Page 25 of First Ritual

I hadn’t missed the was in my dad was your uncle, and I didn’t pry further. “Do I have more cousins?”

“Second and third cousins? Maybe one million, but first cousins? Nah, I’m an only child.” She threw me a hasty look. “Not that my parents were those only have one child kind of people. They just never managed to conceive after me.”

I pursed my lips. Power was inherited from our ancestors and shared amongst any living family members. The more children a couple had, the magically weaker those children and the parents would be. I hadn’t realized people limited themselves to one child on purpose sometimes. “That’s a thing?”

She widened her gaze. “Oh, yeah. Usually amongst the higher uppers. Take that guy, for instance.” Rooke jerked her head, and I glanced back over my shoulder to look…

At Wild.

Of course.

He appeared distinctly less predatory than when I’d last seen him. He was with the same three people again. “Only child?”

“Purposefully. His parents are coven leaders. Of the original coven.”

I snorted. “Guess he really did buy his way onto the council then. No wonder he got so mad.”

“Mother be, you said that to him.” She leaned on the bar, propping her chin in the cradle of her palms.

“In lesser words.”

Rooke croaked. “Did his muscles bulge? Did he get a little rough?”

I blinked. “What? No.” I paused and thought back. “Maybe the muscles part.”

She hummed, focus sliding to where the magus sat. Wild was as animated as I’d ever seen him, leaning in as he spoke with his table mates. I studied their serious expressions and the intensity Wild spoke with and felt very happy I wasn’t sitting with them.

“He’s hot, right?” Rooke said. “A total, total player—scratch the itch and ditch type of guy.”

“I’m not interested in any guy who has an itch.” But she had a point. I couldn’t deny that Wild was stunning. Actually, all his friends were nearly as equally stunning. Maybe that was how he picked friends? The other lean-muscled guy with glasses on was face-fanning worthy too. I allowed myself a leisurely once-over of Wild’s friend, then hastily retreated when Wild’s furious attention slammed my way.

Eek.

Rooke sighed, scratching at an invisible spot on the bar. “We all say we know better. Then bam!” She slapped the counter. “We’re naked and writhing under him, screaming in ecstasy.”

My brows shot up. “Been there?”

“Nah, that’s my Wild fantasy. We all have them. About all four of them really. I have this chess-game sex fantasy with Sven, the hulking guy in the button-up shirt. You wouldn’t think chess was erotic. But if you could be a fly on the wall in my head, I tell you right now.” She blinked, then shot me a look before her cheeks colored. “It’s just an accepted thing. We all have them. You’ll get your own soon. One or two for Wild. One for Sven. One for Corentin.”

I whipped to look at her. “No shit. That’s my last name. Is he a cousin of mine?”

She scrunched her face in thought. “Corentin is his first name, but actually, I can say with reasonable certainty you aren’t cousins. His family only transferred here last generation.”

I peeked at the table again. “Who’s number four with the glasses?”

Rooke blew out a breath. “No one knows his name.”

“Really?”

“Nah, that’s Huxley.”

My gaze drifted back to the quad. What were the four of them talking about so intensely? I wasn’t the only person looking their way. They were drawing all sorts of eyes, mostly but not exclusively female. Ugh. I wasn’t adding to that grossness.

I faced Rooke, blocking the quad out. “Why don’t you make any of your fantasies a reality?”

“My head overrules my heart when it comes to sex and love, so unless I find a way to switch off my brain, I can’t go there with any of them. I’m working on switching my brain off though. Why… you having Wild fantasies already?”

That door was shut and sealed.

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