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seven
EZRA
I movedmy thinking party to the shower after I grew tired of lying in bed. I was dried off, dressed in Ivaylo’s shirt again, and French-braiding my hair when his mind finally brushed mine.
“Open the den,”he commanded, his voice straining enough to tell me I shouldn’t ignore him.
I hadn’t come to any real conclusions while thinking, but I was wrapping my mind around the idea that Evare wasn’t a dream, and the choices I made there had real consequences.
And the shifters who lived there had real feelings, too. Ivaylo may have been very, very different from me, but our connection was real to him. I had to determine whether or not it was real to me—and I had to be ready to walk away if it wasn’t.
But I also had to respect that, to him, we were soulmates.
One of my braids was done, but I was only halfway through the second. My fingers were twisted awkwardly, so I hurried through the rest of it.
“Now, Ezra,”Ivaylo growled.
“Just a second!” I yelled, though I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to hear me with the thick wall of rock separating us.
I tied the bottom of my braid with a small piece of fabric I’d found alongside many others in the bathroom. They’d been near the wide-tooth comb I’d found the night before, so I assumed Ivaylo had them from a time when his hair was longer.
If he was really immortal, he’d probably sported a number of different hairstyles. My lips curved upward at the mental image of him with a man bun.
“Ezra.”His voice was low in my mind.“I will hold you captive in our damn bed for the rest of the day if you try to keep me from you.”
I fought a snort.
His threats weren’t all that threatening.
I mean, a few hours earlier, I would’ve been shocked or worried by the threat of spending all day wrapped in his arms. But I’d had time to accept that he thought I was his soulmate, and now I wasn’tentirelyopposed to it.
Onlysomewhatopposed to it.
I wasn’t about to throw myself at him, of course.
But I wasn’t nervous, either.
He had been nothing but respectful and protective since he bit me, so… I was going to go along with it. At least until I found a legitimate reason to reject him.
I eyed the distance between me and the ledge that opened up to the pit, then looked around the room to find something tall enough to climb.
“I will break into my own home if I have to. You have five minutes before I begin,”Ivaylo rumbled.
“Geez, I’m coming.” He couldn’t hear me, but the words slipped out anyway as I hurried over to the bookshelf. I had to move fast, so I piled the books on the floor around it, leaving a path so I could drag the shelf if I had to.
I was pulling it across the floor a moment later, and damn, that thing was heavy. I huffed and puffed as I went, struggling to keep breathing.
Would it have been easier to let him break in?
Yes, definitely.
Did I want a hole in the den I was slowly warming up to?
No, I did not.
And considering it was built into a tree, he’d probably have to break the tree itself to get in. If he did that, there would be no way to repair it without just nailing more wood to it or something. It would never be quite as secure, and I liked feeling secure.
So, I battled the bookshelf.
