Page 90 of Veil of Night & Flames

When we’re finally out the door, Chase uses the keypad to lock it behind us, and we start the cross-campus walk to Chase’s apartment.

“The barriers,” Adric says after a few minutes of silence. “Tell me where they stand.”

“Weakening,” Chase says, “and faster than last week. The collapse is putting a hell of a strain on the keystone. And the dead zone is growing every night.”

“That is consistent with what my sages report. The collapse is slow, as it should be, and there is time yet to prepare for what comes after.”

Chase’s hand goes to the hilt of his blade. “What comes after,” he repeats.

“Yes.”

“You mean after the barriers fall?”

“I do.”

“And you still think that’s the right outcome?”

Adric shrugs. “I think it is the inevitable one. I think we have a window in which to manage it. Slow. Controlled. Better than a sudden tear that gives no one time to brace.”

“You’re missing the bigger picture,” Chase says. “If those barriers go, half the things in your realm will eat half the things in the Real. And that includes Cora. You know that.”

“I do. Though I believe Cora can take care of herself. And she, of course, already has a safe place to go. The fall is quite survivable by those who prepare.”

“You are out of your mind.”

“And you have been telling me that for an age.”

They keep going, walking faster as the debate continues. I hurry to keep up, knowing I should probably be wildly annoyed—it’s not like I haven’t heard all this before—but instead I realize that I’m not thinking about their fight at all.

Instead, I’m thinking about the bond I’ve witnessed between these brothers. Chase tells me it’s there all the time. The invisible thing that runs through them always, though it’s definitely more prominent when emotions are high.

I know they each feel it bodily when they’re apart—I’ve had the privilege of being in the middle of that naughtily delicious meal. What I wonder now is if they feel it outside of sex, like now, too. If while one is arguing to light the world on fire, is he also feeling the argument to douse that world in water?

I don’t know. But I have to admit I can’t help but wonder what that must be like. Or even what it would be like to be in the middle of what they feel.

Technically, I guess I have been on more than a few occasions. And while I felt quite a bit—and all quite delicious—my sensations were my own, because that blood bond is something I just can’t share.

And isn’t that a shame?

I’m still thinking about it as we reach Chase’s apartment, even though they’ve both moved on to something about the Realm of Retribution that I’m entirely ignoring.

Instead, I’m lost in a delicious little fantasy as I try to imagine what they experience through the bond. And, more, what it would be like to be in the middle of that.

Not just having Chase while Adric feels it somewhere across a realm—a strange intrusion that, yes, has turned into quite a turn-on for him.

And not just having Adric while Chase paces his apartment, white-knuckled and furious about being a passenger even when he’s rock hard and thoroughly enjoying himself.

No, what I wonder is what it would be like in the moment—to have them both in the same room at the same time. To be right there in the middle of whatever it is they share. It’s wild, sure. But it’s an idea I like. After all, two hot, immortal, god-like guys? That’s got Sex Fantasy written all over it. A fantasy my body would be happy to turn into a reality, if the tightening of my nipples and the thrum of need between my legs is any indication.

And that’s all well and fine, but could I ever actually work up the courage to do it? Never mind the courage to ask for it?

I don’t know. But I’ve been awake all night, and I’m stressed to the limit and more than a little intrigued. And, yeah, already a lot turned on. Probably not the best time to suggest such a tryst—especially knowing I might send one or both the men I love scrambling in opposite directions.

Still…

I shove the thought away, and by the time we’re a block away from Chase’s apartment, the sky has climbed past gray into the bright, soft blue of morning. There are people out now—students with their backpacks, a woman walking her dog, a guy unloading produce in front of the diner across the street. And none of them know the decadent direction of my thoughts. The naughty little fantasies I’ve been running in my head and wondering if I dare pursue.

Chase leads the way up the exterior stairs and into his apartment, and I follow, with Adric behind me and my mind still back with the bond and the fantasies I’ve been spinning for most of the morning.