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I sigh against him, perfectly content, perfectly safe wrapped in their bodies, their scents.
My own Bash and Dash sleep aid.
It’s the best night of sleep I’ve ever had.
Over the next days, the three of us continue to sleep like that, and—except for showers, when one of them waits outside the door—I’m never alone.
The only time the heirs leave at all is to get supplies. And even then, only one of them goes. Except for Axe. He’s been away most afternoons.
Today, he came back with the supplies.
Axe pulls out containers of fruit and meat from the paper bags he carried back, and I put them in refrigerator.
“Have you heard anything from the Syndicate about my friend?” I ask.
Just like I do every day.
Every day he tells me the same thing.
“They’re looking into it.” But today, those words have a different texture.
They sit heavy in the room, taking up all the space between us. Like there’s too little air for his words to exist at all.
Then again, Axe has been different since Chonk paid us a visit. We haven’t had a demon script lesson since.
I assume he’s being an overly possessive baby about me sharing a bed, platonically, with Dash and Bash.
“Hey, what’s that?” I ask as his shirt lifts high enough to show a bit of bruised skin over his waistband. “What happened there?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Bastian and I were sparring, and he got a really good one in. It’s my fault. I dropped my guard.”
Again, I’m hit with the same sensation that his words take up too much air in the room.
And it hits me.
He’s lying to me. Right now. About the bruise and about Gael.
But I can’t call him on it. Not now. Not about the bruise, at least. But I’m sure as hells bringing up the bigger lie. Why does he think he can string me along with vague answers about unknown people “looking into things”?
I stare at him as he puts the last of thegramchellsaway and pours himself a glass of water. My newest discovery on Cinder are the delicious little conical fruits that grow in bunches similar to grapes but with the flavor ofxyaneds, a tropical fruit only found on Celestus.
“What?” he asks with a smile.
“Nothing.” I paint on a smile, just as sweet and fake as his. “But I can tell you’ve been lying to me about the Syndicate. What’s really going on, Axe?
He puts the glass of water down and meets my eyes. “I haven’t been lying, per se.”
I roll my eyes.
“I just haven’t wanted to break the news to you.”
“News?” My heart jumps into my throat, and I’m already imagining the worst.
Gael’s been sapped dry, drained of all his magic. He’s gone.
My hands shake so violently I put them behind my back.
“No one has heard of that name. I was looking into variations of spelling or anagrams of it, but so far, I haven’t come up with much.”
