Page 64 of Kiss of Smoke

They started to lead me upstairs, and I blinked as we passed by Robin’s office. It was still a mess…but there was a second office next to it, neat as a button, everything in pale shades of cream and gray.

And then there was a guitar on the wall next to a low leather couch, with a ram skull overlooking the two.

It was like the house had suddenly become all of my guys smashed into one place, but it worked, somehow.

“Have you all been living here?” I wondered aloud. “At the same time? Without killing each other?”

The three of them exchanged a look.

“More or less. More than the house has changed, Bananas,” Gwyn told me. “You tell her, Jack.”

Jack’s icy eyes narrowed, softening when he looked at me. “I’m no longer the Left Hand of the Unseelie Queen.”

My mouth dropped open. “But… how? Why?”

“Because the Seelie Queen now has a full Left Hand, rather than one finger of it,” Robin said, leading me upstairs. “We couldn’t see how it would work out, with me being unwilling to return to Annwyn, so… we all live here now. And work on the same team.”

So Gwyn really had left the Wild Hunt completely. I felt a little dazed as I walked past new doors upstairs that had never been there before, and found the familiar door to my own bedroom.

I opened it to a room three times as big as it had been before, my small bed replaced with a large one, and all of my belongings from the apartment in it.

The snowdrop Jack had given me was in a tiny vase on a dresser, and my pink, apple-scented blanket was on the bed, which was heaped with thick white blankets.

I stepped in slowly, taking it all in. Especially the fact that my things were here.

“The twins… do they know…?”

Robin squeezed me against him. “We went and collected your belongings. They were made aware of your status, but without knowing when you’d be back…”

It was Jack who looked worried. “Did we overstep by bringing your belongings here? We could’ve left it in place and paid the selkies for that room, but… we thought you’d want to live here with us…”

I smiled up at him. “You didn’t overstep at all. This is the first thing I would’ve done. Thank you all.”

Honestly, I was entirely happy that they’d brought my stuff here and moved it in, like they’d expected me to wake up any day and come inside and start using it.

If I’d had any doubts left that they might have moved on without me while I slept, they were gone now. Everything about the house now made itourhouse, not just Robin’s house.

And despite the fact that they didn’t always get along, he seemed perfectly at ease with having them all here.

I reached out and touched the bed, and immediately the guys swarmed me with a million questions: did I want to shower? Sleep? Was I feeling okay? Was it too much to take in?

I finally made the wardrobe give me a pair of pants so I wouldn’t be wandering around in nothing but Gwyn’s tee shirt, even though it came down to my knees, and my stomach rumbled loudly.

I’d gotten more than enough sleep and water, but there was one thing a tree couldn’t have.

“I’m so hungry,” I said, tying my hair up in a bun. “D’you think Thistletop would make pancakes?”

“I think he’d make you anything you want,” Jack said.

It washard to sleep after that first night.

I found myself curled up in the massive expanse of my bed, my knees pulled up to my chin and arms wrapped around myself.

Just the thought of closing my eyes again made me shiver. I’d been asleep for over six months.

What if I went to sleep, and the trees reached out again, and I didn’t wake up?

Not even having Beans curled on the end of the bed like a little fuzzy pillow made it easier. Eventually, I just crept out of my room and knocked on Gwyn’s door, pushing it open.

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