Chapter 24
Torin
My experience with Jack’s family has never been good, and being in a room of people just like them is enough to give me indigestion.
We’re in yet another hotel, this time in a reception room that’s been set aside for the occasion. There’s a bar right in the centre of the room, and staff are milling around, handing out drinks. As much as I’d like to sink a couple of them to prepare myself, I need to keep a clear head.
“Why are we meeting at another hotel? Do these people not have houses they can go to?” Reva mutters.
“Not ones they’d invite others into,” I reply, shifting my overly tight collar away from my throat. It does nothing to ease my discomfort. Just like shifting my weight does nothing to distract from the fact my cock has been rock hard since she opened the hotel room door.
“They’re probably too scared someone would poison their booze cupboard. My question is, where are all the tables if this is a dinner? Or are we supposed to survive off these tiny nibbly things?”
She lets out that particular chuckle that seems to have a strange effect on my chest, almost like it’s triggering the indigestion early. “I don’t think we’re planning to eat here,” she says, keeping her eyes on Jack, who is doing a sweep of the room.
“How do you mean?”
“You know him better than me. But something tells me Jack’s going to flounce around until he finds either his parents or Northcliff.
He’ll then cause a scene while we corner them and hopefully they’ll spill the information quickly enough for us to be able to get out of here before the dinner is served.
” She rubs her stomach, giving me a pointed look.
“I don’t know about you, but one awkward meal was enough for me today. ”
Aster reaches out and spells something out on her hip, causing her to step closer and for me to experience the sharp pinch of envy. It’s as though the two of them have their own private language that the rest of us aren’t privy to, and it’s sending me slightly wild.
Or perhaps that’s the aftereffects of this afternoon’s ill-advised game of chicken, waiting out the other to see who cracks first. The memory of Reva’s scent is still etched into my senses and I have to refocus my attention, desperately willing my cock to soften.
All I need from her is the merest look and I’ll carry her off and bury my head under her skirt.
But not until she’s ready.
I might be a monster. But I’ll be her monster, if she’ll let me.
She leans closer to Aster, resting her hand on his shoulder and murmuring something into his ear, and my hands clench into fists.
Luckily, they’re shoved into the pockets of this ridiculous fucking suit Jack found for me.
I’m pretty sure he picked one that was at least a size too small for me, so I currently feel like I might bust out of it if I make any sudden moves.
“Aster thinks it’s like being surrounded by hungry wolves,” she says with a tired smile. “I’m thinking sharks. How about you?”
I take a languid look around the room and at the circling, stark-faced sorcerers, all dressed as though they’re fighting to impress but desperate not to show it. “Either sounds about right.”
Jack is talking to a woman his mother’s age, who throws her head back in a laugh that rings out from the other side of the room.
“On second thought,” I say. “Scorpions, maybe. That woman tried to get her claws into Jack years ago, but never managed it. Looks like she’s trying on the charm again.”
“Well, his mother looks like she wants to eat you up like a yummy treat,” Reva replies.
I don’t need to turn my head to feel the predatory gaze on me. His mother strikes me as the type to suck out your life force by whatever means she can manage, and if that’s via your cock, then so be it.
I can’t quite hide my shudder, and Reva steps closer, squeezing my wrist.
“Don’t worry, we’ll protect you,” she says. “Not entirely sure how, when she probably has oodles of magic spilling out of her. But something tells me she wouldn’t like having those little snacks lobbed on her fancy dress, or failing that I could always just punch her in the face.”
My chuckle seems to surprise us both, and Reva grins up at me before turning away again.
She’s sandwiched between me and Aster and it’s sending a zing of satisfaction through me.
Wilder images of how else she might find herself between the two of us flit through my mind.
Her, on her knees with me behind that lush backside, pounding deep into her while Aster fills her mouth.
Me, acting as a wall behind and holding her legs wide while Aster buries his face between her legs.
I want to run my hands over every inch of her skin, to touch and taste her and bury myself so deep she can’t tell where one of us ends, and the other begins.
Fuuck. This suit really is too small and getting smaller by the second.
I share a look with Aster, and he smirks like he can read my mind. Then his attention focuses on something across the room and his eyes widen. Tapping Reva on the wrist, he jerks his head, and we both follow his line of sight to a balding man dressed in a black suit and a hooded cape.
“That’s him?”
Aster nods, and Reva squeezes his hand, tossing her head back and straightening her shoulders to reveal two bare shoulders. I’m torn between kissing my way between them and hiding her away since none of these fucks deserve to see her delicate skin.
“All right then. We’re all agreed on sticking with the plan? I go in first and then if the nicey-nice approach doesn’t get me anywhere, you can storm in and scare the shit out of him with your growling routine.”
It’s a plan that I’m hating more with every passing second. She looks too perfect in that dress, and something tells me this greasy little fucker is going to covet her, just like he covets power.
And then I’m going to want to snap his neck, and it’ll be a whole mess.
“Fine,” I say, although it sounds a lot more petulant than I intend it to.
“Good. You both stay here.” She gives me a pointed look that I just know means ‘keep Aster safe’.
“Got it. We’ll both keep an eye on you from here. But I’m warning you, one twitch or grimace and we’ll be right over.”
“Sure thing, Mr Growly Bear.” She taps me on the chest and then saunters across the room to the slithering fuck who doesn’t deserve a moment of her time.
Aster’s shoulders are just as stiff as mine, and I can sense his elevated heart rate as he watches on. I force myself to rein my feral side in. One of us has to keep our head, and it’s only fair that it should be me.
“Right, she’s reached him,” I murmur under my breath.
