Chapter 22 Blaze
Blaze
I’m rattled as fuck.
Cornelius on the island… Another troll on her street… Sprites fucking everywhere—
“Go ahead. I’ll meet you both back at the house,” I say as North holds the door open for them to go back inside.
“I’ll go, you stay. You know I’m itching to handle that asshole,” North argues.
“No,” Juniper says, slamming the door before she can go through. “No, you’re not… If either of you go anywhere tonight, if you leave this bar, I… I’ll… I don’t know what I’ll do but you won’t like it.”
Her concern almost makes me smile. “It’s to keep you safe,” I say.
“We aren’t disappearing, darling,” North says.
“Then keep me safe by being here. I can’t take losing either of you. I just…” She leans her back against the doorway and huffs, chin dipping. “Stay,” she eventually manages.
How can I say no to her?
North and I exchange a quick glance, nodding in agreement.
He presses his knuckle beneath her jaw and brings her eyes to his. “If that’s what you want.”
“Yes,” she whispers.
North kisses her softly, and I lean in to kiss the top of her head.
For the remainder of her shift, North and I sit quietly at our table. She brings by a couple of drinks and sandwiches, tossing the items down onto the table with such carelessness that the food nearly flies out of their baskets.
We deserve so much worse.
“How long until she forgives us, you think?” North asks as he’s trying to put the meat back on his bread.
“As long as it takes,” I reply.
“What the hell was Corny doing here already? We still have another day,” North hisses.
I cringe at the memory, the hungry look in the fae’s eyes when he’d looked at Juniper. “It means she knows we’re not giving up. We need to put up barriers where we can tonight. After she’s asleep. The buildings. The beach. Her street…”
“She isn’t going to like that,” North says.
“I don’t like it either, but it might buy us some time tomorrow. Let us spend her birthday without having to fight off kelpie and sirens in the waves.”
“Fuck, not the kelpies,” North mutters. “I haven’t seen one of those in decades.”
“No more chasing the things she can’t see, at least not until we have to,” I decide, staring at North. “Not until she knows everything.”
“And Sunday?” North asks.
“We run.”
She still hasn’t said anything when we get to her home.
North and I are sitting on her couch, Pack in the seat at North’s side and Oreo in my lap. We’re waiting… patiently… for Juniper to come out of the bedroom.
It was silence on the walk here. Cold, chilling silence. Not a look or glance in our directions.
I can’t stop bouncing my heel on the floor. Promising not to leave has me restless. There were more sprites on the way home than I could count, more shadows in the trees than I’ve ever seen. I want to get out and burn my mark on every street and building.
However, we’ll deal with all of it later.
Right now, my main concern is her.
It’s another hour before the door to her room opens.
Both of us stand. My heart is in my throat as she strides toward us, her sweatshirt hanging off of her shoulder and nearly exposing the top of her pillowed tits, pair of fuzzy socks scrunched down around her ankles, leggings snug.
She pauses in front of her television and folds her arms over her chest, sitting into her hip as she peers between us.
I suddenly feel exposed watching her take us in.
She holds all the cards, every breath of my life and North’s.
If she tells us to leave and that she never wants to see us again, I’ll end up back in my mother’s prison for the rest of eternity because any second free without Juniper feels worthless.
“Show me,” she says.
I blink, and North switches the weight on his feet.
“Show you what?” I manage.
“The statues at the bar. You’re telling me those aren’t depictions of what you actually look like?” she asks, brow lifted. “Show me.”
North and I look at one another.
“Are you sure?” North asks.
“I’d like to see the monsters who claim to love me,” she replies.