Page 128 of Burn of Obsidian

“Excuse me, can I help you?”

Thea paused, turning with a smile. “Oh, finally you’ve come over.” She moved her hands behind her back, carefully moving the tools against the lock. “I’ve been here for over five minutes. What kind of service is this?”

The male assistant blinked, green skin flushing darker.

“Are these the only pixies you have? It seems unimpressive.” The lock caught her wrist at the wrong angle.

Fuck.

“Well, err,” the assistant stammered. “Pixies are a rare Breed and are notoriously difficult to catch. It’s why we’re one of the only places still offering them.”

“Huh, interesting.” The lock finally clicked, Thea coughing to disguise the sound. “Is this the entire range?”

“Yes, this is all we have…” The assistant frowned at the glitter floating down between them.

“Oh, what’s that?” Thea fell forward, throwing her entire weight behind it. The assistant staggered back, tumbling against the empty cages haphazardly stacked together. There was a moment of panic, the cages wobbling dramatically, but then the first fell. Followed by the rest.

“I’m so sorry!” she shouted above the banging and clashing. “Clumsy me.”

Twenty to thirty cages crashed, pixies escaping in a rush of rainbow glitter. Ruhne’s laugh echoed around her, his weight settling back on her shoulder while the assistant screeched.

Quickly shoving Ruhne beneath her hood, she nodded to Lucifer, who’d already begun to back away once his assistance had turned toward the commotion. Making her way quickly through the crowd, she grinned at the amount of pixies flying against the ceiling.

“You get them all?” she asked, moving faster towards the section designated for drifts.

“Of course,” Ruhne chuckled. “I’ve told them where to go for safety, but it’s now up to them to choose freedom.”

“Did you see all that glitter?” Lucifer came up beside them, grinning like a child on Christmas morning. “Fuck, it was beautiful!”

“Your glitter fetish is worrying,” Ruhne muttered.

Lucy frowned. “It’s not a fetish if I can’t fuck it.”

Thea stepped over the ward engraved into the stone, moving as far back as possible before calling her wild magic. “You coming to the café, Luce?”

“You mean to your book club where you talk about books while drinking tea and eating cake?” He clicked his tongue. “Of-fucking-course.” Reaching over, he gripped her wrist, taking over the drift.

He immediately let go when they’d landed in the street, looking around while he waited for her to enter. Sam, Rae, Harper and Molly were already sitting around the table, smiling as they joined.

Sam cleared his throat, deepening his voice. “He thrust his large – ”

Rae snatched their latest read from his grip, while Harper groaned, “That’s enough of that, thank you!”

Thea laughed, taking a seat where her hot chocolate was already waiting for her. It was their first meeting, wanting to make it a monthly thing where they’d take turns picking a book, and then discuss it over cake.

The idea had actually been Jax’s one evening when he’d found her reading on their bed. A few days later, she’d found a freshly built reading nook in their room, complete with a comfy armchair right beside where he kept his own books.

“Are we all here?” Harper asked, sipping her tea.

Lucifer frowned, flicking through the pages. “This is just porn.”

“It’s not porn!” Thea, Sam and Rae said in unison, while Molly laughed hard enough she knocked her cup over, and Harper blushed.

Lucifer shook his head, throwing the paperback down. “Don’t know what you’re laughing at,” he said, pointing at Molly. “You’re not even old enough for this kind of stuff.”

Her sister rolled her eyes at the Daemon, and he grunted at her in response.

Thea smiled, reaching for a slice of cake from the centre of the table before her mating bond ignited. Turning, she found Jax standing behind.

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