Page 128 of Entranced By the Basilisks

Jasper pulls away, his frown ferocious. “I thought we were going to lose you, you egotistical ass. Did you think you were too pretty for the Circle to behead?”

My smile is weak. I accepted the risk. It was worth the sacrifice if it saved Jasper. They would have sentenced him to death, if not worse. Anything less would have been seen as too lenient for the crime.

“Well, it turns out I’m too pretty for them to behead.”

“No jokes about that!” Emilia says.

My heart brims for these two.

“As you wish, darling. So I’m allowed to stay here tonight? Maybe tomorrow night too?”

Emilia tries not to smile. “You might be pushing it.”

“Would it be pushing it to say that you both should move in here on a permanent basis?”

That has them both pausing. My heart freezes in my chest, but they don’t torture me too long.

“I mean, we probably should,” Emilia says conspiratorially. “It’s so close to the library after all.”

Because I’d made sure it was. Even when I thought that Jasper would be my only mate. I picked this apartment for that reason.

Jasper shakes his head at her teasing. “The food is definitely the best there is.”

“Don’t say that in range of my mother,” Emilia warns and Jasper laughs.

“I’ll just say I’m biased,” Jasper glances at me and warm pride suffuses my chest.

“I will be making no such claims,” Emilia starts primly. “But yes, Ari, we’ll move in.”

And just like that, I’m brought into their home.

53

EMILIA

It takesa few days to come down from the panic and fear of almost losing Jasper and Ari. Well, it takes me a few days. The men come down quicker, I think. They exchange heated glances that have me biting my lip, but no one wants to upset the balance.

Balance or no balance, we all sleep in the same bed. The nightmares resurface the first two nights, probably from the panic of everything, but waking in my men’s arms makes them easier to handle.

We move into our new home. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that Jasper and I now have a shared account that makes me blink and ownership of a business I know next to nothing about. We kept Ari on all the accounts whether it makes the Circle angry or not.

They may be able to penalize Jasper for bonding with me first, but our life is our own and I refuse to cater to them more than I have to. The money aspect of everything is… weird, but Ari says it just sped up his timeline, that he planned to share everything of his as a triad anyway.

It’s still weird, but we live our lives like normal and when I take a deep breath and analyze the emotions swirling in my chest, it’s to find that… everything is fine. Better than fine actually. My wounded heart has become less bruised under Ari’s spoiling.

He cooks dishes I can’t pronounce correctly, and we have Ma over for a dinner party, including Jasper’s father. Jasper and his dad are slowly becoming less awkward and I’m glad that he didn’t lose that connection.

Ma and I even teach everyone how to play dominos on the night we hang a Puerto Rican flag in my new home and cook arroz con gandules. It doesn’t take long to banish Ari from the table for always being on the winning team. He’s just too good at strategy.

Just being around Ari is a joy that helps the hurt he caused.

I’m lying in bed, alone for once, it’s late morning according to the sun and a Saturday. I slept through the night. No nightmares. The snakes tickle my forehead and I scrunch my nose. “Alright, alright, I’ll get out of bed.”

I suspect they’ve become addicted to hot showers. I pad my way there, but sounds have me pausing. Heavy thuds and grunts.

My cheeks flame at the idea of Ari and Jasper being intimate. I’m tempted to spy on them, but they haven’t had any time alone together lately—

“Is that all you got?” Ari calls and I laugh at myself. They’re training.

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