Page 21

Juniper

T he Fae were starting to get antsy. I couldn’t tell what they were saying to each other and Elvina refused to translate so my suspicions grew from multiple angles. That was starting to annoy me. It made me think she had been planted to infiltrate us for the sole purpose of reporting back to them, and the only thing keeping me from booting her right back to them was the fact that we needed to play nice.

I was good at playing nice, even if I wasn’t feeling particularly friendly towards the grumpy, pointy-eared beings. I wondered if they were all like that or if we just got stuck with the worst of the bunch.

On that note, I hoped we weren’t stuck with the best , because I already wanted to throttle them and if they got worse than this I wasn’t going to lose my shit. I was already refraining from punching the perpetual scowls off their perfectly symmetrical faces. I mean, come on. Didn’t they scowl so much as children their faces just got stuck that way or something? It wasn’t normal.

My feelings toward Elvina changed when their group moved further ahead and she took the opportunity to pull me aside. I could tell straight away by her defeated demeanour that things were not as they seemed.

‘I am sorry for my silence, Juniper,’ she whispered in my ear, keeping her voice low in case there were any stragglers still listening in. ‘They are frustrated because they do not know where they are going and we…’

‘You what?’ I prompted, wondering why she’d trailed off.

She sighed shakily, wariness and anxiety making her tremble. ‘We are the ones who initiated the Unity Trials.’

The world came to a screeching halt. ‘What?’

‘I am sorry. We had no choice. It was our only hope…’ she cut herself off when the others came back into view, shifting from one foot to the other as she kept her head down, shame colouring her cheeks.

I leant in and whispered as quietly as I could, ‘Later.’

I patted her arm so she knew I wasn’t upset with her and gave her a friendly smile that I hoped assuaged some of her fears. Because there were clearly a lot of them.

Phenex pulled me aside and wrapped me in a hug to cover up what he was about to say. I clung to him as tight as I could, accidentally digging my nails into the bare skin of his back which made him groan, his cock hardening between us where he rubbed it against my stomach.

‘That wasn’t what I was after,’ he murmured in a strained voice.

I giggled. ‘Sorry?’

He chuckled. ‘Shush, you. I just wanted to check in after… that. It’s… a lot to process.’

An angry male voice cut through our whispered words and I looked to Elvina to translate when we came face to face with a red-faced Arden. I wondered where he’d run off to. He must have been hidden within the mass of his people.

‘He said to… um…’ she started off, unsure if she should repeat what was clearly a rude comment.

‘Go on. It’s okay. His words don’t mean much to me,’ I told her and Phenex grunted in agreement.

‘He said to break it up, that they won’t save you if they’re fighting for their lives and you’re… um… fucking.’

I hummed, amused that he was so easy to rile up just because we weren’t ashamed to be open with our affection for one another. ‘Well, that was kind of him.’

She giggled, the sound like tinkling bells (and now I understood where the name Tinkerbelle came from) which filled me with a sudden affection for her. She was like a stray cat that I wanted to nurse back to health with her constant wounded demeanour, and that first sound of happiness coming from her was like the best reward for a job well done. It meant she was opening up, even just a little, and I decided in that moment that I was going to make sure she made it through these trials.

Arden threw another slew of vitriol at us that I was sure I could decode from his body language alone, but Elvina translated for us again anyway.

‘He said… I’m so sorry, but he said you’re a disgrace to your people and your public displays of affection are revolting, that you shouldn’t even be attracted to each other because you’re not of the same race. He… No. I don’t want to say that. He’s wrong. You two are a beautiful couple and you shouldn’t listen to people like him. He’s just jealous because no woman would ever want to be with someone who constantly belittles them to compensate for his miniscule penis.’

Her commentary shocked a laugh right out of me, and Phenex quickly followed with his own show of mirth. ‘There’s clearly a story there, and you should tell me sometime,’ I teased her with a wink.

She huffed but a small smile played at her lips to let me know she wasn’t mad. At me at least. In a rare show of confidence brought on by her blatant disgust with the man, she shooed Arden back to the group of Fae that were (unsuccessfully) hiding their own amusement behind their hands.

