Tory was nestled into the crook of Darius’s arm, her eyes closed and breathing heavy as he trailed his fingertips along her spine, the sheets tugged over them enough to cover most of her body from us.
His gaze snapped to us, but in the brief moment before that, all I’d seen in his expression was this, deep, fulfilled kind of contentment as he’d been watching her, and it made the knot in my chest loosen to know that at least one good thing had come from this nightmare. The stars had finally been forced to reconsider and it looked like everything the two of them had suffered through had finally paid off.
Darius frowned at us, clearly less than impressed by the interruption as he flicked his fingers to disband the silencing bubble before tugging the sheet up around Tory more firmly to hide her body from our view.
“What is it?” he growled, his voice pitched low so as not to wake her as his muscles tensed in anticipation of a fight.
“Nothing life threatening,” I reassured him before he could freak out.
“But we do need to talk,” Max pressed. “And not all of us have sex on tap right now, so stop rubbing it in our faces and just come talk with us.”
Darius rolled his eyes at the less than angry taunt and slowly shifted himself out of bed, drawing a murmur of protest from Tory as she sleepily reached for him.
“I thought I owed you a wake up blowjob?” she mumbled, catching his arm and making him pause.
“I will absolutely take you up on that later, baby. But right now, there are three assholes at the door,” Darius replied, leaning down to press a kiss to her hair.
Tory rolled towards us and cracked her eyes open as Darius lurched forward to make sure the sheet remained over her tits to shield them from our view, a possessive growl escaping him as his Dragon peered out at us from within the depths of his eyes in a clear warning.
“Do the assholes just want him, or do I have to drag my ass out of bed too?” she asked us, scrubbing some sleep from one eye with a fist and yawning.
“Just the Dragon thanks, sweetheart,” I confirmed and she nodded, grabbing a pillow and tugging it over her face in a clear dismissal.
“And this one claimed she didn’t wanna be a princess,” Seth scoffed, backing out of the room as Darius approached us wearing a pair of jeans and some sneakers, not bothering with a shirt.
It was cold down here beneath the ground in the middle of fuck knew where, but for those of us with fire magic it wasn’t much of an issue.
Darius and Seth fell into step ahead of me and Max and my gaze roamed over the tattoo on my friend’s back as I took in the Phoenix and Dragon which played at war with one another across his flesh. I’d always liked the image, but looking at it now hit different than it had before. Because instead of the heat of the battle which I’d always seen in the image, I found more of a dance in it now. Two predators who had met their match and fought for nothing more than the thrill of one another’s company and the challenge they posed.
We headed down to the large cavern which had been set aside for meals and Seth picked out a spot in the centre of the circular space where a rough table and chairs had been hewn from the rocks. It looked exactly like every other table in the place, but I was guessing its location front and centre was what was drawing him to it, the circular layout of the domed cavern somewhat reminiscent of The Orb.
Before he could sit his ass down, I twisted my hand and sent magic spilling towards the stone bench, building a back for it from wood and leaves that wove together as they grew, then padding the whole thing with a layer of blood red roses with petals softer than silk until it resembled our usual couch.
Seth grinned broadly as he cast a silencing bubble around us then sank onto the newly modified chair and I took my spot beside him, nudging him with my elbow.
“I knew you couldn’t cope without home comforts,” I teased him and he shoved me back.
“Says the dude who has literally fully furnished his underground cave to make it look like it belongs in a five star hotel,” Seth mocked.
“Well, no one said being a rebel had to mean living in squalor,” I tossed back, shoving him again, but before we could fall into a full blown tussle, Max pushed us apart and sat down between us.
“Stop flirting with each other and focus on the problem here,” he snapped, pushing a whole bucket load of serious energy at us to dampen the mood. It had only been a jibe, but why did I suddenly feel awkward?
Darius was reading over the article on the Atlas, ignoring all of us as he took in the latest bullshit to be tossed our way and I looked around hopefully as my stomach growled.