Chapter 54 Raven
Raven
“Don’t you want to come with us?”
Kai shook his head. “Crowded nightclubs are not really my thing.” My heart fell. I didn’t want my merman to feel excluded. He already struggled with sharing my bed when I was with my other mates.
“Fish boy will be fine, pet. Now get your sexy ass moving before we miss our Uber.”
“Uber?”
“Well, the fae equivalent.”
Farris scowled from his seat by the fire. “Excuse me? You’re damn lucky I’ve agreed to this, but by all means, carry on comparing me to a human rideshare if you feel like being stuck in town later.”
“What’s a rideshare?” I’d heard the phrase before, but the meaning hadn’t stuck in my brain. Probably because my witchy brain was more like a sieve than a steel trap.
Kenji rolled his eyes at me. “Too stupid to live.”
He never lost an opportunity to mock me. Thank the goddess Fig was always sweet and supportive. My pig snorted loudly and collapsed onto the rug by the fire. His fat little belly gurgled loudly as he digested his dinner.
“A private taxicab, little mate. Humans book the service via an app.”
“Oh. Do the fae have an app so we can book passage through your portals?” Farris sent me a look that would have upset a witch with lower self-esteem, and he sniffed loudly. I had no clue why he refused to answer my question. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable one to me.
As I glared at the obnoxious fae, he glanced at the front door for the millionth time. Anyone would think he was waiting for someone.
I turned back to Kai. “Are you sure you don’t want to come?”
He smiled and tucked a loose lock of hair behind my ear. “Yes, I’m sure. I’ll stay with the pig and catch up on some reading.”
My merman loved books. He and I were working our way through a series of fantasy romance books about dragons. I enjoyed it when he read aloud to me. His sexy voice brought the spicy scenes to life in the best way, and the fact he blushed when reading them was just adorable.
“Don’t read any of the Dragon Warrior series,” I said sternly. “I’m excited for you to read the bonding ceremony chapter to me.”
“Is it sexy, pet?” Zane came over and grinned. “If it is, I want to hear it too.”
“Maybe,” I hedged, well aware it was very spicy. Of course, Zane detected my lust and realized instantly how eager I was for the next chapter. His grin widened.
“Tomorrow night, you, me, and fish boy.” He winked. Kai blushed bright lilac but didn’t say no, which I took as a positive sign.
“Mea amica, you look beautiful,” my vampire growled as he swept me away from Zane and Kai. I drooled over his dashing suit and crisp white shirt. Holy moly, my vampy was hot. Like, so hot I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go anywhere.
“Can we stay in?” I fluttered my eyelashes as his fangs grazed over my neck, scratching a little. He’d tapped my vein last night, and let’s just say I could barely walk this morning.
“If you truly want to, my queen.” Common sense soon prevailed. Goddess, I was selfish. My poor vampy was practically dorm-bound until I left Starfall. While he’d been using a glamor to disguise his appearance, it was too risky to go out unless it was dark or an emergency.
Of course he wanted a night off from this madness. Who could blame him?
“No, I’m excited about a night out,” I lied. The last night out we’d enjoyed had ended with me unconscious and in agony. And we all knew how the solstice ball ended…
The thought of going through all that again didn’t fill me with joy, but maybe dancing and a few drinks would be fun?
“Nothing will happen to you, little mate,” Maverick assured me. He wore a crisp blue shirt and black jeans with a pair of shiny leather boots. Hot damn, my bear was killing it tonight. Shifter bitches everywhere would drool at the sight of him.
Rasmus released me with great reluctance. I crawled into my bear’s arms, huffing up his woodsy scent like a shameless addict while he squeezed me tight enough to make me squeak.
“You are beautiful, but if anyone looks at you for more than a second, I’ll pluck their eyes out.”
“And I’ll use those eyeballs to fashion a cute little necklace, pet,” Zane added with a gleeful grin before cocking his head to one side.
“Ooh, we have two more guests.”
Someone hammered on the entrance door before I heard a female voice cursing up a storm.
“Glynda?” Oh my stars, I was a horrible friend. I hadn’t invited her to come on our night out!
Farris shot up from his chair and zipped to the door before any of us moved. I heard him talking to Glynda, and then the pair of them walked in, followed by Alaric. The storm mage cast an awkward glance in my direction before rubbing his chest like it pained him to even think about me.
I was so distracted by Alaric it took me a minute to realize Glynda wore a slinky pink dress and had dyed her hair a gorgeous shade of purple.
My jaw dropped in shock. “Wow…you look stunning!”
Glynda flushed tomato red and giggled nervously. “Um, I have a date.”
“A date? Who with?” Her eyes slid over to Farris before she forced a smile. “Dating app date. Some mage I matched. It’s probably a waste of my time.” She shrugged.
“How come you’re allowed off campus? I thought we were all in lockdown?”
“My date’s parents are on the Supernatural Council, so he got me a pass. Anyway, I figured if you wanted, you could double-date with me? But it looks like you already have plans…”
I tried hard to look excited about the idea of Glynda dating a mage, likely one of Alaric’s buddies, but failed. Glynda was way too sweet to be dating mage supremacists. Sure, not all the mage families linked to Tiberius were assholes, but I had yet to hear of any that were decent.
