“Sounds fun.” Sadie winked aggressively. “So why are you here?”
I pulled my tangled hair forward and showed her the knots. “It’s a ridiculous mess. I tried to fix it for tomorrow, but I made it worse. I was hoping you could help?”
Sadie stared at my hair, then at my face. A wide grin split her cheeks. “I thought you’d never ask. Since you’ve given me makeovers, I’ve been wanting to return the favor.”
“Please, we both know I’m already perfect-looking,” I said seriously. “Meanwhile you had a unibrow when we first met.”
Sadie laughed.
Who was going to tell her I wasn’t joking?
Really, I wasn’t in any position to judge. Lately I’d looked more like a rabid raccoon than a woman.
My eyes were so bloodshot they were more red than blue, and the dark circles below them complemented my sickly pale complexion.
Yesterday when I’d seen my reflection in the bathroom, I’d been tempted to bang my head into the wall. A little forehead blood would really round out the “I am mentally crumbling” vibe.
But I didn’t.
It seemed like too much work.
Now I sat down on the carpet, and Jax and Sadie settled on either side of me.
Jax gave me pointers for curly hair as they both painstakingly untangled my knots with water and a comb. After the blue mass was detangled, they each grabbed a section of my hair and pulled it into a French braid.
They were extremely gentle, and I relaxed as Sadie went on and on about random topics.
At one point she sniffed my hair and said, “I forgot you smelled like icy death. It’s a unique scent.”
I yawned. “In a sexy way though, right?”
Sadie sniffed again and made a face. “Maybe? I need to get closer and smell you more.”
Cobra whipped his head around. The jewels embedded in his skin turned into shadow snakes and his eyes flashed with violence as he glared at us.
We both giggled.
After Sadie dramatically sniffed my neck to annoy her unhinged mate, I asked her how she felt about seeing Dick.
She smiled and reassured me she really didn’t care. She felt nothing when she saw him and she’d made her peace with the events of her childhood.
I didn’t understand how she could say that.
Maybe she was just a better person, but my gut cramped as she talked about him with nothing but forgiveness in her eyes.
She believed what he’d told her.
Sadie let the past go.
I dug my fingernails hard into the palm of my hands.
I didn’t care what Dick said to explain himself. You didn’t whip a child for the greater good. There was no such thing as casual abuse. He hurt her. Violently. Repeatedly.
Thick jagged scars marred her back and chest.
Dick had told Sadie that he’d beaten her to unlock her powers. He’d done it on behalf of the moon goddess, and if he hadn’t done it to her, he would have had to do it to her sister, Lucinda.
The explanation was too neat for the situation. It didn’t seem right that it involved gods and loved ones.
What Dick had done to Sadie was messy and depraved, and it was only logical that the reasoning behind his actions followed a similar pattern.
His story reeked of manipulation.
I’d tried to point that out to Sadie when she first told me, but she ignored me and said I was too blinded by rage on her behalf.
I gnawed on my fingernail as I debated the merits of once again bringing up my doubts.
Before I could decide, Sadie changed topics and rambled on about a book she’d read.
She was happy to forgive and move on.
With a deep breath, I let it go. Perhaps I was just a heartless revengeful bitch that refused to move on.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Sadie talked, and I nodded when it was appropriate. She smiled as she explained the plot, and I smiled back.
Warmth expanded in my chest.
I liked her constant chatter.
I liked how she moved her hands dramatically and leaned closer when she got excited.
I liked how she rested her head on my shoulder.
It felt as if we’d never been separated.
At one point, Ascher’s phone rang, and it was Sadie’s sister, Lucinda, and Jax’s sisters Jess and Jala.
I gaped at the technology.
He explained that he’d spent a small fortune and gotten an inter-realm service plan so they could stay in contact. Jax’s and Sadie’s sisters were boarding at an ultraexclusive school in the beast realm with a whole battalion of the don’s personal guards until the games were over.
“Are there any cute boys at the academy that I would like?” Jax’s sister Jala asked me over the phone, and the others snickered.
Jax frowned, and Xerxes sharpened his knives with vigor.
I sighed. “Do you think seven-foot-tall monsters with no respect for women are cute?”
There was a long pause and what sounded like a scuffle. Then Jax’s other sister Jess said, “Wait, they kinda sound interesting. Bad boy vibes.”
“Tell them I’m single,” Sadie’s sister, Lucinda, yelled in the background.
Jax growled. “You’re not allowed to date until you’re three hundred and fifty years old.”
Cobra scoffed. “You’re not allowed to date until you’re dead. You can date in the afterlife.” His jewels transformed into shadow snakes and crawled over his skin. “In this life, I’ll kill any man that touches you.”
“Not fair!” Lucinda shouted, and Jax motioned for Ascher to give him the phone.
“Stop antagonizing Jax.” Ascher laughed. “You better still be practicing your combat moves for when we get back.”
There was a small spat where Jess tried to prove she was practicing her moves by attacking Jala and what sounded like an impromptu pillow fight.
“Love you!” the girls yelled over the phone, and we all yelled it back.
My cheeks hurt from smiling.
Ascher, Xerxes, and Cobra played the card game while Jax and Sadie braided my hair.
It was homey.
Peaceful.
Cozy.
I leaned against Sadie and inhaled her alpha scent of cranberries. The men’s scents of chestnuts, frost, cinnamon, and pine filled the room.
They smelled like shopping with Sadie in the icy forest of the shifter realm. Back when we’d laughed so hard that Sadie had fallen off her Yukata Horse into a snowbank. The biggest threat in our lives had been monsters from a portal.
Those were the days.
Life had been blissfully simple.
“Time’s up.” Scorpius’s voice cut through the tranquil ambiance and reminded me that life was anything but picturesque.
All three of the kings stood in the doorway, scowling. I thought they stayed back in the bedroom?
“Pay the tax.” Jinx stood in front of them with her hand out.
Sadie bristled. “How dare you speak to Aran like that? You don’t get to order her around.”
I sighed and pulled myself to my feet. I’d explain the whole enslavement to her later. That wasn’t a conversation for tonight.
Now that my hair was all fixed, exhaustion was hitting me like a brick.
“It’s okay.” I patted Sadie on the back and turned to the rest of the room. “Thanks for everything. Good luck tomorrow.”
“Of course, baby.” Sadie pressed a smacking kiss onto my cheek. “Come back whenever you want. You’re always welcome in our room.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.