Raising my brows, I shifted my weight, settling against her. Courtney’s breath hitched, but she met my unspoken challenge, face set. Her thighs flexed, holding me closer instead of shoving me off. Nerves pinballed around my rib cage. Pulse beating hard, I rolled my hips ever so slightly against hers. Her expression cracked, lips parting as she inhaled softly.
“You can’t get everything you want,” I said.
Her whole expression read:Oh, really?The fire flashing in her eyes seemed to come from inside of her rather than a reflection of the flames lighting the room. Her feet slid lower around my hips as she fit herself snugly against me, expression now reading,Checkmate. And fuck my life. She felt good. Warm and soft and—
“I always get what I want,” she practically purred.
My stupid fucking mouth was about half a second from saying a stupid fucking thing likeTake what you want as long as it’s me. Instead, what popped out was “Yeah, well, I always wanted to be a slug when I was a kid, and look at me now.” Which was also a pretty stupid fucking thing to say. I tried to save it. “A pillar of masculinity.”
Courtney’s legs loosened, then slid completely off me. The air felt empty and cold. “Keep your pillar away from me.” Her entire face tightened in a strange way I’d never seen before. She was likely overcome by the unfamiliar touch of a man, or voluntary human touch in general, and—
Oh. She was laughing. Full-on squirming with uncontrollable mirth,laughing. “You wanted to be aslug?” Her peals of laughter redoubled. “Oh mygod. What kid sees a slug and thinks,Goals?” She snorted so loudly, she was probably encouraging the villagers’ pigs in the city below to begin mating.
I’d never seen Courtney smile like this before—cheeks all crinkled up, umber eyes glittering slits. It caused a heated tug in my gut that must’ve been anger because it couldn’t be anything else. My hands found their way to her sides, presumably to still her, toshut her up. But. Once my fingers curved around her ribs, they rested there helplessly, feeling the vibrations as she unknowingly laughed at my childhood trauma. She was such an asshole without even trying, and I couldn’t stop her because it was a relief after years of pitying looks and sticky silences.
And screw it, it was a dream anyway. I wasn’t breaking my don’t-get-close-to-Courtney rules. None of it would matter when I woke. I’d spend a day avoiding her like I did every time this happened. Then after I slept again, my skin wouldn’t heat when I was around her anymore.
Her ribs expanded against my palms as she drew in a deep, gulping breath, finally getting ahold of herself.
“Bryce,” she said, in a tone I could only describe asgentle.
I licked my dry lips. “Yeah.”
“You’llalwayslook like a slug to me, okay?”
As she fell back into yet another fit of laughter, I rolled off her, flopping down onto the other side of the bed. I shut my eyes. “Sad how a slug is still a better Chosen One than you.”
“Wow. What a comeback.” Sheets rustled as she wriggled underneath them, shaking the bed.
Silence fell.
“Courtney?” I said into the darkness. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“We’re not doing the romance-book thing where we stay up all night talking about our feelings and braiding each other’s hair.”
“I want you to know”—I drew in a fake, shuddering breath—“tomorrow, when I wake up with the most majestic raging boner you’ve ever beheld, it is in no way your fault.”
“If I suffocate you in your sleep, you won’t wake up at all,” she responded sweetly.
CHAPTER 10INWHICHAPLOTDEVICETALKINGANIMALENTERSTHESTORY
COURTNEY
The morning after Bryce’s surprise voyage into my room, I woke to sunshine streaming through the thick-paned window. Bryce was gone.
While he was always game to hurl insults, he generally avoided touching me, shrinking away from any accidental brush of fingers like a schoolboy scared of cooties. Last night was different. It was as if, in this world, real-life rules no longer applied, and anything was possible.
For a moment, I remembered the weight of his body pressing against mine, the vibrancy of his eyes in the firelight, and the way he kept touching me. The way his fingers—those fingers that had spent so much time shooting rude gestures at me—curved gently around my ribs. The way, for a moment, I wondered what would happen if we kept on touching and touching andtouching.
Also, why did the man never wear a shirt?
Oh my god. His plan was working. He was already in my head. I’d be an idiot to think he’d come to my room for any other reason.
Time to refocus.
Amy said training should be our priority, and we should wait until after then to organize a proper counterattack against the Evil One, but I wanted to dig into the investigation more. The memory of Winston’s worried mom urged me to get to the bottom of the kidnapping, and that started with interrogating the visiting princess. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the day she came to the kingdom, someone went missing. Maybe she had a personal vendetta against Winston. Maybe he’d stolen her pet chicken or something. Once I solved the case, everyone could rest easy. Well, everyone but Bryce, who I hoped would rest terribly, kept up by the knowledge that I’d bested him at being a Chosen One.
I was drawn from my thoughts by a barely audible knock against my door. I slid out of bed, crossing my arms over my embarrassingly thin nightgown before answering.