“Sorry, it’s a last-minute trip. Zane just sprung it on me.” I tried not to look as guilty as I felt about failing to invite my best friend.
“Which mage?” Alaric asked Glynda with a frown. He still refused to look at me, which told me all I needed to know: he’d decided our hookup in the library had been a horrible mistake on his part.
“Leo Mizen.” Alaric sighed and gave Glynda a pitying look.
“Look, Glynda, it’s none of my business, but Leo has a bad rep for dropping paralysis tabs in girls’ drinks, so you should probably reconsider this date.”
“He does what now?” Farris’s fury took me and everyone else by surprise. The fae seemed to care little for anyone other than himself, so him giving a fuck about a rapist mage came as a shock.
Alaric ground his teeth before continuing, “He always gets away with it because the victims refuse to press charges.”
My mates all exchanged looks that suggested they planned to deal with this Leo later.
And if they didn’t, I would. I’d hunt that rapey asshole down and turn him into a husk.
He could join the sea witch in the place beyond the veil where evil souls went.
Some creative torturing for all eternity would be a good life lesson.
“Glynda, you are not meeting this mage,” Farris snapped.
Glynda spun on her cute heels and glared at the asshole fae.
“Excuse me?”
Farris ignored her angry huff and sniffed. “If everyone’s ready, let’s go. I have shit to do.”
“You have shit to do?” Glynda’s enraged shriek stopped me in my tracks. Zane smirked and mimed eating popcorn, which made me smile for a second.
“Does this shit involve fucking other females?”
Wow, what in the realm was happening here?
“I do not wish to discuss that here with you,” Farris hissed. His bored demeanor had vanished, leaving raging psycho Farris with impulse control issues front and center. I pulled a spark to my fingers in case this little spat got out of hand and I needed to toast the fae’s balls.
“Oh, we’re going to discuss it alright, you fae asshole.” Glynda stamped her foot and skewered Fae with a furious glare. I’d never seen her this angry. She mostly avoided confrontations. A bit like me.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, worried maybe she was having some kind of emotional meltdown.
“Nothing a good hate-fuck wouldn’t fix,” Zane announced with a grin.
“Enough! We go now.” Farris stormed out of the dorm. My mates all shrugged.
“Fucking asshole shithead cuntosaurus fae twat,” Glynda muttered. I grabbed her hand and tugged her with me. I blinked before shaking my head. We needed to talk about this development, preferably over drinks. Alcoholic drinks.
“Forget about your date and come with us. We can have a girly night out and trash-talk the fucking fae.”
“I heard that!” Farris yelled.
“Good!” Glynda yelled back. “You know what? Let’s get really drunk. You can be my wingwoman; I feel like hooking up with a slutty shifter tonight.”
“Um, okay?” I didn’t have wings, and Glynda would almost certainly regret a hookup with a shifter, but as her best friend, I had a moral duty to make sure she had fun tonight.
Considering the entire realm was supposed to be on lockdown, the club appeared surprisingly full. Everywhere I looked, witches, mages, and other magicals were partying like the world was about to blow up.
Nobody here seemed concerned about demon attacks or the rising cases of feral shifters. Nope. They were all drunk on lust and copious quantities of weird and wonderful cocktails.
Alaric had tagged along with us but hadn’t tried talking to me. Instead, he nursed a foul-looking green drink and stared into space as Maverick and Rasmus formed a protective barrier around me and Glynda.
Zane pushed through the circle of steely muscle and slid an arm around my waist, pressing a pink, fizzy drink into my hand.
“Want to visit the playroom later?”
I gulped, remembering all too well what had happened with him and my bear last time. Then my gaze snagged on my best friend, who had yet to mingle with anyone despite saying she wanted to hook up with a shifter.
The fae asshole had disappeared the moment we arrived in Thornville, muttering something about a meeting.
I wondered if the meeting was with a siren. If so, I hoped she had a nasty case of mage lice or festering leech pustules. It would serve him right for upsetting my friend, who still refused to tell me what was going on.
“I should probably stay close to Glynda,” I told Zane. “She’s upset.”
“I’ll hook her up with one of the more decent shifters here tonight,” Zane said dismissively. “A few orgasms, and she’ll forget all about the fae fucker.”
I shoved him back and scowled. “Be more empathetic!” I sometimes forgot what an asshole he could be with everyone else.
“Okay, fiiine. I won’t hook her up.” My incubus pouted adorably. “Even though it would do her good. Get over a fae by getting under a shifter.”
Not in the mood for Zane’s bullshit, I slid closer to my friend.
“Wanna talk about it?” Glynda sipped her blue drink and shook her head.
“Not really. It can’t be fixed, so what’s the point?” Her eyes welled up, but she sniffed and fixed a fake smile on her face.
Not knowing what to say that might make her feel better, I watched as she stared into the crowd, oblivious to the many interested glances from nearby shifters and mages.
Glynda had no clue how pretty she was. She thought because she wasn’t a super-powerful witch from one of the top coven families, no decent mage would want her.
Goddess save us all—our elitist society sucked. Who cared how powerful a magical being was? All that mattered was whether they were a decent person.
I gulped the rest of my drink down and dropped the glass on a nearby table.
“Let’s dance,” I suggested. Before Glynda could refuse, I took her hand and dragged her onto the crowded dance floor.