Page 74 of Kingdom of Chaos
He may be right. Even though Ensley’s like a sister to me, she’s always been a little secretive with her heart. As much as I want to be there for her, she probably does want to be alone right now.
“You should go to sleep,” Talon says when I sit down heavily on one of the mattresses.
I eye the beds. There are two of them, but there’s no way more than two of us will fit in each of them. Someone is going to have to sleep on the floor, but I can’t muster the strength to care. I’ll let the guys flip for it.
Pulling off my shoes, I don’t even bother brushing my teeth or changing out of my clothes before peeling back the scratchy sheets and climbing into one of the beds.
“You’re not going to wake me in the middle of the night for a magical training session, are you?” I ask Talon as I try to get comfortable on the lumpy pillow, slurring from exhaustion.
I hear rather than see him chuckle because my eyes are already closed.
“Not tonight.”
“Good. If I set anything on fire, wake me before I burn to death. That would be an awful way to go.”
The bed rocks slightly and I think Talon might have just sat on the edge next to me, but it’s too hard to open my eyes to check.
“Oh, Freckles,” he says with a gentle sigh. “Haven’t you realized by now I’d never let anything happen to you?”
I make an incoherent noise, already half asleep.
“Sweet dreams,” he whispers, and then there’s a light touch on my temple and I know no more.
I blink open my eyes,feeling more rested than I can remember being in a long time. I slept like the dead and I’m thankful for it. I don’t remember anything after I closed my eyes the night before. Not Ensley coming out of the bathroom, or Imogen and Titus returning.
Wanting to check on Ensley, I turn over, expecting to see her lying next to me, but come face-to-face with a sleeping Talon instead.
My stomach dips.
Talon’s breaths are slow and even, his features wiped clean of tension, making him appear, not younger, but less burdened. I don’t know why he’s in bed with me, but when I glance down I see there’s a pillow wall between us.
His doing or Ensley’s?
The curtains are drawn, but the sunlight beyond seeps through the cracks and around the edges, brightening the room enough for me to see. I should get out of bed, but no one else seems to be awake, and I’m hesitant to break the peace, soletting my gaze travel back to his face, I openly study Talon: the straight line of the bridge of his nose, his unfairly long and dark eyelashes, the rich color of his bronzed skin. Finally, I allow my gaze to drop to his mouth.
His lips are full and far too tempting, and the longer I stare, the more a knot of longing forms in my gut, making me desire things I have no right to.
“You know it’s rude to stare,” Talon says with his eyes still closed, startling me. His voice is low and quiet and thick with sleep.
“I wasn’t staring,” I whisper back, my cheeks warming.
The corner of Talon’s mouth hitches up. “Sure you weren’t,” he says, and then lazily blinks open his eyes.
For a split second I think that his pupils are slitted, but he blinks again and they’re completely normal, making me think I just imagined it.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I’m so glad you asked. You see, someone asked me to break through the gates between worlds that have been sealed for thousands of years to rescue their boyfriend. At first I didn’t want to, but then I thought, ‘Meh, why not? I have the week free.’”
I give a dry look. “Here,as in, in bed next to me?”
“Ah, well, you see the lovebirds made up last night,” Talon whispers, and then cranes his neck toward the bed behind him.
Lifting up, I glance over Talon to find Titus and Ensley sleeping in the opposite bed. They’re cuddled together snugly, both still fast asleep.
My eyebrows shoot up. My best friend and I have some catching up to do.
I drop back down on the pillow and Talon says, “It was either me or Imogen. I took a guess that perhaps I was the lesser of two evils.”
