Chapter 4 Zayn
~Zayn~
Soft light bathed my face as I opened my eyes.
Just slightly, before I closed them again.
A grogginess was weighing me down.
It was because I hadn’t slept well last night.
I was sure I would’ve found myself half off the bed, or even completely on the floor, if it hadn’t been for Vax and Evira boxing me in as they’d slept either side of me.
It would’ve been even worse sleeping-wise if it hadn’t been for Vax.
He’d gotten me the gray, super soft hoodie I was nestled against, its sandalwood scent infusing me and that awesomeness that was all Winter Nox. It smelled like him so strongly.
Vax had snuck back into Loxley Academy last night to get it for me from my dorm room, as Win had left one there recently, and I’d been keeping it in my closet.
Vax had used his stealth skills, along with his ability to camouflage into objects and stuff.
Or against them. Or… I wasn’t exactly sure how it really worked.
He’d tried to explain it to me once, but it was a whole mystical-science deal, and a rare one at that, not something taught in Academy curriculums. Something about molecules zipping about and either colliding or the opposite, then also some vibrational resonance thrown in there.
Anyway, I rubbed the oval stone forlornly of the other thing he’d grabbed for me. My worry stone bracelet. I hadn’t worn it for a while, having taken it off a couple of weeks ago. I hadn’t felt like I’d needed it. But now with what’d happened… yeah, it was back with me, on me.
I shifted tighter against Evira, who was sleeping to my left on the window side.
Unlike usual when it was actually all four of us and not…
not with Win missing… she wasn’t sleeping in her sexy silver negligee—or naked.
She’d conjured a pair of fluffy pastel-blue lounge pants and then a charcoal tank onto herself to sleep in instead.
Although it was a sign of her being distraught like me, it at least felt super cozy pressing up against her in them.
I nuzzled against her arm, soft little breaths sounding from her as she slept.
I went to throw my leg over Vax again, because I didn’t like that I couldn’t feel him against me as I had whenever I’d woken up last night.
He’d had his hard, broad chest pressed tightly to my back, while I’d also been nestled against Evira, cradling her head for a bit too, needing both of them right there with me.
But as I threw my leg out, it just hit the silky black sheets over on Vax’s side. Of the massive bed. Like, it was seriously giant—at least three times the size of the one in my dorm.
I frowned and forced myself to open my eyes again, as I turned to his side.
He wasn’t there.
Disappointment and worry collided.
I slapped his pillow. No. Where are you?
“Little hellion? Beating up pillows now? If you need to throw down, you just have to ask.”
I spun back to my left at the sound of Evira’s sleepy voice. It was cute as shit.
“No. I mean—it’s—he’s not here.”
“He’s just downstairs in the living room.”
“He is?”
“Yes. I can hear him. He’s fine. A little agitated, but fine.”
I blew out a huge breath of relief. “Fuck me, dragon senses for the win.” But that relief got messed up as I caught the other part of what she’d said.
“Wait. Agitated? Why?” For the ultra-calm, always-had-it-together Vaxan Canor to get agitated was no small thing.
It was kind of like others bursting into a rage.
She had me gasping then, as she snagged me, used her speed to dress me in Win’s hoodie over my bare chest, then lifted me onto her with her dragon strength.
My thighs, with just being in my pink boxer briefs, brushed soothingly against her fluffy lounge pants.
Rubbing my hips as she held me on her, my palms slapped down on her stomach for purchase, she told me, “Shh, lovely. Try to relax a little. I’m here.”
“I know,” I said, beaming down at her.
The urge to say more, to say those special three words, to convey just how much I knew she was there with me, was intense.
But I… I didn’t want them spoken like this… under these circumstances.
Vax had mentioned during one of the times I’d woken up in a panicked sweat last night that Winter had told Evira he loved her during that awful battle.
And then he’d been taken. She hadn’t been able to say the words back, only in Dragon Tongue, so she’d kind of just had to hope he’d heard her.
I didn’t want that now. I didn’t want another I-love-you tainted for her.
It was too special, too fucking precious. And Evira deserved better than that.
While Win hadn’t known he’d be ripped from her and things would then be left hanging where that was concerned, me saying those words to her now, I did know that things were all fucked and wrong right now. So I’d knowingly be throwing it out there while everything was tainted.
No.
I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t do that.
