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Darwin strolls into the reading room.
He’s not a TA. He’s not accompanied by a TA. But, of course, no one challenges Princely. His level of privilege is just ridiculous.
He looks every centimeter the fae prince today, too. His hair and skin and silver eyes gleam. He’s wearing a three-piece suit in a very deep, verdant green with a black pinstripe. The corset-style waistcoat gives him a figure male models dream about, all broad shoulders and sinuous hips. He’s not carrying a bookbag or backpack or anything else the rest of us lug around that would ruin the lines of his suit, but he’s got his cashmere pea coat slung over his shoulder and a black silk scarf wound loosely around his neck.
I bet that scarf matches his boxers.
“Late for the runway, Princely?”
He raises an eyebrow at me. “You really want to taunt me after last night?”
I look at Gabe. “Did something happen last night?”
My baby boy, always willing to play along, tips his head to the side. “Hmm, nothing I remember. Oh, I got really good cuddles this morning. Maybe that’s what he means.”
There’s always some jostling for the “double stuff” spot in the bed among the boys as we settle down for the night. You’d think they were jostling to sleep next to me, but the truth is they vie to be the big spoon to Gabe’s little spoon. That means Gabe gets one of the spots beside me every night. Which I’m not complaining about. I love waking up in Gabe’s arms.
“Maybe it is,” I agree.
“If you two think you’re going to gang up on me,” Darwin growls.
Fuck’s sake, nipples. I swear he has them on a magickal thread or sommat.
Gabe leans in to rub noses with me. “We have another thing coming, don’t we, baby girl?”
“We do. I think Princely needs to join us in our jaunt through the woods to find Hog a girlfriend.”
Darwin folds his coat over the chair next to us and lollops into it. That’s one of my Auntie’s words, “lollop.” Whenever I didn’t stand up straight and put my shoulders back while casting, I was lolloping. Only I do it a great deal less gracefully than Darwin.
“I don’t jaunt through the woods,” Darwin says, flicking a bit of imaginary lint off his knee as he crosses his legs.
“You are literally a fairy—”
He grabs me out of Gabe’s lap and tickles me until I writhe out of his arms onto the floor. I lean against the leg of Gabe’s chair, giggling and trying to catch my breath.
Darwin looks down at me, lazy amusement lighting his silver eyes. I think someone’s feeling much more relaxed since he got that “highly memorable head.”
“Please call me a fairy again.”
Still giggling, I shake my head.
“Teddy and I are going to the unicorn pool to see if we can find a female bog fae for Hog,” Gabe informs Darwin.
“Ah. That’s different. Although you could probably save yourself a trip if we asked my father. There are female bog fae in the Courts.”
“Captivefemale bog fae,” I say, my humor quickly fading.
“True,” Darwin admits. “But if we got one from my father to breed with Hog, it might improve her situation. And you can’t know that a wild bog fae will take to living with us. At least a Court fae would already be domesticated.”
I look up at Gabe, who nods, even though his eyes are an uncertain turquoise.
“That’s reasonable,” I say. “Will you ask your dad?”
Darwin sighs. “I should have contacted him before now anyway. I’m sure he’ll have something to say about my grades.”
“Something non-threatening to say.”
“Mmm.” Darwin flicks that non-existent lint again.