As I watched the Arden Show unfold, I caught Evander’s eye. He was glancing between me and Phenex with an open curiosity that he quickly shut down when he saw me looking, but it didn’t change the fact that I caught it. I wasn’t sure what their problem was or why they had initiated the Unity Trials in the first place, but there was a deep-seeded prejudice embedded within the Fae that was preventing them from seeing things clearly. Perhaps they had stories about Humans the way we did about Daemons, villainising us so they came into every interaction expecting the worst.

But hadn’t I proved already that wasn’t the case?

If we were going to get along enough to work together to get through these trials that they had thrust upon us , then there was a lot of work to do to get to that point.

I let my resentment win for a moment and pulled a face at their backs, annoyed that they had called upon us for help only to spurn in rather than accept it, and we were making all the progress that they were blatantly ignoring. I had met some pretty darned arrogant people in my life, but these guys took the cake.

The sound of wings beating echoed down the tunnel like the gods were laughing at me. I had spoken too soon. I’d almost forgotten about the angels, but I wasn’t going to get the chance to do so again if we were about to cross paths. Although, I was curious how they were able to fly in these narrow tunnels. We barely had enough room for two people to walk side by side let along accommodate their large wingspans.

So if they weren’t about to fly in the tunnels, that meant we were converging on a larger chamber like the one we’d arrive in.

Or the one Oz and Phenex had dropped on top of us in.

‘ Oz?’ I called out to my twin.

‘ Yeah, Junie?’ he replied, his voice in my head louder than before which likely meant he was closer.

Tentative hope flickered to life inside of me as I asked the question. ‘ Did the angels show up?’

His groan told me all I needed to know and wide grin spread across my cheeks from ear to ear. ‘ Yeah,’ he confirmed. ‘Friends of yours?’

‘If by ‘friends’ you mean ‘arrogant bird people I want to pluck like a chicken’ then sure.’

The sound of his laughter bounced around my skull and warmed me from the inside out. ‘ You’re close, aren’t you?’

‘Yup. Just around the corner, I think. We can hear their wings.’

‘I’d rather they stayed up there than come back down here. They’re acting like they’re our gods-damned saviours or something while simultaneously sneering down their noses at us and pretending they aren’t.’

‘Is their leader still alive?’

‘Blonde hair, blue eyes, muscles upon muscles and a permanent smirk that’s begging to get punched right off his smug fucking face?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘Unfortunately.’

‘He fucked up our way out.’

‘Can I kill him?

‘In your head, sure.’

He sighed. ‘ Not good enough. His wings are too white. They could do with a bit of colour.’

‘Be nice,’ I chided, though I didn’t exactly disagree. I wouldn’t wish death on anyone, but I couldn’t say I’d cry if that guy didn’t make it.

A pinch on my ass made me yelp and I turned a scathing glare on Phenex. He put on an air of false innocence and bit his lip, and I giggled when I heard an aggravated huff from somewhere within the group of Fae. Probably Arden. Well, tough shit.

I lifted my hand to return the favour but Phenex blocked me, grabbing my hand to intertwine our fingers which he then brought up to his lips to kiss. I swooned.

‘What’s going on inside that pretty little head of yours?’ he asked.

‘How much I want to strip you naked and fuck you senseless,’ I answered honestly.

He wasn’t the only one that choked. A quick side glance at Elvina showed her entire upper body was flushed a deep crimson that exacerbated her pale features.

‘Don’t tease me, Beautiful. I’d love nothing less than to make your thoughts a reality, but now isn’t the time,’ he groaned out, but despite his words his free hand stroked down my back to hold onto my ass. I wiggled it then pulled away to avoid creating a show for my brother and the others. It may not have seemed like it but I did have limits.

I was grateful for my forethought because that was when the tunnel curved and widened until it spat us out inside the familiar chamber. Phenex pulled me closer while Elvina hid behind us as we snuck in behind the Fae, their welcome not so welcoming as their wielded their blades against the group we’d left behind.

‘ Hey, Junie. Thank fuck you’re back,’ Oz said and I realised with a start that he was propped up against the wall beside the opening of the tunnel, Qarinah on his right while a purple Daemon that looked remarkably like Phenex stood closest to us. He straightened when he noticed us and bounded over in one large step to wrap Phenex in a bear hug that he returned full force.

