Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Teariki
“So…should we smoke a joint before this whole thing kicks off?” Nik nudges my shin with the toe of his oxford.
I push his leg away, dusting off my pants. “Hey! I need to look presentable.” I gesture down at the tux Callum picked out. “And yes, absolutely. Should we find Kian?”
“High at an official function?” Nik laughs.
“That tight ass? No.” We sneak out a side door.
Feels a bit like I’m back at school, lurking through the halls.
A decade ago, Nik and I’d fuck around after he was done teaching.
It probably wouldn’t have been super chill to get caught smoking fae weed with a professor.
We tuck ourselves into an alcove on the side of the building, by a statue of one of Kian’s grandfathers, and Nik lights the joint and takes a drag. “So it’s beginning tonight, huh?”
“Fuck.” Sighing, I run a hand down my face. “Couldn’t delay it forever.” It’s not that I’m not aware of how privileged I am. It’s just not the job or life I’d choose for myself, if I had any say in the matter.
“Nope, but it’s coming for us all now.” Nik leans back against the building and snorts.
“Well, except for maybe Boden.” It’s not cool to make light of this situation, but it is kind of ironic that, right before the start of three consecutive years of challenges, we found the only magica in existence—other than Boden—who could make a strong, legitimate claim to the Throne of Light.
Not that she would have enough political capital for her challenge to be successful.
But as long as she didn’t try to usurp the Throne outside of a Challenge Epoch, there are still magicae who would support her.
“Honestly, if someone else wanted to step in and have this, I’m not sure I’d stand in their way.” Holding it out, I pass the spliff back.
“Yes, you would.” Bumping me with his shoulder, he says, “You know you’re the best person for Transformare.” He takes another drag and hands the joint back. “But that’s a sign of a good ruler, not wanting to be one. Not wanting power, but accepting your responsibility anyway.”
“Is that what we’re doing?” I cough-laugh up sweet earthy smoke. “You really think she’d challenge for the throne? You’ve been the president of the ‘Vladlena Solis is ignorant and irresponsible’ club this whole time.”
He grabs the spliff from my fingers. “I don’t know.
She’s definitely more clever than I had initially realized.
” After taking another deep drag, he holds the smoke in his chest as he continues, “Sometimes I believe she’s scared and lost, but then I’m suspicious that it’s an act.
At times, I think she’s shirking responsibility as Boden believes.
While other times, I believe she’s, as Kian seems to assume, an evil mastermind.
Indeed, we’ve caught her in a few lies.” The smoke expels from his lungs in gray wisps.
Earlier this week, we received a police report that has us questioning some of our beliefs about Lena. However, I’m not making any assumptions until we talk to her.
Nik sighs before continuing. “But the more I learn about her, the more I’m not sure she is any of those things.
She might just be a clever but stupidly brave woman, who has been thrown to the wolves…
literally in your case.” We chuckle at that.
Thank Suns, this weed is hitting. “What does Callum think?”
“About Lena? Or about…”
“Vladlena. But if you want to talk about the other thing…that too.” He gives me a one-shoulder shrug, the perfect picture of nonchalance.
The thing with Callum isn’t something we talk about.
All five of us are aware it’s fucking heartbreaking, and that’s that.
But it’d be nice to vent about the fucked-upness of the situation.
How is it that you find someone to love, who loves you back, and all you’ll ever get to be for each other is a fucking secret wrapped in hurt?
Damn, I can’t talk about this right now. “I do. I want to talk about all of it. But maybe later, when I can cry into a bottle of your expensive bourbon?”
“Of course.” He stubs out the joint. “You hear that?”
“You know I do.” I give a cheeky grin. Helps when your BFF and you both have superior hearing, comes in handy when you want to spy on other people, play practical jokes, tell secrets in crowded rooms. “Someone’s getting some.
” I wiggle my eyebrows at the very clear sounds of wet kissing and, judging by the moans, some heavy petting.
“Want to watch me ruin some students’ night?” Nik laughs before heading around the corner to the back of the building.
“You know I do!” I laugh, jogging after him, ready to watch him scare the living shit out of students and threaten them with some kind of torturous punishment for breaking decorum.
