Page 104 of Unbound

"I think he has no idea how ridiculous he is," Ambrose adds. "It's both his greatest strength and greatest weakness."

"I thought we agreed to stick with four," I say carefully. "No offense, Brunhild."

"Offense taken," she says seriously. Her blue eyes regard me coldly, sending an involuntary shiver down my spine.

“If she kills you, can I let some of my rats crash in your former room?” Mireen asks. “Mine is getting kind of crowded.”

I squint. “How many rats have you adopted, exactly?”

“Not important,” Mireen sits back, hands folded as she whistles innocently.

Beck puts an arm around Brunhild’s shoulder. He's big enough that even she looks small beside him, but she's nearly a head taller than me and looks like she could snap me in half. "Don't mind Nessa. She's just a little paranoid. Thinks everybody wants to kill us. But that's only because a lot of people here have tried to kill her. You could argue it even makes sense, from her point of view."

"She makes offense. That's what she makes," Brunhild says.

"Okay, I'm just going to say it," Mireen says. "Brunhild already looks like she wants to smash Nessa into little pieces. I don't know if that's the best quality in a fifth member of our group."

"Or," Beck says, eyebrows high. "Hear me out... the fact that she's not trying to hide wanting to crush Nessa a little bit is exactly why we can trust her. If she was with Malakai, she'd be sneakier than that, right? She'd be playing nice right now and trying to weasel her way onto our team. Then during the Crucible, she'd spring her trap."

"I hate to say this," Ambrose says. "But that actually does make some sense."

"Maybe we make group of four," Brunhild says, her deep voice heavily accented, though I can't place where it's from. I wonder if it's from somewhere distant, maybe even off the main continent. "We take the small one with big ass, drop her out window, and then we find stronger replacement?"

"Big ass?" I blurt. The only thing keeping me from laughing is the fear that Brunhild might actually try to throw me out a window.

“She’s not wrong,” Mireen says with a shrug.

"Uh," Beck says. "I love the enthusiasm and creative problem solving Brunhild, that's one of my favorite things about you. But Nessa stays. We like her."

"Hm," Brunhild says, blue eyes assessing me. "If sexy bear likes her, then Brunhild will like her. It is settled."

Ambrose sputters with laughter. I look his way, biting back my own smile as I see him mouth the words "sexy bear"?

"Alright, sexy bear," Mireen says, barely keeping a straight face. "Why don't you take Brunhild back to where you found her for now. We'll keep her in mind as a potential fifth."

Beck gives a thumbs up and leads Brunhild out of the common room. Before they're out of view, Brunhild takes a generous handful of Beck's left butt-cheek.

Classy.

"Are we sure we can trust Beck's intelligence?" Ambrose asks once he's gone. "I'm starting to worry he's getting dumber by the day."

"The scarier question is how he's convincing all these girls to sleep with him," Mireen says. "He's notthatcute."

"So, what do we think about the scary blonde girl?" Ambrose asks. He pulls his rounded glasses from his face and gives them a wipe on his black aspirant uniform. "I actually am leaning toward trusting her. And we saw she can handle herself in a fight. Akaron didn't sense anything off about her, either."

"I still think five is better than four," Mireen says. "Brunhild seems loyal to Beck, at least. I think we can trust her."

"And what happens when Beck moves on and sleeps with a few other girls before the Crucible? Can we trust Brunhild not to go on a violent rampage and rip us all limb from limb?"

"Hmm," Ambrose says. "We just need to get Beck to promise to keep his dick in his pants. Or at least only release it for Brunhild."

I chuckle. "Yeah. Good luck with that."

"Good luck with what?" Beck asks as he returns to the room.

"We can't use her as a fifth," I say. "The moment you get bored and sleep with another girl, she'll turn on us."

"Brunhild is very open-minded about that sort of thing. On our way out, she asked how you were in bed, Nessa. I think she has come around on you. Honestly, I think she's planning to make a move on you. Or maybe she wants me to make a move on you? I wasn’t sure which it was."

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