A briar snakes up from the ground and wraps around Ezryn’s bare forearm. “My briars are anything but little, Ez,” Cas purrs. “Rosie’s had them inside her. You want to see if you can take it like our girl can?”
Ezryn growls and breaks free of the briar, but I meet the Prince of Thorns’s gaze.
The corner of his wicked mouth raises. “Or you, sea puppy?”
I give a long chuckle. “There are some things even I’m not brave enough for.”
“What ifIwas controlling the briars?” Rosalina says, then erupts into a fit of giggles.
I catch her around the waist and drag her away from Ezryn and pull her onto my lap. “All I’m hearing is our little Rose and Thorn are feeling very playful this morning. And I think that should be rewarded.”
The air shifts, tension growing.
Rosie drops her lips to my neck, and Farron’s fingers slip lower on my stomach.
Ezryn sits up to whisper in Rosie’s ear. “Then let’s make this morning memorable for our girl.”
68
Caspian
Icould get used to mornings like this.
The kind where I don’t wake up choking on flame. Where no one’s bleeding out, making plans to kill me, or deciding what torture I’ll get for stepping out of line.
The kind where I wake up tangled in limbs, Kel’s arms wrapped around my waist, my face buried in Fare’s hair that smells like cinnamon and apples.
Rosalina’s laughter rings in the air, and I can’t stop staring at her, tucked on Dayton’s lap, mouth against his neck, cheeks flushed.
I shift on the mattress, still half-hard from the dream I was having. Farron’s hand is under the sheet now, probably feeling up Dayton. Lucky man. And Ezryn is watching Rosie like he wants to paint every part of her with that tongue of his.
And me? I’m just grateful.
Grateful that the flames are quiet. Grateful that when I reach for my power, it listens. That when I look at my family, I feel the truest version of myself I’ve ever been.
“You’re smiling,” Kel says beside me, voice still hoarse with sleep. His hair is a mess and his arms are crossed, but he’s watching me.
“I know. It’s gross, isn’t it?” I lean in, pressing my shoulder to his. “Must be the afterglow of not being an emotionally repressed monster.”
He huffs a laugh but doesn’t move away.
I glance across the bed again, at Rosie, at Dayton, at Farron’s hand, which is definitely not still.
My body hums. I want in.
I crawl closer, the sheet dragging low on my hips. “Well, if we’re starting the morning with a bang,” I murmur, “I’d hate to be left out.”
Rosalina glances at me, eyes heavy-lidded, lips slick from whatever she’s done to Day’s throat. “And what do you want, Caspian?”
“Everything,” I say. “But I’ll start with you.”
Her breath catches. Farron growls low. Ezryn’s grip tenses on her waist. Kel shifts behind me, and the air tightens with promise.
Rosalina watches me with those big, dreamy eyes, lips parted. I crawl closer, leaning over Farron and bracing myself with a hand on Dayton’s thigh. I cup her face.
“Tell me to stop,” I whisper, brushing my thumb across her bottom lip.
She doesn’t.
