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I am. And if it means piggy-backing on the sexual encounters of others to get me there, I’ll do it. It’s depraved and stalkerish, but I don’t care.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
RUNE
“How did things turn out for you three last night?” Sebastian looks up from his desk to where I’m lounging in a chair opposite him. His question sounds casual enough, but having known the man since my transition, I hear the current of subtext beneath the surface.
“Physically? Fucking amazing.”
“And beyond the physical?”
I shrug. “There’s something seriously paranoid and miserable taking root in Finn. I’ll give him a wide berth for now, but if he doesn’t snap out of it soon, there will be a throwdown.”
Sebastian grunts. “You two haven’t gone at each other in close to a century.”
“Maybe we’re due.”
“Perhaps you are.”
I finish reading the daily street reports from our captains within the quarter and look up to find Sebastian staring at me.
I brush my shirt and check myself in the mirror, but no, I’m sexy as hell. “What? What’s up?”
“Can I tell you something and have it stay between us? And I mean it, Viking. You and me. In the vault.”
I answer in an instant, sitting straight in my chair. “Of course. On my honor. What is it?”
He considers for another moment and then looks at me. “Last night, when I left the three of you, I came up here and had a drink in the dark. Everything was quiet, and I was thinking about the three of you and our bond.”
“What about it?”
“Nothing exactly, but the lust you shared affected me. I had a moment.”
“A moment?” I meet his expectant gaze and it hits me. “Oh! A moment. That’s…amazing. Congrats, man.”
Only he doesn’t seem like he’s celebrating.
“What?”
“I’m torn. A Dumont witch ruined me and has destroyed the man I was. It’s taken decades to rid myself of the ache of that bond. I don’t want to go through that again. I can’t.”
“But what if Josie can mend what was broken?”
He goes rigidly stiff. “And what if I feed off her and accept the bond and then Egan kills her?”
I growl, my beast surging forward even at the mention of such an atrocity. “No one will harm Josie. She’s powerful, Bas—like, really fucking powerful. I’ve been training her to fight and with her magic awakening more every day, she’s going to be a phenom.”
He doesn’t look sure.
“Think about it.” I stand, tossing the day’s reports onto his desk. “Let’s see how the potion trials goes tonight and what comes of the Moon Witches’ search for the sunstone dagger. We can revisit this in a few days.”
“I gave her the Dumont grimoire.”
“That was good of you, Bas. A classy show of support. It meant a lot to her.”
“How do you think she’ll do?”
“We’ll find out in a few hours.”
