Page 44 of From the Noblest Motives
Shudder draped himself over Blaze, closed his eyes, and was snoring within moments.Typical. Wish I could sleep like that. But Blaze wasn't truly annoyed, since Shudder had to be exhausted, still, and it felt so good to have him right there, safe, and close to sound.
Damien turned from watching Shudder sleeping sprawled across Blaze's chest. "You're going with him tomorrow."
"Was that a question or a directive?" Blaze whispered back.
"Both. He can't go alone."
"Not gonna argue, but shouldn't we both go?"
The sudden stillness of Damien's features, the distance in his eyes, might have been something Blaze would've taken personally once. Now, he knew it indicated some serious brain spinning. "No. I need to stay. Something's not right." Damien's shoulders twitched. "My skin is itching from the inside."
"Is it a trail thing?"
"No idea." Damien leaned in for a kiss and wriggled under the covers with his head on Blaze's shoulder. "Just a look around."
"Okay, fine. But you be careful. Your dad might be on our side—and I'm not a hundred percent on that—but he's been playing ghost for a long time. I don't even trust him as far as I can throw him."
Damien let out a sleepyha. "At least you could."
"Could what?"
"Throw him."
10
UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENTS
Shudder tugged fretfully at the hoodie Damien had found for him in the Closet of Many Things. "Shouldn't I be wearing a suit for an interview?"
"You're supposed to be an imperiled Robin Hood, not a movie star, dumbass." Blaze's voice came muffled from the corner of the closet, where he was digging for socks on the top shelf. "Better if you look a little rough."
"Shouldn't I be wearing my prison clothes, then?"
"Can't." Blaze grumbled, still searching. "Meemaw Sekhet burned them. Why aren't there any plain fucking white fucking socks in here?"
"It doesn't matter, Blazey. Is there a pair with unicorns?"
That got an incoherent snarl from Blaze, so he chose to believe there were indeed unicorn socks.
"It's warm out. Do you still want your hat?" Damien held it out to him uncertainly.
"I'll, ah, take it with me. Yeah." Shudder stuffed the hat in his back pocket and kissed Damien's cheek. "Thanks, beautiful. I won't be as nervous now."
Which was partly a lie, since his stomach was doing backflips, but partly not. It did help knowing Damien cared, that he'd be waiting. Cyril's eyes had gleamed with unholy glee when Shudder had agreed to meet with the press the night before. At least, that's how it had looked to him. Maybe Cyril just got really excited organizing events. He had everything set up within half an hour—location, reporters, ground rules—all so fast that Shudder suspected he'd set things in motion long before dinner.
Blaze finally emerged from the closet holding out a pair of dark-blue socks dotted with a pepperoni-pizza-slice pattern. "Here. These are the least ridiculous ones. You need help putting them on?"
"I've been putting socks on all by myself for a few years now." Shudder took a seat on the bed, though he wasn't at all sure he could manage.
"Smartass. I meant with your leg. If you needed help." Bright spots of color gathered on Blaze's cheeks. "You know what? Forget I said anything."
Someone's grumpy this morning. Which means he's worried. The right sock? Fine. Not a problem. The left sock… Shudder tried to bend in half to get the sock over his toes, but his still-healing ribs yelled at him. Then he tried to pick his left leg up to cross the ankle over the right knee, and black spots filled his eyes. "All right. I take it back. I'm not capable of putting my own socks on."
"Here." Blaze snatched the sock back, and though his fire-red eyebrows drew together in a dark glower, his hands were gentle as he tugged the sock onto Shudder's still discolored foot. "I'm sorry I snarled."
Now Blaze apologized over something small without someone prompting him and even sounded like he meant it. Maybe, just maybe, they had both grown up a bit. Maybe he could even hope that this—the three of them—wasn't a momentary need for comfort and stability but something that had a chance of lasting.
Maybe I should stick my head in a bucket of ice water before I get any sappier than I already have.
