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“Was that your stomach?” Atlas asks with a sneer.

“I haven’t eaten all day, and someone stole all my provisions!” she snaps right back, though in the form of a blanket ghost.

“Stole your provisions?” Darius asks slowly, swinging his eyes to me.

Eloise slowly rises from her chair and edges out of the room, hopefully to get the pizza. I wish I could join her, but instead, I have to deal with this weird situation.

“I enchanted the castle a while ago to put away all the groceries. I get lazy sometimes,” I reply with a shrug, pushing the golden rim of my glasses back up the bridge of my nose.

This form has them sliding all over the place without a bit of soft skin to grip. But I keep them on for this interaction even if I don’t reallyneedthem. They’re as much a part of me as my wings or my tail.

“So where are my things?” she asks with what I can only assume is a tilt of her head under the blanket.

I curse myself for making it so thick and luxurious. I curse myself for making it at all. From the small glimpses I’ve caught of her, the witch is beautiful, and if Ihaveto have an unexpected roommate, it could be worse. I want to see her again, to drink my fill of her features.

My heart does something it hasn’t done in a very long time. Beating like a racehorse after the starting gun, the silly thing flips. My stomach then follows suit and swoops as Charlotte drops the blanket into her lap and finally looks at all of us.

She is exquisite.

Her figure is full and plenty curvy, highlighted by the soft drape of her sweater. Dark brown hair and hazel eyes give her soft face that needed depth. Pink lips more suited for whispering sin than spells complete her incredibly charming girl-next-door air. I want to ruin her and be ruinedbyher, but I don’t let my fantasies choke me up.

“In the kitchen, exactly where they should be. Did you get any refrigerated items?” I suddenly feel a great need to please her.

Marcus scampers up beside me and grins, looking between us before settling his eyes on her. I can practically hear the little cartoon hearts popping up around his head. “If anything is missing, we’ll get it for you. Promise, Julius was just trying to help.”

“Um, I got some milk and cheese and a few meat things from the butcher,” she murmurs.

I push my glasses up, my jaw ticking slightly. “My spell isn’t exactly a complex one. Gargoyles don’t have as much magic as witches in that way, but the spell should have put everything in the refrigerator, at least. We can sort things out for the freezer another time.”

“So…I just buy stuff and can leave it around.”

Atlas barks a laugh as I wince.

“I would much prefer not to. The spell is a fail-safe. In the earlier days when we could actually do our intended protecting job?—”

“We will explain more of that later,” Darius adds in quickly.

His expression is stony, but his posture is surprisingly at ease.

“Right, later for the details, but I made it in case we were coming in with something and needed to go right back out. That sort of thing. I like to keep the place clean.”

“Obnoxiously clean. Without a speck of dust on anything,” Atlas says in a way that I know is meant to be mocking but just makes him look like an arsehole.

“Fuck off,” I mutter, folding my arms loosely over my chest.

Charlotte blinks at the lot of us. I can see the gears of her mind whirling, trying to make sense of everything before she leans back and stares at Darius.

“I’m not moving out of the room I’ve picked. It’s mine. I drooled on the pillows.”

Chapter 10

DARIUS

I ama master of keeping my cool, but when the little witch before me says she wants her room because she’s drooled on the pillows…I laugh. I laugh so hard it makes the room shake a little, all the old books and paintings shivering in place, before I catch myself and stop.

“Forgive me.” I pause to inwardly check on the magic flowing between myself and my nest-mates and find it glowing. “That has never happened before.”

“You’ve never laughed?” she asks with a smile that can only be described as shit eating.