Chapter 31
“You’ve completed the first trial.” My shoulders slumped a little at the Guardian’s declaration.
I’d woken up this morning feeling jittery and made Fen shadow-step me to the Guardian’s cave, needing confirmation that I’d made the right choice.
“For the second trial—trust what is.” The silence after that statement pressed in on me.
“Where will it take place?” I asked when it was clear they weren’t going to say anything more.
“It will come when you are ready.”
I pressed my lips together, debating whether or not they would tolerate another question.
“Your thinking is loud,” the Guardian said in their emotionless voice. “Out with it.”
“Will it be obvious it’s a trial?”
“You will know.” Their sightless gaze pierced me, as if imprinting the knowledge on my brain, and then with a flash of light they were gone, lying on their dais like a statue once more.
“Do you think they like being enigmatic or do they have to be vague?” I grumbled when Fen had shadow-stepped us back to his office.
He huffed a laugh. “Hard to imagine them enjoying anything, so maybe it’s part of the challenge.” He walked to his desk and shuffled through the papers on top. His agitation swirled in our bond, making me frown.
I hadn’t noticed it before, too distracted by my own worries. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
Why was he lying? We both knew he wasn’t.
I thought we’d gotten past this. Unless he was regretting what had happened between us last night.
Or keeping more secrets. Taking a deep breath, I tried to rein in my anxiety and doubt.
He wasn’t always going to tell me everything; if he didn’t want to talk about it, I needed to respect that.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment. “It’s a reflex. Daphne doesn’t believe me when I say it either.” He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m worried about a soul in the Dungeon. They are a particularly difficult case, so I’m overseeing them myself.”
My relief at having an explanation was almost comical. I walked around his desk to be closer to him. “You’ll get through to them.”
He pulled me into his arms, burying his face in my neck. “Your confidence in me is very sexy.” His nose traced the shape of my jaw, making me giggle.
“Sir, is this the best place for this? Anyone could walk in.” It wasn’t that I was against messing around in here, but I didn’t want an audience.
Lust spiked in our bond, and Fen groaned. “Call me ‘sir’ again.”
Before I could answer, my stomach gave the loudest gurgle, causing us both to freeze.
“Shit. You haven’t eaten since before the Pool of Memory yesterday.” Fen pressed a chaste kiss to my cheek and drew me towards the door to the dining room. “I need to feed you before I ravage you again.”
I didn’t argue. Last night had been incredible, but I was starving. I needed fuel before we engaged in any more bedroom activities.
The others were already sitting at the table eating when we walked in.
Titus’s eyes flicked between Fen and me, and a sly grin appeared on his face as Fen pulled out my chair, like he knew exactly what we’d done last night.
“Not a word from you,” I told him.
Titus looked at Marcus and Daphne expectantly.
“We’ll take your laundry duty for two months,” Daphne said, her face sour.
“We bet him three,” Marcus said, the picture of calm.
“Fine. Three.”
Titus looked smug as he returned to his breakfast.
My gaze darted between the three of them, and then over at Fen, until it clicked. “You bet on when we’d have sex?”
“Yup.” Marcus looked utterly unapologetic.
Titus’s shoulders shook with silent laughter.
“Marcus bet Fen wouldn’t last more than three days of sleeping in the same room with you,” Daphne said. “I thought you’d hold out until after the second trial. You couldn’t have kept it in your pants a little longer?”
Marcus and Fen both chuckled.
I glared at all of them.
“It’s not just us,” Fen said. “They bet on everything. How do you think Titus always gets out of laundry duty?”
“Like you don’t usually participate.” Daphne snorted. “You’re the one who usually ends up doing his laundry duty.”
Titus threw back his head and howled with laughter, and I couldn’t keep a straight face any longer.
“I should make you do my laundry,” I said to Titus when we’d calmed down. “You wouldn’t have won if it weren’t for me.”
“I’m always open if you want to play, but you should know I’m very particular about how my underwear are washed.”
I threw a piece of bread roll at him, and the table burst out laughing again.
* * *
I was warming up in the training room with Marcus and Titus later when Daphne poked her head in.
“Bea needs to see us.” She looked at me. “All of us.”
Crossing my arms, I opened my mouth to argue.
“Bea’s training window today is short. I wouldn’t interrupt if I didn’t think it was important.” She had her serious face on.
Marcus headed towards the door without argument, but Titus gave me a questioning look.
