Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Corin trailed after Jamie as he explored the transformed bookstore, watching the human's methodical investigation with growing fascination. Jamie moved through the space with absolute confidence, trailing fingers along shelves and pressing palms against walls that seemed to lean into his touch.
"Is that door new?" Corin asked, pointing to an arched wooden entrance that definitely hadn't been there yesterday.
Jamie frowned, approaching it cautiously. "My office was here."
When he turned the ornate handle, the door swung open to reveal a cozy bedroom with a large four-poster bed, shelves lined with books, and windows that somehow showed a moonlit garden despite it being midday.
"Well, well," Corin drawled, slipping past Jamie to bounce experimentally on the bed. "This seems cozy. Your store has excellent taste."
Jamie remained in the doorway, expression unreadable. "It's never done anything like this before."
"Take it as an invitation." Corin patted the mattress beside him. "Coming to test the merchandise?"
It was a throwaway line, the kind of flirtation Corin tossed around like confetti.
He didn't really mean anything by it.
But Azelon stood in the hallway, watching them. His bioluminescent markings pulsed with a cold blue light, jaw tight with something Corin couldn't quite name.
Interest? Disapproval?
Jealousy?
A delicious thrill shot through Corin's chest. He stretched across the bed, making sure his shirt rode up just enough to expose a sliver of skin.
"I bet this room responds to your every desire," he said to Jamie, voice pitched just loud enough for Azelon to hear. "What happens if you think about something you really want?"
Jamie gave him a measuring look. "I already have a bedroom upstairs."
"Why not take this one for a test ride?" Corin teased, deliberately catching Azelon's gaze over Jamie's shoulder.
Azelon's tail lashed once behind him, sharp and agitated. "We should continue exploring the rest of the building," the Tideborn said stiffly. "The magical anomalies might provide clues about what happened to you."
"Buzzkill," Corin muttered, but he slid off the bed and followed as they continued their exploration.
For the next little while, Corin made it his mission to stay as close to Jamie as possible. He brushed against him when examining books that changed their text when touched. He laughed too loudly at Jamie's dry observations and found constant excuses to touch his arm or shoulder.
All the while, he made sure Azelon noticed. And oh, Azelon noticed.
With each touch, each suggestive comment, the Tideborn's markings pulsed more intensely. His tail coiled tightly around his leg.
It was glorious.
When Jamie seemed absorbed in a particularly interesting bookshelf, Corin felt strong fingers close around his upper arm. Azelon pulled him into an alcove, out of Jamie's line of sight.
"What exactly do you think you're doing?" Azelon demanded, voice low and dangerous.
Corin affected an innocent expression. "Making our new guest feel welcome. Problem?"
"You're projecting emotions all over the building. It's destabilizing the magical currents."
"Am I?" Corin glanced up at the light fixture above them, which was indeed flickering with his excitement. "I hadn't noticed."
Azelon's grip tightened. "This isn't a game, Corin."
"No?" Corin stepped closer, invading Azelon's space. "Then why are you so bothered by how I interact with Jamie? It's just friendly conversation."
"You're not being friendly. You're being flirtatious."
"So? You don't get to be jealous." The words burst out before Corin could stop them, raw and honest in a way he hadn't intended. "I've been throwing myself at you for literal months, and you've turned me down a hundred times. You don't get to suddenly care who I flirt with."
Around them, books vibrated on their shelves, responding to his projected emotions. One volume shot across the room, narrowly missing Azelon's head.
The Tideborn didn't flinch. "This has nothing to do with jealousy. It's about your reckless behavior. We know nothing about this human or why his store has transformed. Your emotional instability?—"
"My emotional instability?" Corin laughed, the sound brittle even to his own ears. "Maybe I'm just tired of being kept at arm's length by someone who saved my life but can't admit he cares."
Azelon's expression shuttered, his markings dimming to a dull glow. "That's irrelevant to our current situation."
"Everything's irrelevant to you, isn't it?" Corin pressed. "Except your precious morals. Except whatever mysterious reason keeps you from admitting what's between us."
"There is nothing between us."
