Page 16 of Livewire Witch

I’m still not sure how much I believe the words, but a shower and a clean bed are calling my name. Guess I can worry about tomorrow when it comes.

5

Silver

Iwake up to both my eyes and ears being assaulted with sensation. Apparently, Zeph doesn’t believe in drapes or blinds, which means daylight is streaming in through the enormous windows. I sit up and stare blearily around through half-closed eyes. I didn’t notice when I commandeered this room yesterday, but the space is pretty nice. Kind of sparsely furnished with gray bedding and walls, a small dresser, and not much else. It's a significant improvement from being underground or back in the warehouse.

There’s a shout from the living room, and I jolt. The air is filled with laughter and people clamoring to be heard, talking over each other.

The cacophony of noise is so familiar, it has my heart pounding as I scramble out of bed and a smile breaks out across my face.

My family is here.

I stumble out the door, noting that I still feel pretty shitty despite a good night’s sleep. My body aches in a way that suggests it’ll be at least another few days before I start to feel anything like normal. My scratchy throat and persistent headache from the whispering bones also hasn’t let up.

I need coffee.

The living room is even brighter than my bedroom and I rub my eyes, blinking dazedly at the mirage in front of me.

Ember, Hanna, Rook, and Luna are all gathered on Z’s sofa and the surrounding floor, with Roscoe plating up something that smells cinnamon-y and delicious in the small kitchen.

He beams at me and bounds over as soon as I step through the doorway, throwing one arm around my shoulders and pulling me into his side. I let myself sink into him, breathing in his amber and vanilla scent and sucking it down greedily.

“Figured you might want some company with your pancakes this morning,” he says.

“You invited them here? What happened to this being Zeph’s secret, safe space?” I twist to see if the man himself is here, but he’s noticeably absent. “Does he know you invited people over?”

Roscoe grins mischievously. “It’s good for him. He can’t have his way all the time, you know? I figured they were going to hunt you down, anyway. I got woken up by your brother talking my ear off, asking about you. Scared the absolute shit out of me before I realized he wasn’t actually in the room with me.”

I’m about to shoot a look at Ember, because telepathically waking someone up is a fucking weird thing to do. Especially for someone who hates their powers as much as he does. Not to mention his powers are illegal and he shouldn’t be whipping them out willy-nilly.

But before I can muster up my appropriately chastening facial expression, I’m pulled into a massive group hug with my family. One that Roscoe somehow manages to get into the middle of. He also somehow plasters his body against my back until I can feel his heart beating. As the hug goes on and I’m surrounded by soft words of comfort, I can feel the telltale hardening against my ass that has me peering over my shoulder with an unimpressed single eyebrow raise.

“Sorry, sweetheart. I thought that would go differently. Guess I forgot how much my body likes having you close,” he murmurs in my ear, his glittering eyes crinkling at the corners.

He doesn’t seem all that sorry. And weirdly enough, I don’t mind the close contact.

“Gross. You two can save the cutesy whispers and kissy faces until later, since you’re living together again,” Ember says drily. “Thanks for the update, by the way.” He aims this at Roscoe, who gives my hip a quick squeeze before stepping back.

The group hug ends and Rook, Hanna and Luna all head back over to plop themselves down on the sofa like they own the place.

“You’re welcome, man.”

Ember claps Roscoe on the back, and I eye the two of them curiously. Since when have they been bro-hug buddies? And since when has Ember wokenanyoneup with his telepathy? He barely even likes to talk to me using it.

“Told you I was going to be brave,” Ember tells me with a defiant little chin lift. “How else do you think we gave your mages directions on how to find you? Even if they have got a better sense of direction to you, it’s one wrong move and they’d be lost forever down there.”

I hook my fingers around his wrist and tug Ember to one side, lowering my voice. “You seriously told them what you can do?”

He shrugs. “Didn’t see any way around it. Plus, you seem to trust them, so I figured I would do it if it'd help get you out of there.”

I can’t really argue with that. I spent the past couple of months living with these guys and they’ve never given me any reasonnotto trust them. Other than their links to Felix, obviously. Despite that, I’ve not exactly been open about my own powers with them. Fabian knew, but that’s no longer really an issue, considering he can’t remember me right now.

“Come sit down and talk to us,” Hanna orders from the sofa. “How was it down there? Awful? I bet it was awful. I told the twins where you’d gone and Una just started crying.”

“You shouldn’t have worried them,” I reply. The twins are our latest recruits to my weird, bodged-together family and we know they spent some time down in the Buried Citadel.

How two teenagers survived down there, I have no idea.

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