6. Zeph
ZEPH
Fuck.
I knew Aflora would be upset, but I hadn’t anticipated it bothering me.
Not like this.
I rubbed my fist over my chest, frowning at the hallway she’d just walked down moments ago with Tray and Ella. Shade’s words didn’t bother me. Aflora’s, however, did.
You say that like your opinion matters to me. It doesn’t.
Did she truly mean that? Or was she just being a brat?
I wanted to think it was the latter, but her overall demeanor punctuated the former. She’d dismissed us, her distrust evident. “What the hell was I supposed to do?” I wondered out loud. “Tell her the guards were coming?”
Kols’s brow furrowed. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Yesterday. The arrest. Was I supposed to warn her?” I actually wanted to know. Our plan was hasty but solid. We needed her in the choker before the Warrior Bloods captured her, or the Council would sense the mating bonds on her. And that would lead to a whole world of questions we weren’t ready to answer. “There hadn’t been time to explain.”
“We also needed her shock to look real,” Kols pointed out. “It was the only way.”
I considered that, my frown deepening. “Similar to Shade saying our knowing would have deviated from the path he intended us to walk down.” He’d referred to it as fate, but I read through his statement. “Our anger at Shade?—”
“Is probably similar to how Aflora feels about us,” Kols finished for me.
“Only worse. She was all alone in that cell, uncertain of her fate. And we did nothing to convince her we were doing this to protect her.”
“Which explains her hating us now.” He palmed the back of his neck, giving the tendons a squeeze before glaring up at the ceiling and shaking his head. “Fuck.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Fuck.”
We shared a long look, a thousand words traveling between us without any defined meaning. But the end thought was the same—we had to fix this.
“I need to give her a free pass today,” I said.
“And I need to not press the shopping trip issue.”
I nodded, agreeing. “I’m giving you a pass today, too, so you can clean up her room.”
Kols grimaced. “That just came out. I shouldn’t have said it.”
“Obviously,” I deadpanned. “What the fuck is wrong with us? We’re not this bad with women.”
“It’s her,” Kols growled. “She’s… she’s…”
“Gorgeous,” I suggested.
“Yeah, but it’s more than that. She infuriates me just by existing. And not because of anything she’s done, she’s just so…” He trailed off on another growl.
“Irresistible. Headstrong. Powerful. Forbidden. I can play this game all day, Kols.”
His lips twitched. “Sexy. Intelligent. Pretty much perfect, aside from the whole off-limits part.”
“She’s also ours,” I added, arching a brow. “And we’re doing a shit job of making her understand what that means.” Which, to be fair, was all pretty fucking new. We’d also had the minor detail of her imprisonment to deal with before we could talk to her about what happened in the LethaForest.
“What do you suggest we do to help her along?” Kols asked, a glimmer of amusement brightening his golden irises.
“Well, for starters, we need to convince her to forgive us.” Which would be a challenge in and of itself. I would rather eat a burning thwomp.
Ouch.
“Yeah, that’ll be fun.” He ran his fingers through his auburn hair, gripping the ends and blowing out a breath. “I’ll start with her room.”
“And I’ll figure something out.” No idea what. Not only did I have her holding the collar trickery against me, but her falcon’s temporary death, too. Both were done with good intentions, albeit harsh ones. Although, I doubted she’d accept the logical reasons.
We’d burned through her trust.
Now we had to earn it back.
Easier said than done.
“I don’t recommend breakfast,” Kols said, his lips twitching.
“Yeah, clearly not.” Maybe I’d try for dinner, just to poke fun at her statement. However, she probably wouldn’t find humor in anything I did right now. I also wasn’t the humorous sort. “I need to get to class. Maybe I can kick Shade’s ass today as a demonstration.” Just the notion of it cheered me up considerably.
Kols snorted. “Hit him hard for me.”
“That, I can do.” Meanwhile, I’d figure out how to fix this with Aflora. Because yeah, my earlier assumption that she’d just get over it was obviously wrong.
And it was going to take a lot more than a meager apology to work my way back into her good graces.