“Who? Vergis?” Charles went into the pool too, and Inkiri nudged me forward. It took everything I had to resist cupping any of my parts, but I remembered all too well how that had ended for me the first time—to wit, with the bagua assuming I was about to masturbate. I wasn’t going to make them think that again.
“Yes. On account of how the Loathly Lady had to save him from the cola asshats.”
Charles giggled. “That’s what we’re calling them now?”
“No,” Vergis said.
“Yes,” Kinnek said.
“I’m not a Loathly Lady.”
“We’ve been through that, snapdragon. It’s this or magic dispenser.” Kinnek snuggled up next to Charles, who put an arm around him and drew him close to his side.
“Didn’t we settle on magic dispenser?” Vergis sat across from his parents, closer to Fellisse.
Inkiri stepped into the pool ahead of me and helped me down, which was unnecessary but nice. Like back at the hotel in Aër, there were steps leading into the water as well as a submerged bench running along the side, so the soaking was actually really comfortable. Even with all of us in there now, there was still room for maybe three more bagua, five or more if all of them were cool with snuggling. You’d even be able to swim a few strokes from one end of the pool to the other.
I wanted to just sit down as far away as I could from pretty much everyone who wasn’t Inkiri, but then it occurred to me that there might be some kind of etiquette to this, and as per usual, I wasn’t aware of it, so I let Inkiri take charge, which he did easily. That way, we ended up between Fellisse and Vergis, with me sitting closer to Vergis, between him and Inkiri.
“I’m not a magic dispenser,” I grumbled at Vergis. This wasn’t in fact all that bad, once one was underwater. The pool was fairly deep, after all, and the tile or whatever it was lined with was a light gray; nothing that made me stand out too much compared to the bagua.
Vergis snorted.
“Vergis, if you’re grounded you can go up to the roof and deal with the pigeons,” Charles said.
Vergis narrowed his eyes. “What pigeons?”
“The ones that have been nesting all around the solar panels.”
“You want me to climb up to the roof so I can do pest control for you?”
Charles was another one of those people who did great, unflinching eye contact. I was really glad it wasn’t directed at me. “Well, are you telling me you’re making your father go up there to do it? The front door needs a fresh coat of paint as well.”
Yup, Charles was the best. I mean, Donna was good, and Lissir could handle Vergis, but Charles was like a truck bulldozing over Vergis’s attitude, and I loved it. I might even have giggled.
Vergis turned toward me. “Are you volunteering to come up to the roof and murder pigeons with me?”
“Oh! I’ll do that,” Nokim said as he excitedly lowered himself into the pool. He sat on Vergis’s other side, making Fellisse move out of the way. “Rory, Charles knows everything about solar panels. He was an engineer in the military, and his scientific training is so impressive. He explained all about microwaves!”
“Oh, cool.” I looked across the pool at Charles. With a pang, I realized that the way Kinnek was smoothed against Charles’s side, one horn rubbing over his temple, those two were probably in love. “How—you survived the apocalypse? What I mean—I mean—that’s…” My throat closed up, and tears threatened. I couldn’t really account for them. They were lovers. They weren’t dead. Thank fuck, just thank fuck.
Vergis groaned. “When those humans got him to start the spell, they did it by making him wish for something, and our tortured twink here wished for all lovers to disappear. Guess who used to be a longtime single.”
Kinnek’s jaw dropped. “Oh, sugar cake, that’s—Muffin, did you explain to the poor thing that whatever he did, it just gave the people using him access to a vast well of sacrificial power?”
Vergis shrugged. “Yeah.”
Kinnek turned to me. “Snapdragon, I warded this place thoroughly. It was and remains quite safe.”
Inkiri clicked. “My mate has been blaming himself for the death of the humans for a long time, Kinnek.” He stroked my arms and flanks as I tried to get my breathing under control. I was here, I was safe, and I didn’t have to run away from the monsters anymore. But Cat and Jacob…
Fellisse growled, and it wasn’t friendly at all. “The next time we meet those humans, I’d like to get the jump on them. They almost… Without Rory there to do magic, Nokim would be dead, and likely Lissir as well.”
“That was the first time I almost died, and when Rory used his magic to heal me,” Nokim informed Charles somewhat sheepishly.
Charles looked at me. “Huh. Lucky Charm.”
“I just…” But I didn’t know what I’d just. My heart was racing in my chest. Why couldn’t I have wished for clear skies back then? Who even wishes for everyone in love to cease to exist? Was something wrong with me for being that mean?
