“After breakfast,” Tessa said. “We promised Mads we’d stay for pancakes.”
It was the only way they’d convinced the child to go with Kat when it was well past his usual bedtime.
“Good,” Axel replied, grabbing his sweatshirt off the back of a dining chair. “I guarantee he’s still awake and will ask again as soon as he sees me.”
“Good night, Axel,” she called after him.
“Night, baby doll.”
The door clicked shut behind him, and Tessa stretched out. They stayed at Arius House more often than she thought they would.
The three of them had a large house in the center of the Acropolis, but they always ended up here at least once a week. It felt more like home than anywhere else did, and she knew Theon and Luka felt the same.
She reached up, shoving at Theon’s book again. “The game is over.”
Turning a page, he said, “I’m aware, beautiful.”
The fire was crackling in the fireplace, and Luka clicked off the television, letting silence fall over them. This was her favorite way to spend their nights. Either here on the sofa watching Chaosphere games or on a balcony under the stars.
“Luka is grumpy,” she sighed, shoving at the dragon with her foot, which he promptly batted away.
“That he is,” Theon agreed. Emerald eyes flicked to hers, a glimmer of hunger swirling in their depths. “What are you going to do about it?”
She hummed. “There’s so many options,” she mused. Then she pushed herself up onto her knees and leaned in so she could whisper into the dragon’s ear. “Am I crawling tonight, Luka?”
And later, after the three of them had tumbled into bed, after they were sated and breathless, curled up with her between them, she couldn’t help but think that Luka had been wrong all those nights ago when he’d told her she wasn’t one of the monsters. That she couldn’t be one because monsters take their happy endings.
She’d done just that, leaving a blood trail in her wake. Leaving broken dreams and tears behind. Casting off shackles and settling for nothing less than what she wanted. Battling back against everything that tried to drag her under. Unearthing secrets and shattering expectations.
She fought for it, foughtthem, and still they got back up. Over and over. This push and pull between the three of them never really died, it just changed.
Because while they were her villains, she was theirs.
A perfect balance that defied the stars.