So, instead, I stroked her stomach and a sweet little moan came from her as I promised her, “I’m here for you, too. Okay? Equal parts hurting, off-balance, scared for Win, devastated over Sylas, and also fucking rageful about Temperance and the others wanting a piece of Win.”
“Well put.” She tightened her hold on my hips. “And I know you’re here for me. We all are for each other. That’s not even in question. It’s a done deal.”
I smiled out at her and just stared for a few moments, taking in the sight of her cute bed hair situation, all that ice-blonde with the sexy blue streaks fanned over the pillows.
“He’s on the phone,” she spoke all of a sudden. “With his mother.”
I startled. “Why?” That definitely explained the agitation.
“I didn’t listen in for details. Just enough so we’d know he’s fine, and why he left the bed in the first place.”
A slight growl emanated from her. Yeah, she hadn’t liked him leaving either. That was her territorial and possessive side coming out.
I must’ve had a look on my face, because she arched an eyebrow and stated, rather than questioning, “You want me to listen in on his private conversation?”
Yes. “No. Of course not. That would be… wrong. And kind of fucked up.”
“Kind of?” she teased.
“Icicle,” I grumbled.
She slid a hand to my hair and played with the pink strands. “He’ll tell us whatever it is.”
“You mean he’ll tell you. With you and him, you’re of the same complex political understandings and all that. He trusts you with that sort of thing. Me? I’m not exactly subtle with… anything.”
She sat up against the headboard with me on her.
Damn. I loved it when she displayed her massively superior strength to us all. Even when she did it in subtle ways. Actually, that made it more endearing, let’s be honest there. “I’ll make you a promise.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Whatever he tells me, I’ll tell you every little detail.
And I’ll make sure it’s known to him that nothing can be off the table if it’s connected to this current nightmare situation.
We’ll do that for each other. All of us, okay?
But it also means that none of us can take off in a rush, or be reactive to whatever intel we receive. Understood?”
“I swear it. Thank you, Evira.”
“Of course.” She drew her fingers over my cheek, while her other hand stroked circles on my hip.
“All right, so in the name of that, in the middle of the night, I received some updates from Torvek and my dad. Things are in a dangerous state in the Dracoryn Realm. The only thing holding back action being taken against Winter—the immediate threat they now see him as due to Ruxnoth’s fucking holoscreen speech revelations—is my dad.
But the pressure is immense, so whether he can hold it without inciting another civil war and the call for overthrow, is another matter. ”
“Holy shit. I’m so sorry.”
“I need to meet with Vorzyr today and Fanor will also be there.”
“Yeah, I get it. Of course.”
“Well, I’m telling you because doing this is dangerous with enemies mobilizing against Winter.
Especially when I’m going to be holding this meeting to fight against that and destroy that negative framing of him in a bid to take some of the pressure off my dad and Torvek in the Dracoryn Realm.
I mean, I’m capable of handling the danger as you know, so I’m not actually worried personally, but I’m telling you because I don’t want to be secretive about my wellbeing—for any of us to be.
” Emotion welled in her eyes. “Not with what happened to Winter still so painful and fresh and… ongoing.”
I took her hands and held them between us.
“You’re right. I do know you’re capable.
More than that, you’re a fucking warrior queen.
Forget Crown Heir, princess, or whatever the shit.
You can handle yourself hardcore in battle, politically with the whole awesome Exalt creation, with making your abdication and power move—and in the way you handle three stubborn, relentless shits in me, Win, and Vax.
” As she beamed up at me, I gave her hands a squeeze.
“That said, if you want me to come with you, just for company and support—the emotional kind, not me thinking you need a bodyguard—I’m there. ”
She went to answer, but the words never came as she jolted instead.
Then she swung her head toward the closed bedroom door, eyes narrowing in what seemed to be a mix of concentration and anger.
What was—a rush of power caught my attention. No… lots of rushes all at once.
All coming in hot.
What the shit was happening?
The house shuddered, the whole room reverberating violently.
Once.
Twice.
It felt like bombs going off or something.
We were under attack.
But the fact that the house was only shuddering and not being blasted to shit meant Vax’s ward was hella strong, holding it all back.
“They’re here,” Evira snarled, lifting me off her.
The next thing I knew, she was leaping off the bed with a burst of speed.
“Coordinate with Vaxan,” she told me. “I’ll hold them off.”
“Evira—”
She eyed me, tense and clearly already in battle mode.