“Yes, your majesty,” Ame said, turning toward her handler. But her eyes, they lingered on mine for longer than was comfortable for either of us. I saw her scowl just before she turned away and closed my bedroom door behind her. Still, none of us spoke until we heard the front door slam shut.
“She was here to switch the prince’s point of binding,” Professor Cross said, toying with the buttons on his white Royal College jacket. I glanced over at him and he smiled. It was a sloppy, lopsided smile, but I liked it anyway—even if he had tricked me and bound his spirit to mine. “The handler had all the same supplies I used in her bag and then some. Since it was doubtful that sort of spell would work on anyone but you the first time around, they had enough silver ash to do it twenty times over.”
“They had silver ash?” I asked, totally and completely confused. The queen knew how vital that stuff was to the resurrection spell. And yet, she’d let the Royal Spirit Whisperer waste it on a possible futile attempt to move Airmienan’s point of binding from me to her? Why? It made no sense, no sense at all. “You read that all from their minds …?” I continued as Spicer’s words sunk in. “And what do you mean anyone but me? Because of the double blessing?”
The wardrobe opened and Vexer stepped out, still wearing Trubble as a mask.
“My gift makes me a bit strange, certainly, but it can come in handy at times.”
“Blood and ice,” Dyre choked out, leaning his shoulder against the wall, the most forlorn sort of look on his face. “Yeah, totally and completely useful. Thanks for the advance warning.”
“How’s this for an advance warning,” Professor Cross said suddenly, his sapphire and turquoise eyes flaring bright with magic. “There’s a mind whisperer on campus tracking whoever it was that left all those guards knocked out in the Catacombs; they know someone’s broken in.”
“Can you keep them from finding Vexer?” I asked, reaching out and curling my fingers around the griffin’s muscular arm. Hell’s bells, he feels good! But I didn’t have time to let my hormones take over my brain. “Also, wait, guards in the Catacombs? Clearly, I’m missing a pretty big part of the story.”
“I can keep them from reading his mind, but the campus guard will use other means to track him once they realize that’s not working. I highly suggest you get him out of here while you still can,” Spicer said, his eyes still glowing. Even as a spirit, it was impressive, and quite pretty. Blue-green splotches decorated the ceiling and the walls like a mosaic.
“We’re practically on house arrest,” Elijah growled out, even more flustered than I was. Pretty sure I was still in shock at that point. And poor Talon … Poor fucking Talon. As soon as we got all of … whatever the fuck this was sorted out, I was going after him. I mean, I had to, right? Who else was going to give a shit about the spirit of some random thief? But he’d saved my life, and I wouldn’t leave him to suffer for centuries as payment. “How do you propose we get Vexer out of here? Sounds like the way he came in is a no-go.”
Trubble shifted off of Vex’s face, curling around his shoulders in fox form. I didn’t miss the way Dyre’s copper eyes locked onto his brother’s.
“I can keep him hidden in shadow,” the little fox said, swishing his tails flirtatiously. “Once the hubbub dies down a bit, walk out the front gates and I’ll follow you. We can get him out that way, just not right now. Besides, they’ll search every dorm, every apartment, every classroom … except this one, right? This is the prince’s house, is it not?”
“You really think you can keep him hidden?” I asked, my eyes meeting the fox’s bronze ones. He smirked at me—seriously weird expression to see on that little face—and nodded. “Physically? Magically?”
“I can keep him hidden from everyone but a shadow whisperer. That’s where you come in. Just don’t let one in the doors of this house and we’ll be alright. Why should they need to send a shadow whisperer when one already resides within?”
“You have other things to worry about,” Dyre growled out, stalking toward his brother and pointing at him with the hilt of his ghostly katana. “Like what you’re going to do now that I’m dead. We both know what happens to unbound shadows.”
“One thing at a time, Dyre of Ha,” Trubble growled, standing up on Vex’s shoulders and raising the fur along his spine in an angry mohawk. “I’ll be fine for a couple of days. Have some faith in me, you virgin fool!”
“You’re being ridiculous!” Dyre shouted back, but my head hurt too much to get involved in any of it. Although, Dyre did have a point. Unbound shadows were bound to sour eventually; they always did. When a living person had a child with a spirit, they were born as shadows. No matter how hard the parents tried, the child never turned out to be anything but a nightmare. The only reason Trubble was okay now was because he’d somehow been bound to his twin in the womb. But with Dyre dead …
“Sorry to interrupt,” I said as I let go of Vex’s arm and sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. “But you’re certain that Vex is okay here for now?”
“For now, yes,” Trubble said, narrowing his eyes and sitting back down on the griffin’s shoulder. “I’ll let you know if I think otherwise.”
“Good,” I said, leaning back into the pillows and closing my eyes for a moment. “I know I’ve been sleeping for days, but I’m exhausted.”
“Sleeping spells like that are intended to keep the dreamer on their toes,” the professor said as I felt my head swimming with exhaustion. “So that when the target wakes up, they’re exhausted, virtually useless. You all know the tale of Sleeping Beauty, right? As soon as the prince woke the princess up with a kiss, he tried to get her out of the castle before the dragon could kill them both. She was so tired that she fell asleep climbing out of the tower and fell to her death.”
“Let’s talk about something else,” Vex growled. “That’s not exactly a pleasant story.”
“Fairy-tales always have a lesson we can learn about life,” Professor Cross said as I struggled … and failed to open my eyes back up.
I drifted off listening to the men in the room talk … and then dreamt about Talon’s head getting crushed by a razor wolf’s jaws.
At least I didn’t see the woman in the melted mask again. Not that night anyway.
Morning sunshine filtered across my closed lids, teasing my eyes with golden rays that penetrated into the darkest depths of my dreams. As I blinked myself awake, I realized there was a hard, warm body curled around mine, a huge hand splayed open across my belly.
Vexer.
A smile teased my lips as I opened my eyes … and felt a fluffy tail brush across my face. Reaching up, I realized that Trubble was sleeping in a ball on my pillow, just above my head. He was snoring softly, too. As soon as my fingers brushed his tail, however, he bit me and I let out a tiny shriek.
“Tail equals penis,” he said succinctly, releasing his grip on my hand. I checked my fingers, but there was no blood, just a light indent where his teeth dug into my skin. “Don’t touch without permission.”
“Well, you were the one rubbing your penis on my face!” I growled back, just before Air popped through the floor and hauled himself through, looking terrified. Oh. Oops. That probably hadn’t sounded very good out of context, huh?
“What the fuck is going on up here?” he asked, gritting his slightly pointed teeth as he studied me, Vex, and Trubble on the bed.