Page 173 of Wrath of the Fae

‘Thank you,’ I smile, taking her hand in mine.

‘Besides. I have been asked on a date.’ She grins. ‘By a very handsome Thirteenth Kingdom soldier with some very questionable morals.’

She leaves, chuckling away to herself.

Lucca, Reid and Cyrus are practising their swordsmanship with one another and testing their reflexes. They attack one another with playfulness, and hearing them chuckle and tease one another is its own form of bliss.

‘You have to lean further into your left, Reid. More than you think.’ Lucca lunges forwards, wielding his sword with skill.

Reid defends but misses one of Lucca's three attempts to tap his leg. Lucca bellows with laughter and then repeats the same move with Cyrus. He misses the last attempt.

‘And you need to lean further to your right,’ Lucca jeers, smacking the right side of his hip. ‘You’ll get it. Takes practice, is all. Go again.’ Lucca prepares himself, readying his sword as do Reid and Cyrus.

They start to move, meeting each other in choreographed steps and swipes.

‘How long did it take you to get to grips with your depth perception?’ Cyrus asks, missing another block and swearing under his breath.

‘A couple of months, but I wasn’t exactly trying. Too busy wallowing in self-pity and imagining all the ways I wanted to kill the pair of you.’ He spins and rests his blade on Reid’s neck before smirking in victory. ‘You two are mental.’ He continues attacking, trying to beat them in their blind spots. ‘I thought I was mental, but you two are on another level. Giving her an eye each?’ His laughter echoes over the snow. ‘You two are utterly whipped by that girl.’

‘That girl is our entire fucking world,’ Cyrus retorts, meeting each of his blows. ‘She needed something. We gave it to her.’

‘Good job you each had a spare one then.’ Lucca spins and smacks Cyrus’s backside with the sword before turning to face Reid. ‘Lucky that you insisted we did the transference. May have been awkward stealing your eyes.’

‘You would do that?’ Reid asks, meeting his blows with hard focus. ‘Steal our eyes?’

‘For her?’ He scoffs hard. ‘I’d cut out your heart if she needed it.’

‘She’s already got that, brother.’ Reid attacks, pushing Lucca backwards. Their feet sink into the snow with each step, and Lucca roars with laughter as he defends himself. ‘She owns all of us. Heart. Mind. Body and fucking soul.’ The tip of Reid’s sword rests over Lucca’s heart, and the two share a strange territorial glance. ‘She can have any part of us she needs or wants. We belong to her.’ Reid steps a little closer, the sword's tip still over Lucca’s chest. ‘And she belongs to us,’ he adds a little coldly. ‘You hear me, Lucca?Us.’

‘I take it she told you about our little misunderstanding,’ Lucca replies, peering down at the sword. ‘I told her I was sorry for what I did.’

Oh shit.

Reid narrows his eyes.

‘No. What did you do, Lucca?’

I clear my throat.

Best we don’t go there.

Lucca turns to face me, his smile wide and beaming.

‘Morning, Pup.’

‘Are you three playing nice?’ I ask.

Lucca stops before me, that trouble-filled smile plastered on his face.

‘You know me.’ With a glance over his shoulder, he peers back at the two others before meeting my gaze again. ‘I may have dropped myself in it.’

‘You’ll be fine,’ I assure him.

‘Where’s El?’

‘Inside.’

He hesitates before asking, ‘With your sister?’

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