the two of you looking at me like lost puppies. Fuck! Okay. I will… do whatever I have to do. Just help me figure out how to handle this before everything gets so much worse when the Games start.”
Looking over at Zavida, I dart my eyes from him to Jasper and back. He dips his chin, turning red as he nods and lets go of my hand. Slowly, so I don’t spook myselforthe cranky dragon, I inch forward on my knees until I’m within centimeters of the prince. When he doesn’t move, but also doesn’t flinch, I drop down and scoot in, leaning my chest against him. It scares the fuck out of me because he’s so volatile, but both of us need to give for this to work.
“Oh.” His voice is shocked for a second, but his tail curls back in, wrapping around my feet as I settle in. For a moment, neither of us move and the tension where we’re touching is making it hard to breathe. But then he murmurs, “Zavvie?”
The Kitsune moves in a flash to mirror me on the other side of him, somehow getting inside the circle of Jasper’s scaly tail while draping his fluffy ones over us. “Always, Sir.”
I feel a rumble against my back, and I turn, squinting up at the dragon. “Don’t get any ideas. Zavvie is yours, but I’m comforting you via touch and proximity, buddy. I’m not some office bunny you can coerce.”
Jasper blinks, then actually laughs. “I forgot about that shit.”
My expression sours, but I stay close, lending my support despite the bad taste in my mouth.
“What ‘office bunny’ are you referring to?” Slash asks curiously, and Salem leans forward with an angry look. “The Princehatesstudents in his office. That cannot be correct.”
“Yeah, what the fuck, Jas?” Oriel says with a frown. “What were you thinking?”
Xerxes sniffs, and Anton looks perturbed, but they say nothing.
“I—” Jasper sighs and tilts his head back to look at the ceiling. “It wasstaged, okay? I was hoping to annoy the piss out of the shrimp, and it worked. I was being a petulant, suspicious ass. Are you allhappynow?”
I blink. “What?”
The Prince shifts a little, and it almost feels like he’s trying to make sure I won’t rabbit away when he replies. “I’m a rich asshole, like you love to remind me. I’m also paranoid and spiteful sometimes when I feel threatened in some way. You showed up, got stuck with us, and no one would believe me about you being a spy. I did a lot of petty stuff to piss you off, hoping you’d reveal yourself.”
Zavida wrinkles his nose as he murmurs, “I helped with some of it, but not that. We did a lot of searching in the human archives trying to find out your family heritage. In Jasper’s defense, we have had quite a few spies sent to infiltrate the caliphate over the years. His dadreallyhates that none of the parents can break through our bond to figure out what we might be doing.”
I think about that for a minute. Of course, I knew he helped the prince with stuff by now, and I also suspected Jasper spent much of his time fucking with me because he had deep trauma. Admitting it is a good first step, as is admitting his actual intentions with no need for us to prod him. If I don’t accept that he wasn’t actually boning someone in the office, then I’m not giving him the grace I was preaching about. And Slashdidsay that the prince was staying with Zavida mostly since they arrived, so…
Damn it.
“Fine. You didn’t do that, and I’m going to trust you.”
The dragon demon looks shocked as he pulls back a little. “That easily? You’re just… taking my word for it?”
My lips quirk up as I nod. “Yes. I am. That’s how trust works.”
“He did not question me when we spoke during training.” Slash gives me a toothy grin again, and I duck my chin to keep Jasper from seeing the look in my eyes. “I told him things, and he simply believed me.”
“Me too,” Salem says. “At the Faerie place.”
I turn back to Jasper as the others add their sentiments, shrugging a bit. “Not to sort of steal your line, but the question is ‘can you do that for me’, right?”
Take that, Prince Pricklypants—it’s your turn for an enormous leap of faith.
Working It Out
Zavida
Jasper Eversore, prince of Hell and heir to the Wrath line, doesn’t just ‘take people at their word’, yet that’s exactly what Kit is asking him to do. He doesn’tknowwhy that’s so hard for Jas—and I’m not even sure that I do. I’ve been involved with him as a lover for many centuries now, and as a friend before that, but I don’t think he’s admitted everything to me. I don’t think he’s told Slash everything, and I would have rated the shark demon the other person closest to my love.
He simply cannot trust anyone not to use his vulnerabilities against him, so he doesn’t give them up.
But there’s a weird feeling in the room right now—Kit and I sitting with him, our brothers watching and supporting us, and the events since Kit arrived hanging in the air like flashing lights trying to guide him. Jasper has always rebelled against adding new people once the caliphate was formed, but Xerxesinsistedit wasn’t complete. I don’t know how they knew, but when an empathic cobra says something with that kind of unshakable surety, we’ve all learned to listen. So we tried to find the missing piece in middle and high school, especially once Jasper was at Discordia ahead of us.
It didn’t work, and my spiky lover dug and pried and protested until he found every hidden shadow that prospective members had buried in their souls. He’s never been quite as… vehement… as he is with Kit, but the rest of us have never disagreed with his assessment this strongly, either. The truth is likely that Kit is hiding something big, but it’s not what Jas thinks, andthat’s where our dichotomy is clashing. However, my other brothers are staunchly behind him, and as I’ve been working to rebuild the bridge after letting Jasper lead, I think they’re right.
Kit is the missing piece of our puzzle, and it’s why we’ve all been so drawn to him since the beginning—and why Jasper is so terrified of him.
