My storm mage had been sleeping a lot since he’d returned from the dead. I hoped it was a temporary side effect, but only time would tell.
“Hey, Alaric,” Glynda replied politely. “How are you, um, feeling?”
Alaric shrugged and then smiled. Since losing his father in a tragic incident involving the beak of a vengeful wife,RIP Tiberius, Alaric had done a lot of smiling. Smiles suited him, I had decided.
“Much better now that my sperm donor is dead.” He winked at me and then sauntered over to take a seat by the fire. Even with the recent renovations, the vampire dorm was always chilly. I supposed vampires, like shifters, didn’t feel the cold.
It was lucky my bear enjoyed chopping logs. Mostly because he knew seeing him shirtless and sweaty made me horny.
My thoughts drifted off into a sexy fantasy while Glynda and Alaric made small talk.
“Anyway, I have to go,” Glynda said a few minutes later, catching me off guard.
“Wait,” I spluttered, “you haven’t told me what Farris did!”
“Nothing at all,” she replied with a bright and ever-so-fake smile. Before I could cast a truth spell on her—totally joking because I would never do that to my friend, and also, I had no clue how to cast such a spell—she jumped up and hustled out.
“She’s hiding something,” I grumbled, vowing to get to the bottom of the matter. That fucking fae was an asshole. No way did he behave himself when he stole my bestie away to the fae realm.
I grabbed my phone from the coffee table and opened the chat with Farris.
Glynda won’t tell me what you did, but I know it was bad!!!!
I added a few random emoji for additional emphasis. Alaric peered at my screen and sniggered.
“Do you know what the peach emoji means?” he choked out as I hit send.
“It means Glynda is sweet.”
“May the goddess grant me a less dumb witch in my next incarnation,” Kenji grumbled in my head.
To my surprise, my phone pinged with a reply from the fucking fae, and I snatched it back up.
Farris the fucking fae: *middle finger emoji*
55
Raven
The shrill cacophony of my alarm interrupted a very pleasant dream involving me and my incubus. I cursed loudly when I reached out to kill the awful shrieking and ended up knocking my phone off the nightstand.
Technology and I would never be friends. So far, the only benefit of owning a phone was that it had a camera. Photography was my new hobby, and I enjoyed snapping photos of my candle experiments and posting them on Magigram.
There were a bunch of notifications on the lock screen when I reached for my phone. Lots of comments about sexy candles, and I had a feeling Zane had been lurking on my feed again.
“I love your candles, pet,” he laughed in my head.“And I especially like the one you modeled on my dick.”
“I didn’t model it on your dick! It just looks a bit phallic!”
“More than a bit.”
Alaric’s snicker told me he was listening.
“Goddess grant me some fucking privacy in my own head,” I muttered for the ten millionth time before kicking the covers off and heading into the bathroom.
Zane blinked into view the moment I stepped under the hot spray. I turned my back on him, but he didn’t take offense.
“Happy birthday, pet,” he said as he pulled me into his arms.
