Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
F inn
A small crowd grew overnight outside the gate. Finn stayed out of sight but kept an eye on them the whole next morning. He felt bad for Ajax, who only wanted time alone to create his solo music. Of course, he’d chosen a career that could bring fame, so he had to be used to this.
When Finn let himself into the house, it was filled with someone else’s music. It was a dreamy sort of music with a soft male voice and an appealing melody. He walked into the kitchen to find Ajax slowly dancing in place, a rapt expression on his face as he sang along with lyrics that talked about losing themself in the feeling and taking it back to that moment before starting to feel broken.
When the song was over, Ajax opened his eyes, caught Finn watching him and instead of being startled or embarrassed as one usually does when caught dancing alone, he only gave Finn a smile. “Enjoy that song?”
Finn nodded. “Why did you get into the harder music when you love this kind so much?”
“Because I love that, too. I’m currently kind of obsessed with Sleep Token. There’s beauty to be found in all kinds of music. That was “Be Slow” by Harrison Storm—just love his work. But I’ve yearned to write this sort of music for years, and it was finally time to take a step back from the band and get these songs down.”
Even though it was personal and hella nosy, Finn couldn’t help asking, “Did your breakup have anything to do with the timing?”
Ajax picked up his stack of recipes off the counter and shuffled through them for a couple of moments before answering. “That played a part in my decision, yes. My relationship with Alan wasn’t healthy. Still isn’t, if you count the way he’s blowing up my phone. When I bother to turn it on, that is.” He must have decided on what he was making for dinner because he separated out one of the papers and walked to the freezer to pull out a package of ground beef.
“Can I ask you something else?”
He looked up. “Finn, you can ask me anything.”
“In your band, you sing about…monsters a lot. Why is that?”
Ajax was silent for a long time as he studied him. He set the beef on the counter and turned to face Finn. He seemed to be weighing his answer before he finally spoke. “Because I see things that others do not.”
Finn held his breath as his heart skipped a beat. “Do you mean that in the literal sense?”
“Literal, yes, but figurative as well.” Ajax walked closer to him and his scent hit Finn’s nose. Vanilla, like those candles he was always burning.
He waited as Ajax studied him. He must have come to a decision, because he gave an almost imperceptible nod. “There are people in this world who look differently to me than they do to others. And I can sense a difference in some who look just as human as I do. You, for instance.”
“Me?” Finn was still having trouble breathing. “What do you sense?”
“The moment you walked into this house that first day, I felt your magic. You’re not like me, are you? You don’t have any physical characteristics that I can see with my eyes, but there’s some kind of magic built into you, isn’t there? One of my band members is like you. He easily passes for human but can shift into a wolf. But I could see the subtle differences he hides behind magic, and I could feel the presence of his magic before I ever saw him change.”
Finn had never paid attention to any of the other members of the band, or he might have picked up on that. Though cameras and videos captured only what preternaturals wanted humans to see. The glamours worked even through secondary imagery. “So, you could see what he was from the beginning?”
The corner of Ajax’s mouth went up. “From the day I met him in high school. Well, I was in high school, and I thought he was just a few years older. Turned out I was wrong about his age. The two of us have been in the band the longest. He’s a good friend and is one of the two…people…who know that I can see what so many try to hide.” His half smile switched over to a smirk. “He was not a fan of Alan’s. I always wondered if Matt could sense something off about my ex.”
Still reeling over the fact Ajax was one of the humans like Clive, Ezra, and Lonnie, Finn welcomed the quick change in subject. For that moment anyway. “How long did you date Alan?”
“For four years. I honestly thought we were forever for a short time.”
“What happened?”
“I started talking about my solo music, and he was vehemently against it. Turned out he liked having a famous boyfriend and didn’t want to risk losing that.”
Finn scowled. “He’s a fool.”
“I was the fool. There were signs. He constantly wanted to go to parties filled with famous people, and he spent my money like he thought it was a never-ending well. He always stopped for photographers and collected the images.”
“Those aren’t subtle signs.”
“I wrote it off as him collecting images of us together, but turns out it wasn’t like that. At first, I just thought he was getting off on the fame—that’s normal, you know?” Ajax shrugged. “I did the same thing when my band first took off. But that obsession with it never waned with Alan. He got worse, and I learned he was actually hiring photographers to follow us around. You probably saw the very private images that were all over the internet of us.”
“Yeah, they tend to come up pretty quickly when your name is put into a search engine.”
“He set that up. Actually set it up . Which is highly illegal, by the way. Probably should have pursued criminal charges, but I didn’t. I thought we were taking a private vacation, and the whole time, he was just using me to put more pictures of him out into the world. That was the last straw, so to speak.” He walked to the counter, reached for the coffee carafe, and poured himself a mug. “But I had already been planning to break things off. While the feelings were strong for a time, they had waned because he was honestly a selfish person. I deserve better.”
“You do.”
Their eyes met, something warm passing between them.
Ajax sipped from his mug, then set it down on the counter. “So you do have magic, right?”
Finn nodded. “I’m a preternatural. Did your werewolf friend tell you that’s what we call ourselves?”
“He did. He told me a lot about you all. About his pack. The others in the band think he just has a huge family.” Ajax chuckled. “So what are you?”
“A jinn.”
His eyebrows went up. “Like the genie?”
“Kind of. That’s lore. I don’t have a lamp and don’t grant wishes. And I don’t haunt people in their sleep like in other myths. But I can change into a form of vapor and shapeshift into other creatures. I can also set up a sort of mental forcefield and sense disturbances in it.”
“That’s how you knew about the teenagers climbing the fence?”
“Yes.”
“Fascinating. Does your employer know what you are?”
“Since the entire company is made up of preternaturals, yes, he’s well aware. He’s one himself. How long have you been able to see us?”
“My whole life. In fact, my best friend growing up was an elf. He’s the other person who knows about what I can see. We met because I walked right up to him and asked about his ears. He never told his parents I could see past the magic they used to blend. Said they didn’t trust humans. So I’ve been pretending not to see for as long as I can remember.”
“So you just sing about us.”
The corner of his mouth went up. “I do. But I don’t really think of you as monsters. That’s mostly metaphor. BTC songs are all about the darker emotions and feelings. Which is probably why I’m mostly writing lighter stuff right now. Well, other than a couple of songs anyway.” He walked closer again; the vanilla scent from his candles must have soaked into his clothes. That smell suited him somehow, but it made Finn long to bury his face in the man’s neck to get at his real scent.
“Finn?”
He blinked because he’d gotten lost in the fantasy of tugging that lean body close. “Yeah?”
“I’m glad you know that I could tell you’re something more than human.”
“Not more than, just other than.”
Ajax touched his arm, sending a warm fizzle through Finn’s entire body.
“I’m glad you know because I’d like to get to know you better. We are going to be stuck in this house together for half a year, after all.”
It was more than that, and Finn could tell by the way Ajax was looking at him. There was a warmth in those green eyes. A welcome.
And damned if he could resist that.