Page 121 of Illusory

I swallowed down theyesI wanted to answer and peered up at Trace instead, nervous that he would notice how affected I was by Dominic and be hurt by it. If he was hurting, though, he wasn’t showing it. I brought the glass to my lips and took anotherlongsip, reveling as the alcohol burned its way through me.

“Tell me, angel. Have you given any more thought to what we discussed earlier?” he asked.

My wide eyes ziplined to Gabriel watching the exchange as the heat that had been in my chest rushed up into my face. Apparently, I hadn’t pummeled their insane idea into oblivion quite as well as I thought I had.

“No. I…”Jesus. I needed to change the subject. “I translated some of Elspeth’s grimoire,” I announced instead, obviously overstating my progress in an effort to distract everyone enough to change the topic. “I mean, not very much of it. Just a few things about the wings.”

“Really?” asked Gabriel as Dominic just smirked at me for god knows what reason. “What did you find out?”

“Nothing really. Just that they’re somehow tied to my emotions.”

Gabriel processed that and then nodded. “Well, that makes sense. Most of our abilities are tied to our emotions in one way or the other,” he said as Trace crossed the room and then came to sit down on the couch beside me. On my other side. Sandwiching me between the two of them. Again.

Fucking hell. Were they doing this to me on purpose?

I swallowed nervously, trying to bury the blush that I knew was getting deeper by the second.

“Did you figure out how to unsheathe them yet?” asked Trace as he propped his elbows on his knees, his studious eyes roving over me as our soulmate bond took flight under my skin.

I swallowed again, shaking my head.

“Maybe we can work on it with you tomorrow?” he offered and then wet his lips.

My gaze nosedived to his mouth and stayed there. “Work on it?” I asked, distracted as I busied myself fantasizing about his lips all over me, but also confused because I wasn’t sure how either one of them could possibly help me with this. Figuring out how to use the wings definitely felt like ameproblem.

“Well, you said the wings are tied to your emotions, right?” he verified.

“Right.” I frowned, still not following.

“Then perhaps we could try riling them up to see if we can get your Angel wings to make another appearance,” chimed Dominic, snapping my attention to him as he casually brushed my hair off my shoulder, his eyes trailing down my back as though visualizing the wings as we spoke. A warm shiver spread over my skin, making me sigh.

Wait.Rileup my emotions? What did that even—I shook my head forcefully.Nope. Not going there. “That’s okay, I…I’m taking care of it. I downloaded an app,” I blurted out and then tried not to cringe at myself.

“You downloaded an app?” he repeated sweetly, his mouth tipping up into that crooked smile that could conquer kingdoms. “And what pray tell does this app do?”

“It, uh…it translates stuff—words. It translates Latin words to English,” I fumbled, sounding stupider with every second this conversation went on.

His smirk pushed up higher into his cheeks, reaching all the way up to those sinful eyes that knew me better than I knew myself. “Seems you’ve got it covered then, doesn’t it?”

“Completely.”

His gaze flicked to Trace as though they were sharing a silent thought. I pushed my back into the sofa, eyeing the two of them warily.

“Of course, wearepressed for time,” he went on, his eyes sliding back to mine. “Our way would definitely speed things up.”

“It’d be a lot less boring, too,” added Trace.

“Faster and less boring. Right.” I glanced at Gabriel, noting his raised eyebrows and parted lips. I didn’t even want to know what he was thinking just then. “I, um…I’ll think it over and, you know, let you know.”

“You do that,” said Dominic, picking up a strand of my hair and coiling it around his finger as Trace spread his legsand leaned in closer, his thigh pushed up against mine.

My breath hitched as a dozen different sensations coursed through my body at once. The two of them close like that, not really doing anything yet touching me just enough to drive me crazy…it wastoo much.

My body was literallyvibrating,and it was taking every ounce of strength I had not to close my eyes and sink into it. Not to throw in the towel and give in to them right then and there—Gabriel’s audience be damned.

God, why was my body turning on me like this? Where was the solidarity? The sisterhood? All I could think about was how long it had been since I’d been with them. How easy it would be to give in.Just once. I could practically taste the relief on my tongue. All it would take was one simple word: Yes…

But a yes to which one? Trace or Dominic?

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