Chapter 63 - Malice
MALICE
Watching Aerin be carted off by another Prince is a special kind of torture.
Through Aerin’s wards, Malice can’t quite hear what is said between them, but he can discern loud noises.
The sounds of her pleasure. The sounds of the bath running.
The stupid red-head’s shit eating grin when he emerges from the room to get their takeout and finds Malice camped out on the couch, alone.
He wants to punch that smile right off the Mer’s face.
Reikan wants to eat him whole.
They do neither. Instead, they wait for Aerin to leave her room. Only she never does. She never comes back to finish their fight, to settle things between them. Each minute Malice sits with it feels like leeches removing his blood, sucking the life from him.
Aerin betrayed him. She lied to him, again. She slept with him, promised him things would be different, and then turned around the very next day and tried to dupe him. It enraged him. And more than that, it hurt him, deep down where Malice doesn’t like to be hurt.
Eventually Malice lets himself fall into a fitful sleep on the couch. When the early morning hours roll around, he expects Aerin to wake, moving around in the clumsy way she does when she is getting ready for the gym before the sun has considered rising. Instead, he hears silence.
Malice grits his teeth. Even if he isn’t sleeping with her, even if he means nothing to her, he is still her personal guard. He is still in charge of her safety. Malice tries her door and is surprised to find it unlocked.
Something hot burns inside of him at the sight of Aerin wrapped up in the red-head’s arms. Though it settles when he sees Emrys, in his Wolf form, sleeping at the foot of the bed.
Malice trusts Emrys. He and Emrys are aligned, connected in some way.
It makes the angry thing in Malice’s chest settle when he sees the Wolf keeping an eye on Aerin and her new guest.
Emrys lifts his head and looks at Malice in acknowledgement. Malice doesn’t hesitate to flip the light switch. Perhaps with too much gusto as it cracks under his fist.
Both Aerin and Theoden groan, covering their eyes.
“What the fuck, dude?” The Mer groans, snuggling in tighter to Aerin’s body.
Malice grits his teeth.
“We leave for the gym in twenty minutes. Princess, if you’re not ready I will carry you there myself. No negotiations.”
Emrys jumps off the bed, shifting to his Fae-like form and striding out of the room past Malice with a small smile on his face. Aerin sits up halfway and opens her eyes blearily at him.
“We’re going to the gym?” She almost sounds hopeful.
Malice nods before leaving the room. Khortland and Reyna’s door is not locked either. He shoves inside and flips on the light. This time he manages not to crack it.
Reyna is alert immediately, eyes wide. The duvet is kicked to the floor at the foot of the bed. Reyna clutches the sheet to her chest.
“Malice!” Reyna all but shrieks. Malice ignores her, instead moving to the closet. They didn’t bring much with them, but he easily finds work-out acceptable clothing, chucking the clothes at them on the bed.
“Get dressed. We leave in fifteen minutes. No exceptions,” Malice says gruffly.
“What for?” Reyna asks.
At the same time, Khortland says, “Absolutely not.”
Malice points at the Human. “You, need to learn how to defend yourself in Fae form. And you,” he points at the white-haired Fae currently glaring at him, “need to stop being a lazy prick. No. Exceptions.” He shuts their door a little harder than necessary upon leaving.
Going to his own room Malice finds Emrys brushing his teeth. Malice wants to grumble at the Wolf for being in his space. Instead, he narrows his eyes before changing into his own gym clothes and joining him at the sink.
When Emrys finishes he leans back against the countertop, watching Malice.
His raven hair is mused from sleep, despite not sleeping in his Fae form.
Shirtless, his torso stretches on in one long expanse of pale skin.
His bones a little too close to the surface, his veins a little too blue, as if he’s rebelling against the idea of being Fae, off just enough that if you know what to look for, you’d realize he isn’t Fae at all.
The Wolf’s brown eyes assess Malice with humor.
“Wha—” Malice grumbles around his toothpaste.
Emrys gives him a smile that makes Malice want to both smack him and pin him underneath him. He looks away, back to his own reflection, to the creature he doesn’t even recognize anymore.
“Is this your way of asserting dominance?” Emrys asks, quirking an eyebrow at him.
Malice spits a bit too forcefully.
“Shut up,” he says, rinsing his mouth. Emrys laughs outright, a deep chuckle Malice has never heard from him before.
“It’s much easier to know your place as a Wolf,” Emrys muses, his teasing smile lighting up his severe features.
“Put a shirt on,” Malice orders as he passes by him. “And fix your hair, for fuck’s sake.”
