Chapter 7 Zayn #2
Yeah, they didn’t want anybody in Win’s space when he woke up, because of the nature of the kidnapping and Ruxnoth’s violating intentions. Win needed time to carefully get the lay of the land and acclimate before he was inundated with us crowding him and asking questions and all that.
“Can you do your smooth manipulating of things to the outcome and behavior you want when we head down there? So we can retreat to the guestroom just the three of us and finally talk with Evira about whatever went down for her in the Dracoryn Realm?”
“Manipulating is a rather harsh way of framing it.”
“Vax.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. I will ease things in that direction. Does that suffice?”
“I’m sure it will.”
“That’s the first time you’ve done that.”
“Done what?”
“Shortened my name. Called me Vax.”
“Yeah, you liked that?”
“I’ve become fond of it since Winter began using it.”
“I did consider going with my other thing—'my insanely intoxicating, mouthwatering snake prince’. But I figured now wasn’t exactly the time for it.”
“Well, the fact you recognized that is admirable. Although, to be clear, I did enjoy it when you uttered it during our breakfast in the Cafeteria the other day—and when you were on your knees for me a couple of nights ago as the four of us were awash in some filthy carnality.”
“Good to know.”
“Indeed.”
Intensity flared before he blinked, then averted his eyes when their serpentine form came to the surface once again. I patted his shoulders and stepped back.
And then we both stole one more glance at Win and walked out of the room.
As Vaxan quietly closed the door, I whispered, “Evira hasn’t said a thing about it, Vax.
Something must’ve happened. Yeah, I know she was summoned, so it was bad from that alone.
But I mean something big must’ve gone down, right?
She’s been more withdrawn too. I figured at first it was her being back here when the last and only time she stepped foot in this place was when she and Win fucked two years back.
And I thought it might’ve also had something to do with her feeling super awkward about the whole family knowing Torvek attacked Winter recently because of all that.
But she settled into the dinner and she was talking with everyone without any signs of that.
She’s been off, though, something only we’d really notice as we’ve gotten to know her well.
That usual awesomely brazen and excitedly open personality of hers has been stifled. ”
“I know. And I agree, something significant must have transpired during her return to the Dracoryn Realm. We’ll see to her, see to whatever it is. And we’ll do so together as a unit.” He beamed out at me. “All will be well.”
The way he said it, with so much conviction, and so much belief in our foursome, in what we shared being strong enough to weather all this coming at it… it was more than comfort.
More than reassurance.
More than a sense of belonging.
And more than affection or even adoration.
It was our way of being now.
As a whole.
I couldn’t sleep.
My mind was too busy.
With what had happened to Win, which had been made worse by not being able to talk to him because he was still asleep.
And with what Evira had told us when we’d retired to the guestroom that Win’s family had made up for us.
She’d given up her title.
Shit. That was a big fucking deal. I mean, she’d done her best to try to downplay it and even claimed it was for the best because she was away from the Dracoryn Realm anyway, and would be for the next four years of her studies at Loxley.
But it had still been a part of her identity and now that had been taken away.
Well, she’d agreed to it, been given a choice.
But how much of a choice had there really been?
If she’d refused, it would have caused a whole fuckfest in the Dracoryn Realm because of how they saw Win—as a threat.
I was fucking sick of it.
Win was the farthest thing from a threat.
If they knew him, if they even spent just a few moments with him, they’d see that. Everyone would.
Evira was taking it so well, though. She really was a fucking queen.
Vax had pointed out that we couldn’t shift Dracoryn Realm politics overnight, or make it better for her from that perspective, but we could make her time with us happy and amazing—we could help her that way.
Of course he was right. He usually was. And he had an intricate understanding of political bullshit and bigger picture matters and narratives.
But it didn’t make it easy or instant to accept all of this. No, not accept it—live with it as things currently were.
And when there were issues with people wielding their power in fucked-up ways that hurt others, it got under my skin.
Like a relentless fucking itch.
I wasn’t at the point where I was gonna explode or anything, but I was in an unsettled state, meaning I couldn’t sleep.
