His head tilted as he placed Clyde next to Bonnie on his lap. “I’ve recently found risk comes next.”
My smile only grew. “Bring it on.” I knew what I wanted. I held the challenge — fuck yes, there was an ultimatum there — in his gaze for a moment longer before returning my attention to King Kincaid. Holding my hand up, grinning cheekily into his dark eyes, I stated, “Make me Queen.”
He did as the — now — Queen’s ring slid onto my ring finger.
I didn’t miss the symbolic nature of the action.
Chapter Seventeen
“We need disguises,” I stated as I hurried to pack my bag. The Kings, er, Elders, with their own new set of rings bestowed on them by the other Elders in the room, had given us only fifteen minutes to get our ‘asses outside the cave’s entrance’. That didn’t leave a whole lot of time. I was throwing in a variety of clothes, unsure of where in the world I was going to have to go. Most importantly, I had strapped my gun to my thigh, which showed plainly since my dress was so short and I didn’t have time to change.
“Disguises?” Jack huffed, zipping up his bag. “How the hell do we disguise the fact we’re Mys?” West was lying on the bed next to Buttercup. Jack threw a hand in his direction. “And the fact that we have,” finger quotes, “pet lions?”
I gauged Pearl, who was running around frantically. “Pearl, can you stand still for a sec?”
She shot me a poisonous glance, but stopped in her tracks. “What?”
“We don’t have time to dye our hair, so can you make us all,” I paused, peering around at the four of us, trying to gauge the best color, “brunettes, like Coms? And make our cubs appear like,” I bit my lip, “poodles?”
She stared at me for a long moment before beginning to whisper, her eyes glowing. She snapped her finger at the cubs, which quickly appeared as poodles, still with their own coloring, and with another snap of her fingers we all had boring brown hair.
I smiled. “Perfect.”
Jack picked up a piece of his hair and stared at it with disdain. “This is disgusting.”
“If anyone saw you with your blue hair, they would shoot you instantly,” I reminded him, going back to throwing items into my duffle. “And everyone try not to look so damn hot. Your good looks give you away.” A thought, and a glance at Pearl. “Can you manage some really ugly glasses?”
Another snap of her fingers and she had four pairs of horn-rimmed spectacles in her hand.
“Ugh, those are horrible,” I said with a smile, grabbing the feminine white ones. “They’re perfect. I wore glasses like these in the Com schools.” I put them on. “How do I look?”
“Like a sexy woman trying to look ugly,” Ezra muttered, waving a hand at my dress. “You’re seriously not wearing that outside the cave, are you? Every Com male is going to take notice and try to jump you.” His eyes flashed, his muscles bulging as he stuffed clothes into his duffle.
“Look who’s talking,” I mumbled, placing my hands on my hips, my gaze roaming up and down his frame. Yeah, every damn Com or Mys woman alive would fuck him in a heartbeat.
He picked at his thermal shirt with irritation. “This is not,” a flicked finger at my dress, “that.”
Jack snickered, tossing his bag over his shoulder. “We gotta go.” He took the pair of black glasses, putting them on before picking up West. “Our fifteen minutes are almost up.”
Ezra grabbed the pair of silver glasses, clearly aggravated. “We’ll meet you outside.”
Pearl put on her green glasses, transforming her into an Amazonian library goddess with her brown hair. “Uh-huh. You two don’t have—”
Ezra cut her off, growling, “I said, we’ll meet you outside.”
Pearl muttered a curse as Jack hustled her and Buttercup out of our bedroom, who barely gave her a chance to grab her own bag.
Ezra was suddenly in front of me, lifting my chin gently. “Are you sure you want this?” His eyes darted back and forth between mine. “I’ve had a few weeks to think this through. You only decided yesterday you wanted it. Maybe you need more time?”
Staring hard at his chin, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to tell him otherwise, my heart pounded erratically, but I went for it. “Ezra, I’m in love with you. I know I want to be with you.” I placed a trembling hand on his chest. “I want you to be mine. And I want to be yours.”
I didn’t hear anything for a moment…and then, I felt dizzy when I did. Ezra’s heartbeat jumped, and then took off in a wild frenzy. His grip tightened on my chin, and he shook it a smidge. “Look at me, sweetheart.” I did. And met intense green. “You’re in love with me?”
My chin quivered, my heart flew. I felt weak in the knees. “I’m very much in love with you.”
His voice was guttural. “Promise?”