‘Don’t do that again, little brother. I was worried I’d lost you,’ he said to Phenex and I smiled when I realised why I could understand him.

‘ Made a friend, did you?’ I asked Oz and he smiled in response. It was tight, but it still met his eyes and that was enough to soothe any anxiety I felt about walking in hand-in-hand with Phenex.

‘ So… You and the Daemon, huh?’

‘You’ll like him, I promise.’

‘Of course you wouldn’t pick a Warlock,’ he said with a small shake of his head, imperceptible unless you were looking.

‘ Hey, that’s not true. It’s just that the Warlock I picked didn’t pick me back,’ I reminded him, but the way his face fell made me frown. I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by pursing his best friend which was why I hadn’t tried harder with Hawthorne. If I was wrong, I wondered why he didn’t tell me.

But then his gaze drifted to Phenex and he shocked me when he smiled. Maybe I was just overthinking things.

‘ He seems cool so far. As long as he stays that way,’ he warned.

‘ You like him, don’t lie.’

‘For now.’

Qarinah interrupted our internal conversation by wrapping her arms around me in a hug much like Phenex and his brother’s. ‘Glad to see you made it back in one piece,’ she told me. Her friendly gesture surprised me, but I was a tactile person as well so I had no problem hugging her back. Until I remembered her reaction to Phenex kissing me.

‘Um… I didn’t steal your boyfriend, did I?’ I blurted and she pulled back with a sigh.

‘No. Phenex and I have never been together despite my many attempts to lure him into my bed,’ she admitted and my jealousy flared at the thought of them together in any way before me.

‘Qarinah is a succubus, Beautiful. She feeds on sex,’ Phenex informed me while resting an arm over my shoulder in a clear display of possession. I followed suit, my own arm snaking around his middle as I staked my claim right back.

‘Look at these two, already declaring their mating,’ the brother teased as he came to a stop in front of me. ‘I’m Abaddon, this one’s older brother. It’s nice to finally meet you, Juniper.’

My eyebrows rose at his choice of words. ‘Finally?’

Phenex coughed to interrupt whatever Abaddon was going to say, and I shot him an expectant look. ‘I’ll tell you later. Don shouldn’t be the one to tell you anyway.’

‘Oh…’

‘ It’s nothing bad, sis. He’s been dreaming about you for years, apparently,’ Oz told me. He must have noted my dejected feelings despite my efforts to hide them, and I had to fight not to react.

‘ I don’t even know what to say to that,’ I responded, completely taken aback by the news.

‘ Nothing. I just couldn’t stand seeing your light dim when he wouldn’t answer. He isn’t keeping it a secret from you, he probably just wants to have that conversation in private.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Any time. Fair warning, though, the man’s already in love with you and has been for years. I don’t think he’s willing to let you go now that he knows you’re more than just a figment of his imagination.’

I couldn’t stop my pleased smile if I’d tried. ‘ Yeah, well, the feeling’s mutual.’

‘You really love him after a day?’ he asked, stunned but serious.

‘ Well, I’m getting there. I don’t think I’m ready for any marriage proposals or anything. I know things are moving fast between us but not that fast. I might not know much about him, but I know his soul. He’s a good man, Oz. I honestly can’t fathom letting him go now, either.’

‘As long as you’re happy, Junie, I’m happy for you.’

‘Thanks, Ozzie. Love you.’

‘Love you, too.’

‘So that’s why you’ve been zoning out,’ Phenex said. ‘You two can mind-speak.’

Oz and I both blinked at Phenex, shocked to our cores. Neither of us could say anything out loud, but we were both screaming inside our heads for him to put the clues together and figure it out.

‘You’re both a part of the mysterious curse. And you’re what, cousins? Siblings?’

My heartbeat was echoing through my ears so loudly I could barely hear anything. He was so, so close.

‘Right, sorry. I forgot you can’t talk about it. Don’t worry, though. I’ll figure it out,’ he promised, sending both of us a reassuring smile.

Oz and I exchanged a glance that said more than any words ever could. Phenex was giving us hope we never thought we’d have. This could actually work. We might actually be on our way to breaking our curse.