“It’s fine.” I didn’t want to see Bea, but I trusted Daphne. If she felt I needed to be there, I’d go.
Titus and Daphne fell into conversation and Marcus dropped back to walk with me.
The three of them were together. Titus had told me that, and for the first time I could see it.
The way that Daphne threw soft glances at Titus, the way he stroked her arm, and the way Marcus watched the two of them with a small smile, like they were his favorite people in the world.
They were so at ease with each other despite not being attached at the hip. I wondered how they managed it.
Even in the afterglow of what Fen and I had done, I couldn’t stop the niggling worry that I couldn’t really trust him. Maybe it was that I felt good for the first time since I could remember. Too good. The better things were, the more I had to lose, and I had done nothing but lose in my life.
“If you have something you want to ask, Maeve, ask,” Marcus said.
“You and Daphne and Titus are together.”
“That’s not a question, but yes.”
“How does it… work? I mean, how do you keep from getting jealous or hurt?”
“We don’t. We’re in a relationship. Anyone who pretends those things don’t exist in a healthy relationship is lying. We love and trust each other enough to get through those times, to know that even when we feel that way it isn’t a sign that it’s the end. It’s a sign we need to communicate better.”
I liked that outlook, though I wondered if I’d ever feel that way with Fen.
We were bound for the rest of our existence, but that didn’t mean we had to be romantically involved.
I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if we broke things off and one of us got involved with someone else.
“I guess being exclusive with each other helps.”
“We’re not.”
My head whipped towards him. “What do you mean?”
“Daphne and I don’t sleep with anyone outside the three of us, but Titus does. We tried to be exclusive when we first got together, but he was restless. We agreed to try having him sleep with someone outside our group and things got a lot better. It works for us.”
I closed my mouth, which had dropped open. “Do you have any say over who Titus sleeps with outside of the three of you?”
“No.” He chuckled at the horrified look on my face. “I don’t need to control who he sleeps with, Maeve. I trust him to be vocal about his needs and respectful about mine and Daph’s.”
“So, you just all trust each other.” I was torn between envy and disbelief. That level of trust felt impossible to attain.
“I’m giving you the wrong impression. We didn’t learn to trust each other overnight. It took a long time to get to where we are now. You and Fen have only known each other a matter of weeks. Of course you don’t trust each other yet.”
“Am I that transparent?”
“Tempters are masters of emotions, remember?” He gave me a cheeky smile before sobering. “Fen’s been alone a long time. Give him time to adjust to having a partner. He’s worth it.”
I nodded. Fen was worth it. It was one of the reasons the stakes felt so high between us.
* * *
“Trainees and servants are going missing in Death’s castle,” Bea said when we were all gathered in one of the Dungeon training rooms.
Fen had shadow-stepped me, Marcus, and Titus in. Daphne and Bea had joined us from the next room via shadow portal. I’d created a sound bubble around us to keep anyone outside from overhearing.
“What do you mean ‘missing’?” Titus asked.
Bea’s eyes met mine. “All of them went to bed one night and were gone the next morning. No one knows where they went, and the trainees didn’t end up in the servants quarters. I checked.”
Dread pooled in my stomach because this sounded familiar.
“How many?” Marcus asked.
“Seven since Maeve left. Three trainees and four servants.”
“How did you find out about the servants?” Titus asked.
“Death told us they’d failed out, so I went looking for them in the servants quarters.
When I asked after them—don’t worry I was discreet—I was told they weren’t the only ones to go missing.
” Bea wrung her hands. She looked exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes.
Those hadn’t been there the last time I saw her.
“Seven in two weeks.” Titus whistled low. “That’s a lot.”
“That’s not all of them.” Everyone turned to look at me. “A trainee went missing the day I started training with Fen.”
Bea paled. “That means there could be more. If they were servants, hardly anyone would notice. I only looked into it because one of the people who went missing was a friend of mine.” Tears lined her eyes.
“You said yourself: there’s no way you could have known.” My tone was gentle, but Bea flinched like I’d snapped at her.
“But someone should have. Those poor souls.” She sniffed and Daphne pulled her into a side hug.
Biting my lip, I looked away from them. I wanted to say something to make her feel better, but I didn’t know what. She’d taken my comments as a criticism. Given our last interaction it wasn’t surprising, but I didn’t want her to be unhappy.
“You said you were going to look into it,” I said to Fen. “Did you find anything?”