Oh my fucking goddess.
“But I read a basilisk shifter novel recently, and I haveneverbeen so turned on in my life.”
Avery squealed so loud that Maya had to tackle her and put a hand over her mouth lest they be found by the wicked housemother. Once Maya released her face, Avery also confirmed that she, too, read shifter porn. They ended up lying on the ground, laughing so much together that tears streamed down their face, and every time they stopped giggling, one of them would start up again.
Maya raised the bottle in a mock toast. “To reading monster porn and making questionable life choices.”
Avery clinked her bottle against Maya’s. “To questionable life choices.”
United in shifter smut. Could they ever be better friends?
They drank, and for a moment, everything felt almost normal. Like they were just two friends, drunk in a dorm room, talking about ridiculous things that didn’t matter. She had a familiar, a best friend who cared about her more than her own family did, and she was finally getting the hang of magic. For a minute, she just let herself bask in the normalcy—a false dream that everything worked out the way it should have. It was a nice dream. But like any dream, reality doused her in its cold waters.
“You have a cute laugh,”Felix said into her mind.
Maybe reality wasn’t so bad. But it would never be this. Her heart ached when she thought about her future, and really, there wasn’t one. Not after what Felix had told her. She and Felix would break the bond, he would leave back to wherever den he came from, and Avery would once again be magicless and alone. Maya would probably grow distant, and witches hardly ever left the university, let alone the island. She would try, fail, and while Maya would succeed at something, eventually they would lose contact, and her family would disown her for daring to try. They probably already should. Her mother trapped shifters in statues, and Avery was lying on the floor, drunk, in love with one. The Alarch family legacy in full fucking bloom.
Suddenly, the tears of laughter turned sour. Luckily, Maya didn’t notice, too lost in her own world of her drunken dreams. Avery blinked back the tears that had carved their way down her face so many times; if they were cuts, they would have scarred.
“Little witch, are you okay?”Felix asked gently.
She shook her head against the floor. Next thing she knew, she heard the sound of paws hitting the ground and the sound of nails coming across the wood. For a moment, Felix only looked into her eyes, his mismatched gaze staring into hers as she turned her head to face him. Felix headbutted her, rubbing his feline face against hers, and a sad softness swept through her.
Maya’s breathing evened out; she always seemed to fall asleep in Avery’s room.
Felix didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. Somehow, he knew. Maybe he felt the same. No matter how entangled they became, they would always be cleaved apart in the end. So instead, they just pretended. Pretended that day wouldn’t come.
Felix stepped his paw on her and positioned himself on her chest. As he lay down, he made some biscuits on her skin. Avery scooped him in close and cried into his fur. He didn’t make amove, didn’t say a thing, and as much as she knew he despised water, he let Avery cry onto his coat.
Twenty-Nine
Avery
Avery nudgedMaya awake enough to convince her to go back to her own room. They had stumbled their way through the hallway, and Avery had tucked her in.
When Avery came back into the dorm, Felix leaned against a wooden beam, looking so effortlessly handsome that she had to take a shaky exhale just from looking at him. A smirk graced his face, and the silver light caught his jaw in such a way that made him look more god than shifter. Not that she would ever tell him that, his head would get so big it would simply float away.
“I have something to show you,” Felix said.
“Oh?”
Grin widening, he pushed the window up, the night air prickling her skin and rippling the fire in its hearth.
Avery’s eyebrow shot up. “You wanted to show me that the window opens?”
She really shouldn’t taunt him so much. Don’t bite the hand that fingers you, or whatever the saying is.
“Funny.” Felix grabbed the top of the pane and hoisted himself out of the window onto the ledge outside in one fluid motion. Damn his cat-like grace. Avery was more akin to a foalthan anything. When she was a child, she attempted to climb a tree and was barely a foot off the ground before falling and breaking her arm. Heights had never really been her friend since.
Crossing to the window, she leaned out far enough to see him balanced on a stone ledge barely wider than his boots. “What are you doing?” she hissed under her breath.
He held his hand, waiting for her to take it. “Do you trust me?”
“No,” she said too quickly.
He leaned back in, close enough that she could see the mischievous glint in his eye. “Liar,” he said, and grabbed her hand anyway.
She didn’t resist. Didn’t snatch it back. She let him pull her over the sill and onto the ledge with him. The wind whipped through her hair and bit through her thin clothes. It wasfuckingfreezing. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Stupidly, and against all logic, Avery looked down over the ledge and gasped. Why was the ground so far away? It was far enough that her stomach dropped and her fingers clamped around his. Felix caught her chin, tilting her face up to meet his instead of the drop below.
