Chapter 52
TARIAN
T arian had been fired from almost every coffee shop in town.
It wasn’t that it was so hard to make caffeinated drinks, but his customer service skills left much to be desired.
“You know you don’t have to have a job, right?
” Kenna asked him, as they were strolling along the boardwalk one night near sundown, pretending to be tourists.
She’d finished her finals last week and now had some time off, which she planned to spend half with him, and half volunteering for her resume, which was growing in a good way, unlike his.
“It’s become a matter of pride,” he complained, holding her hand, while she was licking an ice cream cone, giving him furtively meaningful looks out of the corner of her eye.
Rax had a job, after all. Then again, his brother had had eight centuries to figure out how to coexist with humans, whereas he was going through a rough crash course.
“You’re a good driver? You could always Uber?” Kenna suggested, the wind briefly rushing up behind them and ruffling her short, regrowing hair.
He frowned and snorted. “What if I figured out how to work at one of the shiny buildings? On the other side of the mountains?”
Her expression instantly said “no.”
“That’s too far. The commute would suck—I like my time with you. Also, it’s really not worth it for you to start in on something serious. I only have another year here before I go off to medical school, and you have to come with me.”
“Of course. Anywhere you go, I will always follow.”
“Even someplace it snows?” she teased. “Because it’s killing me, but I’m applying everywhere, just in case.”
“Especially in the snow,” he said, with a laugh. “Remember, I like to keep you warm.”
“I do,” she said, grinning at him, as she finished the last of her ice cream and ate the cone. “I do feel bad, though. I want you to be happy—and I want you to fit in.”
He shrugged. “I’m not exactly worried. No one’s trying to kill me or you, so honestly, everything is looking up.”
“Once I get into a program, you know, you could go to school. If you wanted. I’m sure Rax knows someone who can forge a GED.”
He snorted. “Probably.”
“You could be nicer to him now, you know,” Kenna said, meaningfully. “He took everything he ever said back.”
“Only because he realized he was wrong,” Tarian said with a grunt.
“It’s up to you, of course,” she said, holding out her hands. “But he is family.”
He inhaled to refute her—and then realized she was saying that because she didn’t have her own.
After the chaos of saving her, Rax had helped to tease apart what had happened to all the other women who had held a piece of his soul, over all the intervening years—and she was right, Rax did have vast connections.
But it was while they’d been working on that that she realized why her own family had died—because they were related to her, and that awful group of selfish men wanted to isolate her and keep her alone.
“I might be nicer to him in the future,” Tarian granted. “Since you ask so kindly.”
“Thank you,” she said, pressing a gracious hand to her chest.
“But you are my family now, Kenna,” he went on, taking off his backpack and handing it to her, while he cast a pall of magic around them to hide himself. “The only family that counts.”
She laughed. “I won’t tell him you said that,” she said, putting the backpack on herself. It was full of clothes for him on their trip back, and they both knew it.
“And since that is true, and it is a weekend, and you’re done with classes, and I find myself recently without other duties?—”
That made her cackle. “That is the world’s best way to not say you’ve been fired,” she said, leaning up to quickly peck his cheek, then bouncing back, biting her lip with excitement.
“Then let’s,” he said, grinning at her, feeling his interest in her soaring just like his wings were about to. “Then let’s”—he regrouped, calming himself—“go find a cave.”
Kenna clapped her hands in anticipation. “Abso-fucking-lutely,” she said, and he transformed to take her and do just that.
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