Page 147 of Never Kiss a Fae
“Whatever I’m doing is cleaning up the damn mess in the kitchen,” he snapped. “Becauseyoubroke the table. I suppose that’s fitting, considering your concerns.”
“Hey, that’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?” Vox demanded. “You know what? You should fix it.”
“Why are you being such a dick?” This wasn’t like my best friend. Sure, he had bouts of temper in the past, but this seemed deep-rooted, as if there was something else going on. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t fix dinner, Sol. Because we have nowhere to eat it.Thatis what’s wrong.” He waved at the mess, creating an air vortex that swept it all away and out the open door. “And why in the fae are you thinking about fucking Claire?”
My eyebrows shot upward. “Are you telling me the thought hasn’t ever crossed your mind?”
“Of course it has,” he replied, his cheeks darkening. “I mean, I hear the same things you do.”
“So why are you giving me a hard time about it?”
“Because neither of us wants to mate with her!” Vox exclaimed, a gust of wind amplifying the lie he was trying to tell himself. I hadn’t been exaggerating about the showers, and he knew it.
“We don’t?” I asked, testing the thought aloud. “Because if you wanted to, and I wanted to, then maybe it could work.”
And maybe Vox would stop being such an uptight dirtwad and I could get my head on straight again. The Spirit Quad would be grateful; I’d certainly done enough damage to it over the last month.
Vox balked at me, making me frown. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
He threw his hands up. “It’s weird, okay?”
“Weird,” I repeated. “Mating with a gorgeous woman is weird. Okay,” I grumbled and turned to face the swirl of air that was keeping the table somewhat assembled in the shape it should have been. Fine cracks lined its broken seams, and I forced my earth magic to reach out and command it to remember its form. It was once wood, born of the earth, and had known life and seasons long before it’d been smashed by my careless whims of power.
“We’d be sharing her,” Vox said after a long bout of silence, his voice softer than before. “Don’t you think that’s weird?”
I shrugged. “Honestly, no.” Did I want to be intimate with other men? Not really. But if I trusted anyone to share a woman with, it was Vox. “If anything, you’d help me with my control so I wouldn’t hurt her.” The words came out on a mumble meant mostly for me, but Vox’s affinity for air would have made them loud in comparison.
My best friend froze. “What?”
I sighed. “You heard me just fine.”
“You’ve thought about… the three of us?” He sounded so alarmed I had to laugh.
“Dude, it’s not like I fantasize about you. Just, you know, how it would all—” I shook my head. “You know what? Forget I ever brought it up.”
“Forget that you want to have a threesome with Claire?” Vox asked, the wheeze in his tone irritating me.
You know what? Fuck this table. I smashed it into little bits, much to Vox’s horror, and created something from the ground instead.
Something I knew Claire would love.
Recalling her magic from class, a tree not of this world rooted into the floor, its earthly spirit thriving as I searched the fine grains. It grew, reaching out fresh limbs and blooming with some of Claire’s impossibly fuzzy, sweet fruit. What had she called them?
Peaches.
I re-created their essence in my palm and sent several seeds scattering, telling them to remember Claire’s element.
“Sol!”
Vox had been yelling at me for quite some time, but it was only when he slammed a wall of air into my chest that my eyes flung open, my energy ripped free from the magic and peaceful thoughts that had taken me under.
I stared at the result of my creation. What was supposed to be a dining table was now a long slab of wood with branches sticking out of the ends. Long roots burrowed into the broken tiles of the floor, and an engraving of Claire’s peach tree decorated the polished surface. Sister trees sprouted out of the sides and leaned against the ceiling, heavy with fruit.
I smiled.
