My chest tightened at the thought. I owed Basil everything after what he did for my daughter and me.
As I blinked against the early morning sunshine, I turned my head to find Basil still asleep and curled into me. His head was on the grass, but tucked into the crook of my neck where I felt his breath brushing against my skin. I scooted my head back enough to really stare at him, and I couldn’t get over how beautiful he was. He had that bad boy vibe going for him, but when you truly got a closer look at his face, he was actually really pretty. His skin was several shades lighter than mine, so his cheeks flushed pink whenever he was embarrassed or angry—which happened a lot around me—and his lips were plump, pink, and soft. He had long eyelashes as dark as his hair, and being this close to him, I could see a few freckles on his nose. Gorgeous.
He must’ve felt my eyes on him because he yawned as he blinked those big, dark eyes at me. He searched my face for a few seconds before whispering, “Morning.”
“Morning.”
“How are you feeling?”
His hand was still laced with mine, so I squeezed it. “I’m feelin’ pretty good, actually.”
His lips tilted up a tad. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Me too.” I leaned in and kissed his forehead. “What you did for Rasha and me last night… you saved me—us. You saved us.”
He shrugged a shoulder and darted his eyes away like he was embarrassed or somethin’.
“Basil?”
His eyes jerked back to mine.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, for fuck’s sake, Hiro.” He rolled his eyes, making me snort and shake my head. I should’ve known, three seconds after he woke, he’d curse at me and get annoyed—he always did.
“You really like bein’ difficult, don’t you?”
He huffed. “Whatever. Do you think you can walk? We should go inside and get changed. You can grab a shower if you want. Toby brought some clothes over for you since his are the only ones big enough to fit you. I can spell you clean, but I figured you’d want to actually shower this morning.”
“I would, yeah.”
“Okay. Can you walk?”
“I think so. How do you know Toby brought clothes over for me?”
He sat up and released my hand, then tapped his head. “Thayer told me.”
“Oh. I forgot you can do that.”
“Yeah, it’s annoying sometimes because I have to actively shield myself from them. It’s like they’re always there though, so… uh, sorry, but it’s impossible to hide shit from Thay and Jor. Fair warning.”
My eyebrows lifted. “But you hid me from them for a while, didn’t ya?”
He nodded as he helped me sit up. “Yeah, but it was a pain in the ass, and they knew something was up since I was blocking them. I didn’t hide your existence, just that you’re my viramore. We do try to give each other privacy whenever we can, it’s just that we have this… awareness of each other and what we’re feeling, so it’s hard to do sometimes.”
“That’s gotta be confusing.”
“It can be. Sometimes I’ll have a strong emotion for no reason and it’ll take me a minute to realize it’s actually coming from one of my brothers. Like, a couple of nights ago, I was so pissed off for probably an hour before I realized that Jorah was pissed at someone he was working with. As soon as he realized he was projecting so much, he reeled it in, but the anger still lingered for a while until he went home and calmed himself down.”
“That sounds kinda horrible.”
He shrugged as he pulled me to my feet. “Not really, it’s actually nice. I have this… comfort knowing they’re always there. I don’t know how to explain it. Hopefully once we complete our viramore bond, you’ll understand because it’s pretty similar. It’s just… on a different level because they’re my brothers, so our bond will be different—”
“Since we’re lovers, huh?”
He laughed and threw my arm over his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess that’s a word you can use for us.”
I leaned in and kissed his cheek. The movement made him trip over his own feet so I ended up helping steady him instead of the other way around like he’d intended. I guess a cheek kiss was out of my norm, but I hadn’t expected quite that reaction.
Before he opened the front door, he said, “I’m taking you up to my old room so you can use the shower there. I’ll use the one in Jor’s room or something.”
“You all have your own bathrooms?” Tilting my head back, I stared at the huge house that looked like it came out of a fairytale book or somethin’.
“Uh, yeah. We didn’t when we were little, but as we grew up, so did the house. We kinda had to add bathrooms because there were so many of us. Can you imagine what the shower schedule would’ve been like with sixteen kids—mostly teenagers and pre-teens—sharing a bathroom?”
“No, that would be insane.”
“Exactly. So Ailin asked the trees to build bathrooms for all of us.”
I blinked at that. “He asked the trees to build a bathroom? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Uh, he literally asked the trees to move and grow to his liking to make the house bigger and stuff. All the walls are living trees. His affinity is nature, so he has a unique connection to nature, but especially here on this land. Since he protects it, the trees and nature-things like doing stuff for him, like manipulating their shape instead of having him have to build a house with dead trees or concrete or whatever the hell.”
I stared at him for several beats before tilting my head up to stare at the house again. The house made of fuckin’ living trees. How in the hell were those trees alive when they were shaped that way? “What the fuck?” I whispered.
“Uh, yeah… my house was built the same way.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“You live on coven land, right? Where’s your house?”
He pointed and said, “There’s a trail from the back yard that leads to the lake. My house is on the lake right next to Jorah’s, and Thay’s is on the other side of his. After you shower and eat, I can take you and Rasha there if you’re feeling up to it.”
I nodded. “Yeah, let’s do one thing at a time.” Not that I was about to admit it, but I was already feeling worn out, and I’d probably walked less than fifty feet.
“Okay.” He sounded disappointed, but he still shot me a small smile that seemed genuine.
As he opened the door, I heard a little girl’s voice floating toward us. I was so surprised by the amount of words I could hear that it took me a second to realize it was Rasha speaking a million miles a minute. My eyes widened, and I turned to see Basil grinning at me.
“Do you want to go in and say hi, or go straight up to shower first?”
“Can I pop in to say hi?” I asked.
He nodded and led me farther into the house, then turned into a large living room.
“Daddy!” Rasha yelled way louder than I’d expect when we were in someone else’s home. She ran over and threw her arms around my waist, so I bent down to hug her back without fully releasing Basil. I wasn’t ready to be separated from him.