Taking a deep breath, I leaned up to kiss his chin. “I’m trying.”
He draped his arms around my shoulders and tugged me to his chest, tucking me under his chin. “I know you are, cherub.”
My eyes widened when the nickname registered, and I held in a laugh, leaning back to stare up at him. “Did you just call me an angel?”
He snorted—I was glad he was letting me lighten the mood—and he said, “You wish, witch. You have a fuckin’ baby face, ergo, ‘cherub.’”
“You think I’m an angel.” I sighed.
He chuckled, and those damn dimples popped out. I almost couldn’t resist leaning in to lick them. I wanted to lick them, but… he’d probably think I was crazy and hella weird. Still…
New goal in life: Lick the shit out of Hiro’s dimples.
You aren’t blocking, asshole, Thayer suddenly said in my head, scaring the crap out of me. I don’t need to hear all your fucking Hiro thoughts.
Like you’re one to talk, I said. I know way too fucking much about Toby’s coc—
Okay, okay! He yelled. I got it, just wanted you to know you’re not blocking us, dimple licker.
Fucker.
Hiro tilted his head, studying me. “What was that?”
“Thayer being an asshole and reading my thoughts. I wasn’t blocking them very well.”
His eyes widened. “Was he listening when we were…?”
I shook my head. “No! Mother of All, gross. No, I was blocking and so was he. I normally don’t have to think about it too hard, but sometimes things slip through.”
He smirked. “What exactly slipped through this time?”
“No way in hell am I telling you that.”
He snorted. “That good, eh?”
“Stop.”
He gripped my chin again and started pressing light kisses around my lips and on my cheeks. “Come on, love, you can tell me.”
Shaking my head, I sighed, then opened my eyes, leaned in, and licked his dimple, making him chuckle. I poked his ribs and said, “There. That’s what I was thinking about.”
“Lickin’ my cheek?”
“Licking your dimple, dimples. I’ve wanted to do that forever.”
He snorted and tucked me into his chest again. Apparently, coming made him cuddly. I kinda liked it.
As I wrapped my arms around him, I sighed and relished all his skin on display. I hoped one day I could trace all his tattoos with my fingers and with my tongue.
He put his lips by my ear and whispered, “One day you will.” He kissed my hair. “But not today because we need to get back.”
“You read my mind.”
He grinned as he stepped away and picked up our clothes. “I know.”
As I tucked myself back into my pants, he threw my shirt at my head, and I laughed.
I hadn’t felt this free, this at peace in… years.
“Come on, slow poke,” he said. “It’s almost lunchtime, and we gotta figure out what we’re doin’ about school and all that tomorrow.”
“You can stay with me. I’ll drive her if you can’t, and if one of us can’t pick her up after school, one of my siblings will or maybe Seb.” I slipped my shirt on, grabbed my arm bracers, and followed Hiro as I hooked them onto my forearms.
“You really want us to stay?”
“Yes,” I replied without hesitation. “For however long you want, but at least for a few days in case there’s backlash over that warlock.” Sometimes those bastards traveled in groups or pairs.
He paused for half a beat, then said, “Okay.”
My grin was out of this world and totally ridiculous as we walked toward the big house. But I didn’t care one bit. Hiro took one look at me and rolled his eyes, but I saw his lips quirk up even though he tried to hide it.
Hiro and Rasha had been staying with me for about a month now, and I couldn’t be happier about it. They even stayed in my house when I had to take a quick overnight trip to Faela a few weeks ago. I loved having them in my space, and it seemed like they liked being here. Rasha was loving being around my younger siblings. She and Niya were best friends and never apart unless they were at school, and my niece joined in with them often as well. Hiro couldn’t stop smiling at the girls and how happy his daughter seemed.
The only problem was that Rasha’s breathing seemed to be getting worse every day. She was happy, but her health was declining at a quicker rate than before. We didn’t know what changed, but if we didn’t stop it… well, I didn’t want to think about what would happen if we didn’t get rid of that hex.
We’d tried fucking everything we could think of, everything Jorah, Seb, and I researched. Nothing was working. But I wasn’t giving up yet. No fucking way. I was going to find a way to save that sweet little girl that had already carved a huge place in my heart.
“Nik and Talon need to talk to me, so I’m gonna run over to the big house really quick. Are you good to stay here for a bit without me?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine.”
“Alright, be back soon.”
He leaned toward me for a kiss and muttered, “Gimme some sugar.”
With a huge grin, I leaned back and said, “Did you just say, ‘gimme some sugar’?” He’d said it enough times to Rasha before, but never to me.
“No, I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
I laughed as I moved my mouth close to his but didn’t quite close the distance entirely. “Gimme a little sugar, baby.”
He groaned and laughed at the same time. “Shut up.” Then grabbed my collar and pulled me in to finally capture my mouth with his. Almost as soon as our lips met, he pushed me away. “Now get outta here so I can get some research done.”
“You got a new mark?”
“Mhm.” He made a shooing motion at me, so with a sigh, I left him to it.
I didn’t like the thought of him going out there and hunting dangerous creatures, but he was a hunter, and I wasn’t about to ask him to stop. It was a part of who he was.
Talon and Nik were in the library at the big house, and when I walked in, they waved me over to the table. As soon as my ass hit the seat, Talon said, “I have an idea.”
“Okay…?”
He bit his lip for a second, looking uncharacteristically nervous, before he said, “What about the kelpies?”
I blinked at him. “The kelpies…” After a few seconds, my eyes widened. “The kelpies!”
Nik smiled and said, “It would heal her and take away the curse.”
“But,” Talon said, “you know how it works, right?”
“A little.” I lifted a shoulder. There was a lot of mystery around the kelpie culture, but I honestly probably knew more than most since I dated a kelpie for a year.
They exchanged a look, then Talon patted my hand and said, “It strips you down and turns you into something new, something immortal. It would strip away the hex, but it would also strip away—”
“Her humanity,” I finished, then stared at the table for a few minutes while I thought about everything. Taking a deep breath, I stared into the green fae’s eyes. “You and I both know that if we don’t remove that hex soon, it’s going to kill her. You’ve felt it.”