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But what was to be done? It wasn’t as if we could do as the humans did and just have an election to put others in place. High Council positions were for life, and the seats were filled by some mysterious process that I did not begin to understand.
The lovely post-sex glow was rapidly being replaced by a whole other type of glow, that of the fever that had been following me for all this time. A dull throb in my head drew a groan from my lips, and I slapped a hand over my mouth in an attempt to keep from worrying the royals. But I knew I hadn’t been that successful, and when nobody appeared in the doorway to check on me, I set the pillow aside and crawled out from between the sheets to see who was around.
I cast a glance for my clothing, but of course I’d lost that before I even made it into this room, so if I wanted to go into the common areas other than naked, I’d need something to put on.
I was already missing my mate’s scent on the pillow, but a shirt tossed carelessly over a chair, the very shirt he’d worn yesterday, met both of those needs. The dark-blue fabric fell to my knees, loose on my body but so comfortable.
I padded into the living room, hoping one of my mates, or more, would be lounging on the sofas or maybe in the kitchen brewing coffee. I really needed a cup of coffee, but the kitchen was as empty as the living room, and the coffee in the French press cold and stale.
How late had I slept?
Pouring a glass of juice, I tipped it back, the sweet orange cooling my dry throat. It tasted delicious but didn’t have the caffeine I needed. So, with a sigh, I filled the bowl of the grinder and got the beans into the tiny bits that would satisfy the craving and help me wake up the rest of the day.
If I was going to have three lovers, I would probably require a lot of coffee just to stay awake. Nico had kept me awake most of the night—and I had no complaints about that. By the time I was actually sipping away at a cup of Sumatra, my brain was working better, and allowing room for thoughts besides the naked kind. I could easily imagine spending nights making love with them and days dreaming about doing it again.
How did people with three lovers or mates figure out when to be with whom? Did they do it on a strict schedule or whenever one of my mates especially wanted to be with me? Did it always have to be in their bedrooms, meaning, I might not even need my own room, except for clothing storage.
For as long as I might need it.
The heat of the brew was adding to my fever, but I didn’t want to put the mug down. It was too good and healing. If the fever continued, I feared it would eat away at me and eventually I might just die.
I had to find a way to break it but, at the moment, I had no idea what that could be. And the fever itself made it very difficult to think at all.
My mates weren’t worried about contagion from whatever this was. A virus? The healer had been less than useless, and all I knew was it seemed to be tied into when the mountain was more active. Which it had been lately.
Something had to change. Everything had to change. We couldn’t continue to live the way we had, with the lessers treated so badly and the highers using them without shame. When I’d been a lesser, I’d been far too accepting of that status, and I had so much admiration for those who were not going to take that anymore. Not that they appreciated my feelings or probably even knew them. Other than Hilda, whose absence raised my anxiety level exponentially, they were pretty jerky to me, and I didn’t have a means to change that.
At least not that I’d thought of so far.
I’d never asked to join the highers and still didn’t think of myself as one, but I was certainly not a lesser anymore. What did that make me?
Not a clue.
And now I was mad at myself for not taking at least a little while to bask in the glow of the connection with Nico. He was not only an amazing lover, but when I had him to myself, kind and generous. I rolled the bracelet around my wrist, admiring the tiny stones arranged in a mosaic that spelled out our names together in the most abstract way. They weren’t valuable gems but literally stones from the mountain, and he’d made it himself.
How did people live when they were happy, excited, upset, worried, and angry all at the same time?
It was most confusing.
Chapter Sixteen
A knock at my bedroom door made me jump. I had showered and dressed for the day in the lightest, flowiest dress I could find. My fever had begun to creep up again, not to the level it had before, but it was definitely showing itself to me.
“Come in.”
The door opened to reveal Jude. My Jude. He was wearing a gray T-shirt with some low-slung athletic shorts and had apparently gone to get his hair cut. “You are looking particularly gorgeous today, female. You busy?”
I snorted. I was never busy. “Nope. Got something in mind?”
He turned slightly and ticked his head toward the living room. “Nico gave me an idea.”
Oh boy. They were giving each other ideas now. I wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or scared.
“What idea?”
He chuckled, running his hand over his head. “Come on.”
As we entered the living room, I didn’t see anything off-kilter or different, except snacks filling the living room table and a movie paused on the TV. “What is it?”