Fortunately, I had a load of distractions around me right now in this room of Glacialis Arx. They called it Entertainment Hub, and it was basically a big-time den.
Well, there was nothing basic about it.
His family had gone all out when they’d created it.
No wonder with the restrictions Win had lived with.
I lounged back on the oversized ivory sectional that was covered with amethyst throws, the same stunning color of Win’s eyes. Shit, those fucking eyes of his, I missed looking into them. I wanted him to wake up. Soon. Real damn soon.
I blinked and focused back on the massive screen opposite me on the gray stone wall, the kind that could be split into multiple feeds—a really cool setup.
It had taken me some time rummaging through the drawers and cabinets in the big-ass entertainment unit beneath the screen that took up a whole wall, before I’d found the fighting games.
They’d been tucked away. Win’s doing, no doubt.
He didn’t care for them, not exactly a fan of the violence of it all.
He’d been all about the exploration games, something he and Ketheron had gotten into together.
Lazriel had been all for the fighting stuff like me and we’d played a few times when I’d stayed here.
I’d even come across one of the controllers that he’d used that had bite and claw marks in it, because he got crazy immersed.
Cassius had gotten into the whole video game thing too, but he’d gone for strategy games.
Velra had been more focused on what was behind me over in the far corner of the massive space—the arcade games.
There was a magical firing range opposite all that with swirling targets that could move at different speeds and patterns, something Sylas liked playing around with.
The most spectacular feature, though, was in the center of the room.
They called it Worldglass, which had been a joint creation by Velra and Ketheron.
It was a magical experiential immersion chamber.
It sat on a circular obsidian platform with purple and gold vertical light in a sort of mist-like form streaming upward.
And when you stepped inside, you could visit loads of landmarks and locations throughout the supernatural world without actually being physically present.
It had intense sensory immersion, where it looked, smelled, and even felt like real places.
It had been made as a really cool way for Win to experience the world without actually, you know, experiencing it in-person. It was both sweet and fucking sad.
I ground my jaw and blinked back to my video game, grunting when my character took a massive hit yet again because my mind kept wandering.
“Z.”
I jolted, a gasp escaping me.
I swung my head to see the last person I’d expected to be walking in.
“Win,” I breathed.
He swept a wave of his magic around the immediate area. It was his amber magic, but with a film of his frost encompassing it. “They can’t sense this combination,” he said, off my confused look.
“They? Your family?”
He nodded, but didn’t speak more to it.
I tossed my controller down on the carved wooden coffee table in front of me as he walked over, stumbling and wavering in his step.
I moved to get up to help him, but he held up his hand.
It wasn’t only his unsteadiness on his feet that was concerning.
It was that he’d just put up some sort of very specific spell to keep his family from knowing he’d just woken up.
And he was shuddering while dressed in navy pajama pants and two robes—one cobalt-blue, the other a soft white.
He couldn’t actually feel environmental or physiological cold like that, so it was either something presenting like physical cold, or he’d put all that on to comfort himself from the trauma of the kidnapping.
Kind of like when people in distress shivered but not from anything actually temperature-related.
He rounded the couch, slapping his hand to the top a couple of times for support before he slumped down right beside me.
I turned to face him. “Win? Maybe you should—”
“Is everyone okay?”
“What?”
“I know my family. And the three of you. The lines that might’ve been crossed to find me, the dangerous things that might—are you all okay?”
“We’re fine. Everyone is. It’s all okay. No dangerous lines were crossed either. It was handled well. Pretty fucking sanely, considering.”
A trembling breath escaped him, and he rested his head back against the cozy couch.
He craned his neck a little to look at me and had me hella surprised when he raked his gaze over my pink zebra-print boxer briefs and then my inked arms on display with me only wearing a black tank.
He was eye-fucking me. Now. After what he’d just been through. Yeah, this wasn’t a good sign. At all.
Before I could speak to it, his eyes flicked back to my face and he said, “I felt Vax and Evira’s magic in the house. They’re here sleeping over like you?”
“That’s right.”