The kitsune chuffed and jumped onto his bed, shaking himself vigorously. A cloud of gray fur filled the air, and the mage almost choked. We watched as the obnoxious creature padded in a circle before settling down on the mage’s pillow.
I choked back a laugh, but the mage growled. He raised his hands to cast at the kitsune.
“Don’t zap the kitsune. You might hurt him!” I warned. “The witch could die if you kill her familiar.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Alaric lowered his hand and cursed under his breath while the pile of fluff bared his teeth.
I watched him spit out the gem and rest his nose on his paws.
Alaric spotted the gem and frowned. “Why does it have what looks like a firestone?”
“Firestone?”
“Yeah. It’s an extremely rare stone found only in volcanoes. Very few mages have firestones because of how dangerous it is to mine them. Back in the day, they used trolls to do the hard work, but so many died in eruptions, the practice was eventually outlawed. Fuck knows where that stone came from. The only mage around here who might have one is Eli McKenzie, and he keeps his valuables locked in a vault beneath his house.”
I pursed my lips at the thought of trolls dying for the sake of a few stupid gems.Fucking mages. If the kitsune had somehow stolen it from a mage, he had my support.
Alaric caught my expression and his gaze softened. “Yeah, I know. It sucks. Your friend is a troll, right?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
He reached out to pick up the gem but the kitsune snapped at him, making it clear the stone was off-limits.
“Fine! Keep your stupid gem!” Alaric grumbled. “I’ll let your witch deal with you in the morning!”
He sat down at the bottom of the bed with a disgruntled scowl. “Looks like I get the sofa then. Fucking witch’s familiar.”
“Do you think you’ll end up with a familiar?” I asked curiously. I wasn’t sure if his father had one. If he did, he kept it hidden.
“Maybe. Who knows?” The mage grabbed a blanket from the bed where the kitsune had made himself comfortable and stomped over to the sofa. It was barely four feet long, so the mage was in for a very uncomfortable few hours. I sighed.
“You can have my bed if you like. I don’t mind sleeping on the floor.”
“Why would you give up a comfortable bed for the floor?” He looked at me in bemusement. The kitsune watched us but didn’t move.
I shrugged. “The beds at the school are not much better than the floor, and at home, I sleep on a rock. So I don’t mind.”
“But my bed at school is…” His voice trailed off as what I said sank in. As a mage, the son of the Mage Council leader, the school had assigned him a luxurious apartment, while I, considered less than in the eyes of the mages, had received very different treatment.
“Yeah.” I pulled the blanket from my bed and a pillow. “Take the bed. The floor is fine. We better get some sleep before the bear comes knocking on the door.”
The mage opened his mouth to argue, but I dropped to the floor in front of the cold fireplace and curled on my side, facing away from him. I hadn’t lied. Sleeping on a hard surface was no challenge for me. I didn’t mind my bed at school. It was more the stink I hated, but there wasn’t much I could do about that.
We’d tried cleaning the room, but it hadn’t helped. Shifter pee contained pheromones for scent marking, which meant the smell lingered.
At least the floor in this room was clean.
I closed my eyes as the mage huffed and then crawled into the empty bed. He switched the lamp off, and a few minutes later, the kitsune started snoring.
The mage cursed some more. I heard him pick up the bottle of elderwine, probably hoping if he drank enough, he’d pass out.
Outside, the wind picked up. By the morning, there would be snowdrifts everywhere. I pretended I was under the ocean, floating on the currents. It took a while, but eventually I fell asleep with an image in my head of my witch swimming alongside me, giggling as she begged me to chase her.
18
Raven
With Zane now in my head as well as Maverick and Kenji, it was fair to say it was a little crowded. Worse still, it turned out Maverick and Zane could have their own conversations without including me.
