Page 35 of What did you do?

The mattress below me rumbled, and I nearly hit the ceiling.

Oh. My. God.

Eli was the rumbling mattress. Eli was under me in the bed!

Had we…?

No, I knew I would remember that.

In shock, I backed away toward the foot of the mattress, not realizing until it was too late that I had moved my chest down between Eli’s widespread legs. I let out a silent scream. I was still too tired for this.

Urging my hands to stop shaking, I pushed them onto his thighs to slowly lift myself up.

Eli snapped awake, sitting up and grabbing my arms before I had a chance to even blink. His pupils widened, darkeningslightly as he took in the situation. Eli’s golden wings snapped out, knocking something over on the nightstand.

Oh no.

Eli masked it well, but I had seen his desire. His manners thankfully took precedence, and he stood immediately and helped me sit on the edge of the bed. Alone. The sun-hazed room blurred slightly with my movements, the soft notes of smoke and spice dragging against my senses.

“I-I’m so sorry, Calypso. I tried to leave last night, but you put me in chokehold and told me you’d replace me with a new best friend.” Eli smiled. “Nothing happened. Though I will say the smoke chains were a bit excessive,” he snorted.

“I didn’t… Oh, Eli, I’m so sorry.” I covered my face with my palms. “Wait…smoke chains?” I remembered the chokehold, but…I couldn’t make chains of smoke…

“You did. Oh, don’t be embarrassed. To be honest, the chains were wildly impressive. Here I thought you were asleep, and suddenly my legs were bolted to the bed, my arms and hands tied to my sides. Even my throat was chained to the headboard,” he chuckled. “Don’t show Mother what you can do with that smoke, or she’ll drug us both.”

I’d only ever seen one chain of smoke before, and it had been around my throat.

That was impossible though. Mendax was dead.

“Oh my god.”

“I’m sorry, bad joke. Caly, please don’t feel bad. I hope you trust me enough to know I would never touch you without your consent. Tartarus, even when you said you wanted it last night, I wouldn’t touch you.” He was almost wheezing, he laughed so hard now. “I will say though, whatever makes you feel safe, I support you fully, but next time, could you lighten up on the throat chains? I think you may have drawn blood. You should have heard the crazy things you said.”

I stood up in alarm to look at his neck. Sure enough, link-shaped indentations and bruises encircled his neck, his gold Seelie blood drying in spots.

“Eli…I didn’t…” I trailed off. I hadn’t done this. I couldn’t have if I’d wanted to. I had no control over my smoke. But if I didn’t do it…

“Suns, Caly, all the blood has drained from your face. I will get the healer for your hangover, even though I know that you will heal quickly. I wouldn’t worry, just the aftereffects of the mead,” he said, patting my arm.

I sat on the bed, trying to reason out the situation.

He was right though—ever since my time in Unseelie, I had healed oddly fast, even before bonding with Mendax. I didn’t think my powers could do that…

“I am glad you are here, Cal.”

“I want the stream back,” I rasped as tears began to threaten. The scent of the cozy fire was the only thing grounding me.

“The stream?” he asked and moved to sit on the edge of the bed next to me.

“I want to go back to when everything was right. When I was whole and a good, normal person. When I still had Mom and Adrianna. I want to go back to when I thought I would grow up to be an astronaut. To when you and I would spend all day in the stream, playing pirates. I want the stream back, where we were just best friends, Eli.” I choked on the words.

The prince looked hurt, recoiling slightly. “We are and willalwaysbe friends, Calypso.” He stood from the bed and straightened his shirt as he walked toward one of the large, arched windows. “I would give anything I have to bring your mom and sister back, truly I would,” he said, turning to face me, his shadow darkening as he stood next to the barely illuminated window. “I don’t know the details of what you had to do for my mother, and I know it’s not something you ever want totalk about.” He sped on to cover my protests. “But I also know the basics of what you had to do, and you are stillvery muchwhole and good.” He brushed a hand over his golden hair and handsome face. “I had hoped my mother wouldn’t discuss us marrying. At least not on the day of your arrival. She is being unreasonable, but I will not lie to you and say I haven’t thought about it a thousand times on my own.”

My stomach flipped nervously. “You can’t be serious,” I bit out gruffly, startling him. “It’s been years since I’ve even seen you. Hell, we are only even best friends in absentia at this point!”

He was suddenly in my face with fire in his amber eyes. “Yes, and why was that, Caly? Why was that?” He gripped my shoulders, and though his touch was gentle, his expression was anything but.

I’d never seen him like this. I was too stunned to say anything back. After a pause, Eli continued.

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