It was a lie. Corin knew it was a lie. He'd caught the way Azelon looked at him sometimes. The way he was always there when the nightmares came.
If he didn't care about Corin, he would have abandoned him in one of the towns they'd passed through.
And yet, when he said things like that…
Corin stepped back, trying to mask the hurt with a too-bright smile.
"Keep telling yourself that," he said. "Meanwhile, I'll spend my time with someone who doesn't treat me like a burden he wishes he'd left to drown."
He stalked away before Azelon could respond, his chaos magic leaving a trail of disturbed objects in his wake. A row of books toppled from their shelf. A lamp flickered wildly. The building itself seemed to groan under the pressure of his projected feelings.
Corin didn't care to rein himself in.
Not until he found Jamie in the main area anyway.
"Everything okay?" the human asked.
"Peachy," Corin said, forcing brightness into his voice. "Just a little disagreement about proper bookstore etiquette."
Jamie's eyes flickered past him to where Azelon had emerged from the alcove, then back to Corin's face. He didn't comment on the obvious tension, just nodded toward the stairs leading up to the second floor apartment.
"Found something interesting. Want to see?"
"Of course," Corin said, making sure to brush against Jamie as he passed. He didn't need to look back to know Azelon was watching.
By evening, they had found and examined a kitchen stocked with food none of them had brought, a cozy sitting room with a fireplace, and a curiously empty chamber with walls that changed color with Corin's shifting moods.
"The store is adapting to us," Jamie concluded as they gathered in the kitchen. "It's incredible. Creating spaces it thinks we need."
"It seemed ordinary before you came," Corin said, watching a cabinet door open by itself when Jamie reached for a mug.
"It's his store," Azelon said from the doorway, where he'd been silently observing. "It didn't need to be magical without its master."
"Lucky you," Corin told Jamie, sidling closer than necessary. "A magical building that caters to your every whim."
Jamie raised an eyebrow at the sudden proximity but didn't move away. "I agree it's all sorts of amazing…" He trailed off, shaking his head. "But I'd trade it for answers about where my brother is and why we were brought here."
"The Barrier Keeper who brought you here might be difficult to locate," Azelon said. "They rarely reveal themselves or their motivations."
"There's got to be a way to make them reveal themselves," Jamie said with quiet determination that sent an unexpected shiver down Corin's spine.
For a being without magic, this human didn't seem intimidated by anything.
There was something attractive about that.
Something very attractive.
As night fell outside, the store created two additional bedrooms on each side of Jamie's room. One with a window overlooking what appeared to be an ocean vista, clearly meant for Azelon; and another filled with plush pillows and colors that shifted subtly with Corin's emotions.
"Looks like we're all staying the night," Jamie observed.
"Seems so," Corin murmured.
A room all for himself…
How was he supposed to feel about that?
He hadn't spent a night by himself since…
Well…
Since he'd met Azelon.
But as they prepared to separate for the night, Azelon paused in the hallway outside their rooms. "I assume you won't need my assistance tonight," he said to Corin, voice unnervingly formal, "since you've found a new caretaker."
Corin kept his smile fixed in place through sheer force of will.
"I'm sure I'll manage just fine without your reluctant charity," he replied, voice light despite the tightness in his chest.
It was a good thing he was a chaos fae. A good fae wouldn't have been able to lie so easily. The only way his truth revealed itself was through his magic.
Still, Azelon probably knew he was lying. But he turned without another word and disappeared into his room, closing the door with a soft but definitive click.
Jamie looked between the closed door and Corin's frozen smile. "What was that about?"
"Nothing important," Corin said, retreating toward his own room. "Sleep well, handsome. Dream of me."
He closed his own door before Jamie could respond, leaning against it as his facade crumbled.
The lights in his room dimmed in response to his mood, the walls shifting to a deep, melancholy blue.
Corin paced his room for a while, trying to distract himself with the strange books that had appeared on his shelves, all of which seemed to feature stories about outcasts finding acceptance. The store really was eerily perceptive.
Eventually he lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling as it mimicked a night sky, complete with constellations he didn't recognize.
Were those supposed to soothe him?
