“Coms couldn’t have known what she was,” I said quietly, giving him and Antonio a look.
“Yes. We’ve deduced that much.” Cahal’s face wasn’t friendly. “It means there’s a traitor somewhere, but it’s most peculiar because the only person that should have known where to find her was Ezra, thanks to the spell.” He eyed me. “There is a reason for our madness.”
I nodded. “But couldn’t a Mage have done exactly the same spell to find her first?”
Antonio shook his head drunkenly, his eyes closing only to slowly reopen. “The spell is entrusted to only two — the original spell is in an enchanted book. If they die, the spell is to be passed on to the next two.” He paused. “Elder Harcourt has been questioned extensively. He is innocent. And so am I.”
I sniffed the air. Truth. And it was interesting to know that Antonio was the second Mage to be trusted with spell. One word: power. “So in other words, you’re stumped.”
“Exactly,” he muttered. “Although, Ezra still needs to be questioned.”
I snorted, glancing at Ezra as he unzipped a black duffle in the corner that looked like his and peered inside at its contents. “Ezra, did you tell anyone where the Prodigy Vampire was?”
He pulled out a shirt, which was his. His bag. “No.”
Truth.
“Did you have anything to do with your Prodigy being held by Coms?”
He put the shirt on over his head. “No.”
Truth.
I glanced to Elder Merrick, thinking it would be best to come from him.
He sighed and stopped long enough in his discussion to glance around the room at the occupants, and state, “He’s telling the truth.” Then he went back to arguing with Elder Jacobs.
“Questioning done,” I muttered, shaking my head. Duh. But irritation aside, I still glanced at Antonio, holding his gaze, wanting him to hear me. “I love you.”
His lips lifted into a sad smile. “I love you, too, Lil.”
Ezra’s arm wrapped around me from behind, his duffle hooked over his shoulder, catching at my leg. “I love you, too, Dad.”
“I know.” His dad met his gaze evenly. “And I love you.”
The goodbyes were done.
Ezra and I didn’t speak as we quickly made our way back to our room. All Vampires stopped and stared at him, but he wore an expression that didn’t bode well if any were to stop our progress. I appeared the same as my husband, since every Shifter I passed quickly sidestepped. I was almost positive Ezra was on the same wavelength as me, but I wanted to get into our room so we could hash it out. Not to mention, we needed to speak with Jack and Pearl before anything more happened.
I sighed in relief as we turned the corner to our room, my bones only faintly aching. Rubbing a hand over my face, I glanced at Ezra. His features were still set in quiet fierceness. But he did peer at me when he unzipped his bag’s front pocket, pulling his key from its depths. Honestly, I had no clue where my duffle was — maybe it was in the infirmary, since I hadn’t seen it in our room earlier — which meant my key was missing, too. Bonnie and Clyde waited patiently while Ezra bent and kissed my lips gently, his eyes never closing, before he stuck the key in the door.
We stepped inside.
And froze.
This, I had not expected.
My eyes opened wide, my jaw flapping as I stared at…
I shrieked, covering my eyes. “Best friends having sex! Best friends having sex!” I inhaled sharply and amended my screeching chant. “Best friends having freaky magical sex!” I dropped my hands and pointed at them, yelling, “On our goddamn bed!”
Pearl howled like a banshee, hiding her face. As if that helped.
Ezra muttered, “How the f**k…” His head tilted.
I waggled my finger at them, shouting, “On our goddamn bed! Freaky…freaky shit.”
Jack’s eyes glowed in our direction. “Get the f**k out!”
Ezra coughed. “Right.” He lifted me straight off my feet, my back against his chest as I continued waggling my finger, and he murmured, “Sorry to interrupt.”
“On our goddamn bed!” I shouted, pointing hard with each word, right before Ezra blurred backward with me in his arms and slammed the door in our faces.
My chest was heaving as I stared at the golden door, my finger still pointed. After an extended, silent moment, I whined, “On our bed, Ezra. On our damn bed.”
Again, he coughed, and his voice trembled. “Actually, they weren’t technically on our bed.”
My finger dropped, still staring at the door. “They were kind of…hovering.”
Ezra made an odd noise in his throat.
My hand mimicked a wave in front of my face, going right to left. “What was the water doing?”
Ezra choked. “Don’t know.” He gurgled. “Don’t really want to know.”
Using both hands, I made an explosion motion. “What about the golden sparkles?”
Ezra snorted. “No clue.” Snorted again.
I lifted a leg, a little hindered because of Ezra’s hold on me, but I pointed at it. “How was she doing that with her leg?”
Ezra laughed outright. “Honestly, I’m more shocked by Jack’s flexibility.”
I nodded in large motions, letting my leg drop. “Yes.” I kept nodding. “Who knew?”
We stared at the door.
I drummed my fingers on his arm. “What now?”
Ezra grunted. “Now, we wait like they’ve been doing for us.”
I grunted.
We stared at the door.
“Think they were about done?”
“We’d better give them an hour, so we don’t have to…” He left it unsaid.
I didn’t. “Walk in again on our best friends having freak-ity magical sex?”
Ezra’s chest vibrated against my back. “Exactly.”
I nodded once. “Good plan.”
Ezra’s chest still vibrated. “Yes, good plan.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“So,” I drummed my fingers on my arm where I was sitting outside our door, almost an hour later, staring up at Jack and Pearl who had just exited our room, “I have to ask…what were the water and the sparkles doing?” I had been thinking about that as if it were burned into my mind ever since I had sat down.
“Sweetheart,” Ezra reprimanded, shaking his head and letting it drop on his arm that was over his leg.
“What?” I asked innocently. He tilted his head, giving me a look only a husband could. I sighed. “Fine. Never mind.” My eyes went back to Jack, who was standing a smidge protectively in front of Pearl, and Pearl, who had a pretty blush on her cheeks, peeking around Jack’s shoulder. “So, I’ll ask the other question. You two were f**king while Ezra was supposedly on his deathbed?” That one I was a bit pissed about, and I wasn’t going to take it back even though Ezra sighed heavily next to me.