Except the moment I turn the corner, I realize I don’t want to fucking see this.
I can smell her, smoky rose and frosty juniper.
Arousal adding a layer of sweet honey to her scent.
Fuck. I run straight into Nik’s back. He’s stopped dead in his tracks, back ramrod straight.
With our ability to see in the dark, we can make out the outline of two bodies crushed up against the building, tangled together in an alcove.
Michi-fucking-Gatti. I’ve never wanted to smash someone’s face in more than I do right now.
What does she see in him? Sure, his face is pretty…
for now. I flex my fists. He waxes his entire chest, and I’m pretty sure he lathers it in coconut oil.
That’s just weird for a shifter. Hair, fur, or feathers is just part of the deal.
I mean, I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum, but is she really into the surfboard look?
And yeah, he kinda smells like citrus and sunshine, but like in a shellfish night at a dive bar in Florida kind of way. Also, he’s dumb and his hands are tiny!
Nik turns on his heels, heading back toward the side door. Where’s he going? We need to stop this.
“Why didn’t you break them up?” I tug his shoulder. “I thought you were going to go all badass teacher. ‘You get detention! Also, you’re confined to your room for the rest of the year, you small-handed house cat.’”
“Fuck!” He growls under his breath and begins pacing while shaking out his hands.
“I couldn’t. I’d have ripped his fucking head off with my teeth, and I hate the taste of lion shifter.
” Nik retches, literally dry heaves. In what appears to be a clear struggle for self-control, he closes his eyes and breathes slowly through his nose.
I, on the other hand, don’t have that problem—I’m perfectly fine with skinning that cat. “Sounds like a fucking plan to me,” I snarl and turn back toward Lena, but Nik grabs my arm. I meet his eyes. “I don’t like him touching her.”
“Why?” he asks in a measured tone. His expression is unreadable, something akin to fierce curiosity and concern.
“I don’t know,” I growl in a low voice. It just feels wrong seeing him touch her.
She has ensnared me. Tracked me down and captured my attention, tangled and twisted up my every thought, my wants and desires with her.
When I scent her, my mind conjures up her smell entwined with Callum’s—her smoky winter roses interwoven with their crisp apple and herbal tea.
All things good and beautiful and calming and home.
He exhales deeply. “She’s not our responsibility.”
I give him a sideways glance because Nik and Kian constantly say she is precisely that—our responsibility.
He gives me a shake of his head, growling, “Not in this.”
The event planner, Dylan, is droning on about the schedule.
I’m doing my best to pay attention, while Kian’s completely immersed in the conversation.
The ceremony will begin in fifteen minutes.
I just want to get this pomp and circumstance over with so I can dance and drink and forget that, for the next eight months, I’ll be on high alert, waiting for a challenger to come forward.
The air shifts, and I know she has walked into the ballroom.
My captor. I feel Kian stiffen beside me, like he can sense the change in the room.
She’s descending the stairs in a beautiful red dress, an extension of her hair.
It’s not the purple dress I sent her. Yet…
She. Is. Stunning. A blood moon moving across the night sky.
“I’ll be right back.” I step down from the dais, ignoring Dylan’s protests and Kian’s clenched jaw. I make it across the ballroom in a few large strides.
“Hey, Ariki.” Lena offers up a timid smile, her face thick with concern. “Is everything alright?”
“No. We need to talk.” I can hear my blood rushing in my head. I need…I don’t know what, but it has something to do with her. “Come with me.” I grab Lena’s hand and lead us into a hall that contains the coat-check room.
“Ariki, what’s going on? What’s wrong?” she asks, as I shut the door of the coat check behind us.
“I. Don’t. Know.” I grit my teeth. “I saw you with Michi outside. I didn’t like it.”
She scowls. “First of all, creepy. Second, it doesn’t matter if you liked it.” She brushes me off with a wave of her hand. “It wasn’t for your entertainment.”
“But is that all it was for you, entertainment?” I search her face for the answers to questions I’m not sure how to ask. “Do you like him?”
“I guess.” She shrugs. Why is she so blasé? Can’t she feel how wrong this is?
“He’s just not right for you,” I growl.
She points her finger at my chest. “You and I barely know each other.”