Usually at this point, he'd have sought out Azelon's company. The Tideborn might keep him at emotional arm's length, but he'd never once refused to sit with Corin through the night when the nightmares threatened.
Until now.
Corin closed his eyes, determined to prove he didn't need Azelon's comfort.
Sleep came fitfully, in broken fragments that quickly dissolved into familiar terror.
Water rising. Darkness closing in. Lungs burning for air that wouldn't come.
He jerked awake gasping, sweat-soaked and trembling. His chaos magic had responded to his nightmare—water seemed to seep from the floorboards, rising higher.
Corin pulled his knees to his chest, fighting to control his breathing before his projected emotions could cause actual damage.
He didn't want to flood the store.
His first instinct was to go to Azelon. The Tideborn was uniquely immune to the worst of Corin's projections, able to remain calm in the emotional storm. But after today's confrontation...
Corin couldn't bear to crawl to him for help.
But he also couldn't stay alone, not with the water already lapping at the edges of the bed, not with the darkness pressing in on him.
Corin forced himself to focus, wrestling his emotions back under control. Gradually, the water began to recede, draining away through cracks that appeared in the floorboards. The store itself seeming to help contain the damage.
Still, his feet splashed through ankle-deep puddles as he climbed out of bed.
Just great.
He could not deal with this by himself for the rest of the night.
Before he could talk himself out of it, Corin slipped from his room and padded down the hallway to Jamie's door, leaving wet footprints on the wooden floor.
He raised his hand to knock, then hesitated. What was he doing?
This had started as a game to make Azelon jealous, not...
The door opened, revealing Jamie in sleep pants and nothing else. He didn't look surprised to see Corin standing there, eyes wide and slightly panicked.
"I was just..." Corin started, then faltered. His usual flirtatious comments died on his tongue.
"Nightmares?" Jamie asked simply.
Corin barked a laugh that sounded dangerously close to a sob. "How did you know?"
"Intuition." Jamie stepped aside. "Come in."
Corin hesitated only a moment longer before slipping past him into the room. It was warm, the air dry and still.
It was exactly what Corin needed.
"I don't usually..." Corin began, still trying to maintain some semblance of his earlier playfulness.
"You don't have to explain," Jamie said, closing the door.
Something in Corin's chest cracked at the simple acceptance. He'd been prepared for questions, for judgment, for the need to explain his weakness. Instead, Jamie simply guided him to the bed and pulled back the covers.
"I've had these nightmares for a while," Corin admitted as he slipped beneath the blankets. "About drowning. They get... messy. My emotions leak out and affect things around me."
Jamie settled beside him, not touching but close enough that Corin could feel his warmth. "Is that why Azelon mentioned 'assistance'?"
Corin nodded, surprising himself with his honesty. "He's immune to the worst of my projections. He usually sits with me when it gets bad."
"But not tonight?"
"We had a disagreement," Corin said, the understatement so obvious it almost made him laugh.
Jamie made a noncommittal sound. "Well, I'm not immune to emotional projection, but I'm a pretty heavy sleeper. So project away."
The casual acceptance was so unexpected that Corin found himself blinking back tears. He turned onto his side, facing away from Jamie to hide his expression.
"Fair warning, I'm a cuddler," he said, trying to recapture his flirtatious tone and failing miserably.
"I'll survive," Jamie replied, his voice warm with amusement.
They lay in silence for a while, Corin tense and waiting for the nightmare to return. Gradually, though, the quiet rhythm of Jamie's breathing and the gentle weight of his presence began to ease the tightness in Corin's chest.
"He saved me once," Corin found himself saying into the darkness. "Azelon. When my powers went out of control and trapped a bunch of people in a drowning dreamscape. He was the only one who could reach me. He pulled me out of it."
Jamie didn't immediately respond, and Corin feared he'd already fallen asleep. Then a warm hand settled between his shoulder blades, solid and grounding.
"Get some rest," Jamie said softly. "We'll figure everything else out tomorrow."
Corin closed his eyes, surprised to find that the darkness behind his eyelids no longer teemed with rising water. The store hummed around them, warm and dry.
And safe.