“He’s looking at her, smiling. What a smarmy little shitbag smile that is, I’d like to punch it right off his stupid face.
” I take a deep breath, cracking my neck from side to side.
“He’s nodding. Now he’s leaning closer, and she’s putting space between them.
He’d better respect that damned space or he’ll be missing an eyeball in a minute. ”
Aster snorts at that, and I find myself grinning back. No one in my life has ever found me funny or laughed at a single thing I say, and yet, he and Reva are here chuckling it up when I’m trying to threaten someone.
“He’s looking serious and nodding now. Talking a lot from the look of things. Nodding. Talking. More talking. Did that look like a ‘come help me’ gesture to you?”
Aster shakes his head, miming scratching his nose.
All right, so maybe Reva had an itch. “If she does it again, we’re going over there.”
Another few minutes pass and I don’t take my attention off them for a moment.
Eventually, Reva takes a step away from Northcliff, nodding at him in return and then breaking away.
She takes a step toward us and lifts her head to meet my eye, then with another little nod she jerks her head to the side, gesturing toward the exit.
“And not a moment too soon,” I mutter, earning me another snorted laugh from Aster and a slap on the shoulder.
Strangely enough, my bear doesn’t feel tempted to tear him limb from limb for daring to touch me. In fact, he doesn’t react at all. Almost as if he sees Aster in the same way he sees Jack, or Kit, or...
Well, not the captain. My bear really doesn’t like Captain Finch’s monster, and sometimes that bleeds through.
We’re halfway to the exit when Reva stumbles, her face going pale as she clutches her chest, and then we’re barrelling through the crowd, not caring how many obstacles we knock out of the way.
Aster and I both reach her at the same moment and I cup Reva’s elbow. “Are you all right? What happened? What did he do to you?”
“I’m fine,” she replies. “Felt dizzy and kind of sick for a moment, but it was nothing he did.”
“And how do you know that? He might have put some kind of hex on you to make you feel sick so he’d have to cure you with his potions.”
“Torin,” she says with a patient smile. “I’m fine. Can we get out of here before we garner too much attention?”
“Of course.” I don’t let go of her, escorting her out of the door and into a private alcove midway between the room filled with sorcerers and the hotel’s foyer.
Once we’re out of everyone’s eyeline, I run a critical eye over her. “Are you sure he didn’t put some kind of spell on you?”
“I’m sure,” she says. “But you can check if you like.”
She pulls something from the pocket of her dress and thrusts a pair of gold spectacles into my hand.
“They’re Kit’s. I’d forgotten I had them with me until I needed to dig out a dress for this evening.
They’re supposed to tell if there’s magic or curses on objects, but I’m assuming it should work for people too. ”
I’m fairly sure they were a gift from Jack. I slip them over my nose, attaching the earpieces.
—and am bombarded with an absolutely insane number of colours and textures all at once. I immediately snap my eyes shut.
“Holy shit. Literally everything in this building seems to be running on or connected to some kind of magic.”
“We’d noticed,” Reva replies, when I peel my eyelids open again I can see she’s rubbing her temple and leaning against Aster more heavily than usual. “Every little thing in this city, even the mundane things, seem to have magic tied into them. It makes you wonder where it all came from.”
“And at what cost,” I mutter, taking a longer look around. This time, instead of getting distracted by the magic that’s on the floor and the ceiling and weaving through the air, I focus my attention on Reva and Aster.
He seems to have a red cord wrapped tightly around his throat. His voice box, I’m guessing.
And Reva...
Has golden threads wrapped around her heart, one leads directly to Aster. A second is trailing on the floor, leading somewhere out of the door. And then there’s one that seems even looser than the other two, and that one... well, that one links straight into my own chest.
It’s duller than the other two, so fine it looks fit to snap at any moment. Beside it in her chest, there’s something odd that catches my attention and I frown at it trying to work out what I’m seeing.
“Anything?” she asks.
Going over the area right between her ribs again, there’s something off about that section of her chest, but it’s difficult to tell exactly what it is.
“I can see your mate bonds,” I reply distractedly.
Reva freezes, her eyes locking onto mine. All the blood has drained from her face again and I wrap my arm around her when she looks in danger of stumbling.
“Wh-what did you say?”
“I can see your bonds,” I rasp. “All of them.”
“Including the one with Kit?” she asks softly, screwing up her eyes at my answering nod.
She grabs the spectacles and stares down at her chest, her expression folding in on itself.
“I can’t see any of the bonds. And I only just found these in my bag, but I must have had them this whole time.
If we’d known, we could have just followed Kit’s bond. ”
She visibly droops in front of me and I keep my arm around her to hold her steady. I’m still peering down at her, distracted by what I can see in her chest more than anything right now.
“There’s something in your chest that doesn’t look right,” I tell her. “Almost like there should be something there. Is that what’s making you feel unwell?”
“I’ll explain it all later,” she replies, patting my hand and giving it a squeeze. “Kit has something of mine with him I should never have let out of my sight. And now that I've been away from it for a while, I’m starting to really feel the effects.”
“What can we do?”
She shakes her head. “There’s not much we can do other than get it back. I have a feeling that the longer I’m without it, the weaker and more unwell I’m going to become.”
The sense of panic that hits at her words takes me by surprise as I twist around to peer into her face, marking the unnatural brightness of her eyes and how flushed she looks.
“So we have another reason for finding Kit as quickly as possible.” I pluck the spectacles from my nose and pass them back to her.
“Based on what Northcliff said about Araminta Stone, the sorceress, it sounds like we’re going to need all the help we can get.”