The dishes I’d just cleaned went flying off the counter and shattered onto the ground in a dramatic cascade of broken porcelain as my air magic slipped from my grasp. An invisible gust spun around the kitchen, rattling the light fixtures, before I squeezed my eyes shut and suppressed the outburst.
When I reopened my eyes, Sol and Titus were both staring at me.
Sol straightened and set down the sandwich he’d been working on. “Doing okay, Vox?”
I shrugged, trying to play it off as a fluke—something I’d done a little too much these last few days. “Too much soap,” I offered as an excuse. “It’s slippery.”
Titus chuckled. “Soap doesn’t send three pounds of rice flinging across the entire dorm.”
Oh, oops.
I turned enough to see that my slip had not only sent the dishes flying but had also uprooted the pantry box with ingredients meant to last us a week—ingredients that were now scattered all the way down the hall.
I sighed and shuffled to the closet for a broom.
“Why don’t you just use your element to push it out the door?” Sol asked with an edge to his question.
It was what I normally would have done, but my powers were out of control and he clearly knew it.
I shrugged again. “Just craving some exercise.”
The ground trembled, signaling Sol’s irritation with me. “I hate it when you close yourself off, Vox. Just admit that you’re frustrated Claire’s gone. Then we can talk about it.”
Titus chuckled and snapped his fingers, lighting a perfectly blue flame on his fingertips as he heated up a cup of tea that had gone cold. “That’s all we’ve been doing for days, Sol. Claire’s gone to shack up with Exos and we’re not invited. What else is new?” He waggled his eyebrows. “It’s not like she could forget the night we gave her. She’s going to be thinking of us the entire time.”
I wished I possessed an ounce of Titus’s confidence, but opening myself up to Claire had done something to me that I feared couldn’t be undone. Did Claire really know the impact she had on me? Was I honestly ready to embrace it?
The memory of her naked before me made my core tighten, and for a moment all I could think of was how she’d tasted—and how all I wanted was more of her. How she made me feel free.
No, I could never go back to before that night.
Which meant I had to face the consequences of opening myself up to the bond with Claire.
Her mating to Exos and his coronation would only make her pull on me stronger. She was already something unprecedented—a Halfling with access to all five elements. She was able to tug at every secret I thought I’d buried out of reach, and as her mate-bonds grew, so would she, and that would only force me out of my shell further.
Not something I was ready to embrace.
Titus surprised me by snatching the broom from my grasp. He glowered and then pointed at the table where a pile of remaining sandwiches waited. “Sol has a point, Vox. I’m tired of your moping. Sit and eat something before you get skinny.” He appraised my lean body. “Well, maybe too late for that.”
My eyes narrowed. Skinny? Yeah, I’ll show him skinny.
I peeled off my shirt and arched a brow. “Claire seemed to like this just fine the other night.”
Titus smirked, his green eyes running over me. “Yeah, I guess you’re not bad. No need to get your ponytail all in a twist.”
I snorted. “Whatever.” I marched over and sat across from Sol, who was grinning at our exchange and my lack of a shirt.
Okay, so maybe that’d been a bit of a brash reaction. But Titus had turned up the temperature in here anyway, bringing the Spirit Dorm to a boiling point. So it felt good to remove some clothes. And yeah, maybe I also missed Claire.
Bantering with the mate-circle always seemed to help a little. These guys understood how I felt about Claire being gone. But they didn’t know what was really going on with me. I could tell them, but there was nothing they could actually do. The control was on me. Besides, Sol barely understood his royal ties and Titus wasn’t a royal at all. Even if Cyrus and Exos were here, I’d rather swallow a spiked fruit than ask for their help.
So I’d figure it out on my own.
Or maybe with Claire, when she returned.
“The Solstice Ball is coming up soon,” Sol said as I picked up one of the sandwiches.
I rolled my eyes, tired of this topic. He’d brought it up several times over the last few days. “Will you relax already? Exos said he’d have Claire back in time for the stupid ball.”