Page 7 of Obsidian and Frost

“But you don’t need to wait or even concern yourself with it,” Warlow cut in. “Forget his bullshit and dickish ghosting. You have a whole new life to begin today, a lot to look forward to. Your work with Crossborn as well. Forget about him.”

Wow.

Cornelius raised his eyebrows. “Another take, sweet boy. And an empowering one.” He stroked Warlow’s hair and lowered his voice. “Are you all right?”

“Fine. Just… she deserves better. She opened herself for the first time ever and he…” He trailed off as he saw me looking more than a littleofffrom the way this discussion had veered. “I mean—let’s talk more about today. Are you all packed up? Ready to go?”

I pushed the Cassius stuff down—again—and brightened as I told him, “All packed and prepared. I just have to head to TheArchive when I get there and pick up my course books. I had them reserved and—”

“They’re already in your dorm room,” Warlow told me.

“They’re… what?”

Cornelius informed me, “Warlow had metransportthem there from The Archive last night so you’d be prepared.”

“And in case you needed some solitary time in your dorm to acclimate. We didn’t want you having to worry about traipsing through the whole place to get your books. This way you get time to adjust—bits at a time.”

The way he knew I operated.

“Thank you so much,” I told them both.

“Any time,” Warlow said.

Cornelius lifted a shoulder. “It was no problem at all.”

Warlow shoveled four raspberries into his mouth and one leaked out. He went to grab a napkin, but then Cornelius was already there, leaning in and licking the mess off the corner of his mouth. He lingered, swiping his tongue over Warlow’s bottom lip.

“Cor,” Warlow said, ushering him back, and giving me an apologetic look.

Cornelius grinned. “I can’t tell what’s more delicious—you or the raspberries.”

“Stop!” Warlow laughed.

Cornelius nuzzled him. “Who am I kidding? It’s most assuredlyyou,my darling boy.”

“Not gonna miss this, are you?” Warlow asked me.

“Actually, I think it’s really sweet.”

Well, I’d actually walked in on things that were not justsweet, and actually dirty as hell. But it was adorable at its heart. That they were this in love still, this into each other. The way they couldn’t get enough of each other. The way they adored and fought for each other.

“Sweet,” Cornelius chuckled. “See?”

“Please. She’s being incredibly nice about it and restrained.” He looked out at me. “So, any thoughts on how you’re going to handle the Lazriel of it all when you inevitably encounter him in the halls?”

Cornelius frowned. “I thought you said you had a word with him about his fixation?”

“You did?” I asked.

“Just a little chat. Possibly an Alpha wolf growl that assisted as well.”

I slapped my hand to my head. “Oh, holy hell.”

“It’s all right. I merely explained that you weren’t in a place to be able to reciprocate and that the wolfandvampire in him were having his interest in you as coming off… uh..”

“Rather predatory,” Cornelius finished for him.

“Predatory… that’s a little extreme,” I said. “It wasn’t that bad.”