"If you hadn't, then they would have found another reason. This wasn't anything about you, Fin. This was about their own prejudices and antiquated views of the world." I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "I won't cave to their demands. I will find another way to regain my magic, without them."
Fin gave me a lopsided smile and squeezed my fingers. "I know you will, Thea babe. I'll do anything I can to help you, too. Now, do you want to come see what Ry and I did to the house? We don't do too badly in the home reno department, I must say."
Slowly, I stood up to change out of my kimono. The kitsune-tsukai might be trying to fuck me, but somehow, someway, I’d gotten Fin back, and I wasn’t about to take that for granted. Now, about Riot … "That sounds great, Fin. Take me home."
The lights were already on in the home I once shared with Fin and Riot, and as we crossed the swing bridge to the front door I could smell the rich scent of spaghetti bolognese.
"Riot's home," I whispered to Fin and we exchanged a grin. Riot was an incredible cook, and his speciality was anything Italian. A home cooked meal from Riot Langthorne was exactly what I needed after the shit that the Ancients just pulled on me.
"Honey, we're home!" Fin called out jokingly as he opened the door and held it for me to enter.
"Fin! Where have you been? Dinner was ready half an hour ago!" Riot's voice came through from the kitchen, sounding annoyed. "And who is 'we'?"
"Hey, Ry." I gave him an awkward little wave as he came out of the kitchen and froze when he saw me. "Fin was at a council meeting with me. Did you make enough for me to join you?"
Riot's jaw clenched, but his shoulders relaxed and he continued over to the dining table with the bowl of salad he was carrying. It was such a juxtaposition, this tattooed bad boy jaguar shifter with his gelled mohawk ... carrying salad. He always railed on Fin and me that we needed to eat more greens as we weren't justanimals.
"Sure, take a seat," he ordered, but his tone was ... off. He wasn't happy to see me, that much was clear.
"Yeah, I think you might have been wrong about him," I whispered to Fin as we sat down at the table, "He seems pretty pissed at me."
"You know him better than that, Thea babe." Fin gave me a small smile and tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. My human one, that was. "Let's just have a nice dinner and then I'll leave you guys alone to talk."
"Mm-hm," I hummed, giving him my best yeah rightface, which he ignored when Riot came back out holding bowls full of spaghetti and meat sauce for us all.
An awkward sort of silence fell over the three of us as we ate, but thankfully there was a bottle of wine on the table to soften things a little. Riot was always a great one for pairing his meals with appropriate wines, and this was no different.
"This is really good," I commented, rolling the wine over my tongue and savoring the … well, the wine-tasting-wine. "What is it?"
"Chianti," Riot replied curtly. "It's in the sauce too, which is probably why they pair so well."
"Well, it's good," I murmured, making a mental note to remember this little slice of wine knowledge for my next dinner with Revel. Wait, next dinner? When had I decided that?
Fin cleared his throat and pulled the attention away from me, thank the holy Fox Father.
"I withdrew my complaint with the council," Fin told Riot and Riot raised his dark eyebrows in interest.
"I take it that didn't go well, then?" He glanced at me, and I shook my head. Riot had never actually met the kitsune-tsukaibefore. He was a jaguar, not a kitsune, so wasn't permitted into things like the council chamber or any official meetings. As welcoming as the kitsune had been of him, he was still an outsider.
He made a little growl in his throat and ate another huge bite of his pasta before replying.
"I could have told you that would happen," he commented, not looking in the least bit surprised. "The second they caught wind that Thea had ascended to the Nine, all they would have been able to focus on was how to control her. I've said for years that they don't have the Eath’s best interest at heart. They're too power hungry."
"Yeah yeah," I sighed, "we get it. You told us so. Doesn't really help us now, though."
"So what are you going to do about it?" he challenged me, meeting my gaze with his steady green eyes. "The Thea I knew wouldn't just roll over and accept it."
"I'm not," I growled, grinding my teeth. "I just haven't figured out my next step yet."
He nodded thoughtfully, then broke my gaze to continue eating. "You'll think of something, T. You always do." The melancholy tone to his voice made me sigh and push the last of my food away.
"Ry, can we talk? Please?" I pleaded to him with my eyes, and he nodded sharply.
"I can go somewhere else," Fin offered, but Riot shut him down.
"No," he said, pushing back his chair to stand. "we can go for a walk. Come on, T."
Fin gave me a small smile of encouragement, and I followed my other ex out of the house and across the first swing bridge. I knew where we were going, so I hurried to catch up and walk with him, not behind him.
"Summit branch?" I asked him, even though I knew full well that's the direction we were going.
"Where else?" he replied, arching a dark brow at me. It was already nearing midnight, but foxes being nocturnal were all up and about so the lights from their tree houses lit up our way and twinkled through the branches.
We wandered together through the maze of swing bridges and tree platforms, climbing higher with each turn until we reached the tallest tree in the Earth's village. We'd cut hand and foot holds into it a long time ago, so we could climb higher and eventually sit on the highest sittable branch for miles.
"Need a hand?" Riot offered as I scrambled up after him, but I just scowled in response. It had been a really long time since I'd visited the summit branch, so I'd lost the hang of it.
"I love it up here," I sighed, once I was comfortably seated with my back resting against the huge tree trunk. While the branch was wide enough for us to sit side by side, Riot had chosen to sit further along, with his feet dangling over the edge.
"Thea..." He started, then broke off with a frustrated sigh. I stayed quiet though, and let him take the lead in whatever he needed to say to me. "Thea, I need to ask you something, and I need you to answer me with total honesty."
I raised my brows and nodded slowly. "I never lie to you, Ry. Ask me anything."
"Okay," he sucked in a deep breath like he was preparing to rip off a band-aid. "This thing you have going with your boss. The vampire. Is it ... serious?"
Pursing my lips, I considered his question. Was it? One minute I'm little more than food, and the next I'm his only chance of forever love? So, in all honesty I had no damn clue.
"Why do you care?" I asked him instead, hoping to change the subject.
He turned his head and met my gaze with sad green eyes. "Just answer the question, Thea. Is it serious?"
"I honestly don't know how to answer that, Ry. It's new, and complicated." I shrugged. That was the best I could do to explain it.
"But you don't see it ending any time soon," he translated, and I shook my head slightly.
"I don't think so? He... uh—" how the hell did I explain the bond without making Riot want to kill Mik?! "—accidentally did something that means he'll be in my life in some capacity ... forever."
"What the fuck does that mean?" Riot snapped and I shrugged again.
"That's as much as I'm willing to say. So, to answer your question, yeah, I guess it is serious." I knew that wasn't the answer he was hoping to hear, but I couldn't lie to him. Fact of the matter was that no matter how complicated things were with Mik and Bennett, the actions of the past few days had irreversibly tied our fates for good.
"And this wolf?" He ground out after a long silence, and I looked at him in surprise. How the hell had he known...? Ah. Mik must have told Fin more than he was letting on, and of course Fin tells Riot everything.
I sighed heavily. "What does it matter, Ry? We were over a really long time ago. Are you saying you want me back?"