“I suppose so,” I said, wondering where Air and Dyre were, what it was like to be stuck haunting messy bookshelves, so close to us and yet so far away at the same time. I glanced over at the professor as he straightened out the ghostly epaulettes on his shoulder. His teacher’s uniform was so perfect, so at odds with the torn sleeves of Eli’s jacket, that I had to wonder how he’d died. Was it rude to ask? Maybe. But it was also rude to bind one’s spirit to a whisperer without her permission, so screw this guy. “May I ask how you died?” I start, drawing the man’s—err, ghost’s?—attention over to my face.
“It’s not a particularly happy story,” he said, reaching down to touch the eye necklace hanging around his throat, a symbol of the god, Verstand, the Mad God. He was known as the god of the insane, of the prophetic, and of mind whisperers. Most of those who received his blessing considered it more as a … curse. And if I had to take a guess on how Professor Cross might’ve died, my gems would be on suicide or spook dust overdose. Or maybe alcohol poisoning. Oh, or that one famous mind whisperer from a hundred years ago who died via croco-kill. A croco-kill was a big, pink lizard similar to a crocodile. At the time, Air’s ancestors kept them in the Royal Zoo and the Royal Mind Whisperer had climbed over the bars slathered in chicken blood …
“What story of death is?” Eli asked, continuing to flip through page after page of micro text. The words were so little in that book, I was starting to wonder if I might need a magnifying glass to read them. “Let me guess: a hanging?”
“Not quite,” Spicer said with a long sigh, this awful fog of regret filtering across his turquoise eyes. I opened my mouth to say something—either comforting or question, I wasn’t sure—when I saw a familiar face out the window and let out a long squeal.
“Vex!” I shouted, pushing through the sea of students and knocking several of them over with my wings in the process. At that point, I wasn’t sure if I was being clumsy … or if I just didn’t give a fuck. It’d been only days since I last saw him, but at that point, it felt like weeks.
I charged out of the bookstore and leapt into his massive arms, feeling his muscles band around me and squeeze me tight. All sorts of emotions and sensations ran through me, making my heart beat faster, my blood get hot, my skin feel achy. I felt an affection toward Vexer of Reisender that I knew I’d never felt for anyone but Airmienan before.
Swear to Haversey, it was like sparkles were dancing in front of my eyes as I leaned back and looked him in the face … and then, subsequently panicked because I realized he was standing on Royal College property in broad daylight.
“Look,” he said, letting me down and flashing a small metal badge with the word Visitor sketched into the shiny gold surface. “I put in an inquiry to see if the staff might be interested in giving me a temporary visitor’s pass.” Vexer grins, his teeth white in his stubbled face. “I’ll be working toward putting together a special two week evening program for followers of Reisender or anyone else that might be interested in my god’s magic.” Vex leaned down close to me, smelling like man and sweat and musk and sunshine. Gods above and below, I could bottle that scent and sell it in town for a million gems! “Or the magic his followers can make with their fingers.”
Vex closed the distance between us, capturing my lips with his hot mouth, tangling his fingers in the back of my hair. It was a kiss that marked, claimed, told the whole world that we belonged together. I pushed him back slightly and wiped my hand over my lips, but inside, I was shrieking with excitement.
“Cr—,” I started, and then remembered that I was already entertaining several bald spats. “Hellim’s testicles,” I tried, and even though I felt that was a pretty good curse, I didn’t loose a feather for it. Score. Maybe Haversey liked her on-again, off-again lover’s testes more than she pretended? “I need to go back in and check out with Jasinda.” I nibbled my lower lip for a moment and then reached out a hand for Vex’s. “Come with me?”
He grinned and followed me inside, over to the line where Jas was still waiting with Eli and Professor Cross. I swear, I could feel Air and Dyre shifting frustrated somewhere in the back of the bookstore. Even Elijah looked upset when I brought the huge griffin man with the brown and white wings inside.
I had a feeling though, that it was less a case of them disliking the man himself as it was a sense of jealousy. It was natural for the dead to crave what the living had, and I knew it was probably killing Air to see another man giving me something we could’ve had for years if we both hadn’t been so damn stupid.
Vexer, still wearing the spirit charm I’d given him, nodded in greeting to Eli before bending down and stacking my books on top of Jasinda’s … and then lifting them all up like they weighed nothing at all. The line scooted forward again and Eli was forced to abandon the book on razor wolves. I picked it up and held it tight against my chest, hoping Vex wouldn’t realize what it was about.
But he was so much smarter than that.
“Razor wolves?” he asked, cocking one brunette brow in my direction. “You’re still thinking about the thief, aren’t you?”
“His name is Talon,” I said, pushing back strands of white hair from my face. “And I don’t think I’ll be able to stop thinking about him. I want to rescue him.”
Vex met my gold eyes with his gray ones, and I noticed a muscle in his jaw ticking with frustration. But when he opened his mouth to reply to me, I was pleasantly surprised, and that little bee inside of me started not only buzzing but stinging, too.
“My brother’s out of town this week, so I’m helping the guild pick up slack,” he said as he placed our purchases—well, loosely they could be called purchases even though no gems were exchanging hands—on the counter and turned to look at me while the student worker started marking down everything in a thick ledger. I placed the razor wolf book on the top of the stack and turned fully to face Vex. “We could go together, fly over the forest and see if we can’t find out where the pack is.”
“You’d think the queen would have them hunted down and slaughtered,” I murmured, but Vex was already shaking his head, shifting his wings behind him like he had something else to say but wasn’t sure how it’d be received here. Vexer leaned in close to me and placed his lips against my ear.
“The Travelers’ Guild offered to search out the wolves’ location so the queen could send in the Royal Army, but we were told to leave it alone.” Vex’s breath was warm, feathering against my ear and making me shiver. But when he pulled back, the look in his eyes was deadly serious. “I’ll help you find the wolves as long as you swear on my beating heart that you won’t go looking for them on your own; we make up a plan together.” Vexer took my hand and put my palm flat on his chest. I’d heard this sort of phrase before; it definitely originated in Scythia.
With a nod, I curled my fingers in his shirt and pulled myself toward him for a kiss.
The hot press of his lips helped chase away the cold chill that went down my spine at his words.
The queen told the Travelers’ Guild to leave a pack of razor wolves—a pack that’d attacked and killed a student—that close to the city?
Something scary was going on in Amerin, and I didn’t like it.
Not one bit.
Walking to my hour five class wasn’t so bad with Vexer holding my hand, his warm fingers curled through my own. Having him on campus with me was like a dream come true; I didn’t ever want to let him go.
Ugh.
Did I seriously just think that?! What the hell is wrong with me? And why am I starting to daydream about having Air, Eli, and Vexer as … gulp … husbands. To be a Mrs. Brynn Rosae Rebane, what a trip.
“This guy isn’t giving you too much trouble, is he?” Vex asked, his dark brown hair falling across his brow, his feathers shimmering in the weak sunlight. I was fully ready for spring to take over, to melt the snow from the mountains and warm the grassy plains outside the city, start heating New Akyumen Lake so it was ready for summer. Swimming there without Airmienan though, that wouldn’t be any fun at all.
I had to find some way to make this spell work.