Page 33 of Hex
I’m going for dramatic and dangerously sexy; my intention is to burn the vines from my wrists, head, and ankles, knowing it doesn’t hurt Hack to kill the vines. They’re endless in their growth.
“Pyr.” As I say the Greek word for fire, I picture the burning in my mind, the orange flames gently licking at the vines and breaking me free.
The smell hits us both at the same time.
“Why is the door on fire?”
“Shit.”
His smirk tells me that he finds this amusing more than anything else, thankfully.
“What the fuck? What’s go—oh, nice. Vine play.”
“Slash, if you say one more thing, I’m going to rip your tongue out and feed it to your ass.”
The vines all slither away to I don’t know where as Hack covers me with a blanket and I maneuver myself onto my elbows.
“Are there any injuries that need seeing to or is this mess the result of pleasure?”
“For fuck’s sake. Pierce, you can fuck off too.” Hack stands, completely butt-ass naked, and grabs a pair of boxers from what I can now see is a trashed bedroom. I can understand Pierce’s question from the looks of the huge cracks in the walls, and the fact that the bed is really now just a mattress on top of broken wood doesn’t help.
“I’ll put the fire out, then.” Slay’s voice comes from nowhere and a dark shadow engulfs the flames that have begun to burn the doorframe and walls.
Fuck.
“Why are you all still here?” With his biteable ass now covered, Hack folds his arms across his tight chest and scowls at his brothers.
If I didn’t know them, they’d be a frightening sight. Slash, with his purple hair, thick and braided in a Viking-mohawk style and the sides of his head shaved, is leaning against the wall in all his muscley glory. A giant grin on his face says he’s enjoying his brother’s exasperation.
Pierce has his back to us, the only one of the four with as many veins in his muscles as Hack, and I only know that because he’s topless with a pair of black sweatpants hanging loose around his hips.
The shadows that Slay created have disappeared, along with the fire, leaving behind a black mess that I feel really guilty about.
“I have asked Samhain to arrange a meeting with Loki. The fenrir followed us—Sage—back here to The Shade.” Slay appears to speak, sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. One of the only things that’s still intact.
“And we all think now is the time to talk about this?” Hack rubs his hand over his short blond hair and sighs.
“Slay made a birthday cake for Sage, too. There are only a few hours left of her birthday and we didn’t want to miss it.” Slash shrugs. “He makes real fucking good cake.” He winks, making me chuckle, and my stomach rumbles.
I could eat cake.
Always.
A wave of sadness washes over me, the cake being a reminder of my best friend, Danika. She’s been gone for months now. She must be so scared. We would always bake for the morning shop rush, because who doesn’t love a delicious slice with their coffee? It was my turn to bake next, before my life blew up.
“Everyone, get the fuck out.” Warmth envelops me in the form of Hack and his thick arms lifting me as if I weigh nothing before I’m in his lap, curled into him with tears crawling down my cheeks. “What’s wrong, Satapti?”
“I’m sorry for bringing down the mood. I didn—”
“Stop that. You don’t need to apologize to me for having feelings. Ever. Tell me what’s going on in there.” He brushes his fingers through my hair and kisses the top of my head.
What isn’t going on in my mind is the easier question to answer.
I allow myself to feel the sadness for a few more moments before sighing, but I don’t move. My head is perfectly placed beneath Hack’s chin, on his strong and safe chest.
“It’s Danika. We haven’t spent a birthday apart since we met in college. And here I am having the best sex that ever sexed in the universe, enjoying orgasms that I thought were a myth, all nicely healed with new witch and dem-goddessness, while my best friend is locked away somewhere, probably being tortured like me and Saffron were, and oh, God, Saffron. She died saving me just last night! And I’m about to go and eat a delicious birthday cake with my fated soul mate like it’s just a regular Saturday. I’m guilty for feeling an ounce of happiness, and awful for bringing down the happy mood with my sadness, and it’s a neverending cycle of what the fuck am I supposed to be doing? All that, and I’m pretty sure I failed my witch test. It was too easy. There was a woman called Reina, who was a raven, and I set your house on fire.” I barely take a breath, my words a continuous cycle of my unfiltered thoughts.
The whole time I speak, Hack is gently rocking back and forth, massaging the top of my head with his masterful fingers.
