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CUDDLES
OYE
When Oye woke up to find herself being held by Castian, she wasn’t surprised. The man had taken advantage of her falling asleep before. She tried to ignore that him finding her asleep meant he’d probably seen she’d been crying.
Slowly she tried to move away from him, but his arms clamped down around her waist, stilling her movement.
“No, not yet,” he grumbled into her shoulder.
She grunted. “Let go, your breath stinks.”
“Well, so does yours. I want to sleep some more,” he muttered, snuggling closer to her. Oye firmly ignored the hard presence of his sizable warlock’s staff that was pressed into her behind.
“Unfortunately, I’m not really into cuddling,” she said, slapping at his hands. She quickly scooted out of his hold to the edge of the bed. “We need to talk about your habit of not sleeping on the couch.”
She added unstrapping her bra where it cut into her skin and tossing on the couch he should have slept on last night. Castian could remove her dress but not her bra? She’d have been less irritated if he’d left her in her dress and taken the contraption of torture off. She winced at the feeling of grit in her eyes as she rubbed them.
“Did you finally check out the underground vault,” she asked standing up.
Castian who’d been stretching like a large lion paused. “What makes you ask that?”
She shrugged as she walked over to her bag and started searching for anything that was remotely like the clothes she usually wore. “You disappeared, so I figured you’d taken the chance to look into it.”
He rolled over, “No, I was much more interested in learning if the other warlocks here had any special journals hidden in the library.”
“You’re lying,” Oye said, sending him a death glare. “I know you’re crazy, but could you do me the favor of not abandoning me to deal with those snobs alone.”
After saying what she did, Oye was upset at how frustrated she sounded. Why was she so angry? Castian wasn’t here to take care of her.
“You know what, never mind.” She grabbed a casual shirt and shorts out of her bag, and marched into the bathroom slamming the door behind her. Right after her shower she would contact Lanias, because she clearly needed a reminder of why she’d come here.
* * *
“So, they’ve changed how they're doing business, how does that help us?” Lanias asked thoughtfully. “Unless that business is of the illegal kind. Which would be very, very beneficial to us for blackmail.”
“Yeah,” Oye agreed as she walked along the boundary of a forest area near the edge of the estate. She’d grabbed a bagel from the breakfast buffet. Taking off before anyone could get it in their head to start a conversation with her. Luckily some of the servants had been kind enough to point her in the direction of a walking path. She was currently taking in the natural beauty of low rolling hills, high trees and the occasional splash of daisies.
“My instinct tells me it’s important,” Oye added after some thought.
Her instincts were screaming at her that something about Renson excluding Arwin from his new venture had something to do with the missing witches. She just didn’t have any proof. “Unfortunately, I don’t have anything solid to send you yet. It’s at this very moment, I wish I could just torture someone and get what I need.”
“Dear, that’s not what we do anymore plus you’re in the human world. You can’t cut someone to ribbons, without it stirring up those boring pieces of flesh.” Lanias drawled. Clearly more interested in her cuticles than talking about humans. She exclaimed in disgust, “Are these my hands? Tsk, tsk it’s time for me to see my nail tech.”
“Oh, yes. Sure, thing Lanias, I’ll make sure to stay alert, and keep my true identity a top secret.”
“Don’t be catty,” Lanias said, with a huff lowering her hand. “Outside of your suspicion we don’t have anything else. Our top priority remains getting our hands-on Asher.”
“Shit, are you sure I can’t just manhunt him?” she asked. Oye stopped at the top of the hill and plopped down. Getting situated, she lifted her phone higher. “I swear I could make it quick.”
“No, it would make that fox’s fur all knotted, and I don’t want to deal with him snooping more into our past than he already is.”
Oye frowned, “How much do you think he’s learned?”
Lanias shrugged, “Aside from learning the truth about the mudslide nothing else. And I’m hoping it stays that way. It’s one thing to learn something by word of mouth, but it would be an entirely different experience if he got physical proof. No, it’s much better for him to chase shadows rather than witches who’ve moved on with their lives.”
Oye was quiet for a long time debating over whether or not she should share with Lanias about having a run in with her past. Thinking it over, she confessed, “I met Nathan.”
At first, she wasn’t sure that Lanias had heard her, then her entire screen flashed red. Where once Lanias had been relaxing in her chair on screen, she was now standing right in front of Oye.