Emrys’s responding laugh echoes after him as Malice leaves his room.
He finds Aerin in the living room, warming up her muscles for the jog to the gym.
Unfortunately for Malice she looks radiant.
She wears a deep red color today. The clothes hug her tightly in all the places that are bound to linger in Malice’s head.
Aerin looks over to him as she swings her leg back and forth in front of her to warm up her hips. She seems like she might say something, but her mouth closes when Reyna emerges from the hallway.
“Where are we going? And why do we have to go so early?” Reyna yawns, stretching her arms over her head. Still in her Human form, her size is almost laughable compared to Malice.
“We’re going to the gym. We’re running there, so get warmed up. I’ll put you through a workout and then we’ll spar,” Malice explains to the Human, stretching his own legs.
“Run?” Reyna asks, eyes wide in horror. “I can’t run more than a couple blocks.”
“You will, in your Fae form, it will feel easier,” Aerin explains. Reyna looks at them dubiously before sighing.
“I’m not getting out of this, am I?” she asks.
“None of us are, apparently,” quips the Mer. His long hair is wet, dripping onto his bare torso as he pulls it back into a bun. “We haven’t properly met, I’m Theoden Marrow, but you can call me Theo. You must be the Human,” Theoden says, looking down at her.
Reyna frowns. Something in her eyes is calculated as she rubs the locket between her fingers. Before their eyes, she changes. She’s still short for a Fae, but certainly less miniature than before.
“I’m Reyna Locke,” she says, holding out a hand for Theo to take.
The Mer simply smiles at her.
“No need for formalities, Pipsqueak; we live together after all.” He winks at her. Reyna scoffs, pulling her hand away.
“Don’t call me that,” she says, folding her arms over her chest.
Theoden’s smile grows larger. “You’re right, it’s too long. Pip will do.”
Reyna looks to Malice. “Is he always this annoying?” Malice looks at Aerin for an answer, but she only laughs.
“You’re going to have to lighten up a bit, Reyna,” Aerin says with a smile. The Mer grins, taking it as a win. As Theo begins warming up his muscles, Reyna copies him, though she pretends she isn’t.
Emrys joins them next, giving Malice a knowing smile as he tugs on a shirt and moves across the space to greet Aerin. He kisses her cheek. “How did you sleep?” he murmurs into her ear. Aerin lets her hand rest on his forearm; Malice watches their easy intimacy closely.
“Well. Thank you.” Aerin looks up at him with a twinkle in her eye.
Malice looks away, jealousy bubbling. He isn’t jealous of Emrys per se, but his words ring in Malice’s head. He’s jealous of how both Emrys and Theoden seem to have this easy intimacy with Aerin. They seem to know where they stand with her and are okay in their place.
Nothing between Malice and Aerin Tolvare has ever been easy.
Khortland finally joins them.
“You missed warmups,” Malice snaps, needing somewhere for his anger to go.
The ice-Fae shoots him a glare. “I think I’ll survive.” His attitude doesn’t land with as much venom as he intends when a yawn eclipses the end of his sentence.
Leaving together, they take the elevator down three at a time.
It’s dark when they reach the street, empty enough they can spread out and jog in the thoroughfare.
The run to the gym takes slightly longer than normal.
Theoden and Khortland easily keep up, but Reyna struggles.
When they finally arrive, she braces with her hands on her knees as Aerin inputs the passcode that allows them inside.
“That was the worst twenty minutes of my life,” she says dramatically.
Khortland pats her back, “You did great, Rey,” he tells her in a low voice.
“Just wait until we jog back,” Aerin tosses over her shoulder, pushing inside. Reyna groans, shooting Khortland a look.
Theoden laughs, grasping the door above where Aerin holds it to keep it open for the rest of them.
Malice goes to the nearest whiteboard in the nearly empty gym, writing out a workout.
He expects slack, complaints from the peanut gallery of males staring at him, but the only complaints come from Reyna.
“I don’t even know what half of that stuff is,” she says, gesturing to the board.
Theo chuckles and she shoots him another scowl. He holds his hands up in surrender.
“I’ll show you,” Khortland reassures her.
“No,” Malice says, “Reyna will be with me. You focus on your own workout.”
Khortland opens his mouth to protest, but Aerin shoots him a warning look and he snaps it shut again.
“Aerin and Emrys, you two start here.” Malice gestures to the top of the circuit. “Theoden and Khortland, here.” He gestures to the middle of the circuit. “Reyna and I will start here.” He points to the end. “After, we spar, so no fucking around.”
Theoden salutes him. “Sir, yes sir!”