Midas’s gaze dipped to the scars crisscrossing his forearms, proof of how much he loved his sister, a story I had no intention of sharing. No one else needed to know the depths of his love, or his pain. Everyone to whom it mattered already did, and I felt blessed to count myself in that small number.
Addie, however, watched me, the stand-in for the little sister she had lost, and she smiled gently.
“I think we all know how far we’re each willing to go for those we love.” She pulled Boaz down onto the couch beside her then draped herself half over his lap, which made him grin, but I suspected she was attempting to hold him down more than show affection. “Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s get back to the popcorn.”
Happy with the change in topic, I picked up the remote. “What movie did you guys decide on?”
“There’s a new romcom.” Addie winked at me. “Lots of love words, grand gestures, and smooching.”
“That still trumps whatever creature feature Hadley had cued.” Boaz patted her hip. “I’m in.”
We rented Addie’s pick with the press of a button, dimmed the lights, and settled in to watch a feel-good movie together. As a family. A year ago, I wasn’t sure I had one anymore. This… I could get used to this.
Snuggled up to Midas, his fingers in my hair, his lips never leaving my brow, I forgot about the popcorn and the movie, and I watched us all instead. And when my eyelids drifted closed, I listened to Boaz and Addie whispering and laughing, to Midas’s heartbeat and his every indrawn breath.
I had lost everything to get here. Everything and then some.
But goddess what a place to be.
Three
Dusk brought a summons that required Midas’s immediate attention, and he left Hadley sleeping under a quilt on the couch where he had woken. Boaz and Addie were gone, having let themselves out when the movie ended. The popcorn bowl on the couch sat empty even though neither Hadley nor he had touched it. Boaz and Addie had left their bowl on the coffee table, only bits and kernels, but it was sparkling clean now.
Ambrose, it seemed, had joined them for the movie, or at least for the snacks.
After Midas brushed his teeth, he glanced at his hair, what little remained, and dressed in fresh clothes.
The smell of black coffee hit his nose as he entered the hall and bumped into Ares.
“I have never been so tired in my life.” She drank long and deep. “I hate when family visits.”
“Liz has relatives in town?” He clasped her shoulder. “Have you made the big announcement yet?”
Liz, Ares’s mate, was inching toward the end of her second trimester, and she was starting to show. Otherwise, given their struggle to reach this point, he wouldn’t have been surprised if they kept it secret until the baby was safely in their arms to avoid jinxing their good luck.
“No.” Yawning, she cracked her jaw. “I saw the visitor logs.”
That didn’t explain why she was tired, but Midas didn’t push with her temper shortened by exhaustion.
“They wanted to surprise Hadley.”
“There was a note on the log that said Linus cleared it. Boaz was the guy who dumped Grier, right?”
A warning prickle slid down his nape as he waited for her to make her point. “Yes.”
There was no reason for her to draw lines between Boaz and Hadley, but with a Pritchard/Whitaker family visit looming, talk about him made Midas twitchy all the same.
“Can you imagine getting the girl but then being stuck with her ex in your life because the guy decided to go and marry your apprentice’s sister?” She mashed the button for the elevator. “It’s like he’s stalking Linus.” Her lips curved with glee. “Maybe he was obsessed with Linus and not Grier all along.”
Relief sluiced through him, smoothing his hackles, and he joined her in the car for the ride to the lobby.
“Necromancy is a small world.” Midas shrugged. “Society families are as close as pack.”
“Boaz is Low Society,” she said, as if testing her memory. “Addie must be too, right? And Hadley?”
“Yes.”
“Ah.” Ares gazed over the rim of her cup. “Boaz’s love for Linus was doomed from the start.”
Low Society necromancers rarely married up, and when they did, it was purely out of love to a High Society necromancer who could afford the indulgence. The lasting damage of such unions, in the Society’s mind, was generational. The bloodline would thin, as Low Society necromancers had little to no magic, the loss of status would be catastrophic, and the financial implications could prove ruinous.
“I’ll be sure to float that idea the next time I talk to Boaz.”
“Oh, to be a fly on that wall.” Knocking off the jokes, she studied him. “How did they take the news?”
“Addie was happy for us.” He recalled the blade held at his throat. “Boaz was less thrilled.”
“He’s stepping into the big-brother role. Probably thinks it’s his job to give you a hard time.”
Ares had no idea how right she was, on both counts. “Any idea what’s got Ford in a tizzy?”
The text from him was vague minus the part that specified Midas’s presence was required downstairs.
“I worked last night and today.” She chugged more coffee. “All I know is, I was sent to fetch you.”
“Security?”
“Yep.” She yawned again. “The Knoxville pack is in town for the week, and you know what that means.”
“I forgot about that.” He twisted his lips. “Hadley’s family is here all week too.”
“Your mom expects you both for dinner at least once. She wants to show off her new daughter-in-law.”
Boaz’s offhand remark about his proposal to Addie drifted to the forefront of Midas’s mind.
Hand to his chest, he rubbed his breastbone. “Do you think Hadley expects a proposal?”
Coffee spewed from Ares’s lips and sprayed the walls. “She’s a necromancer, so I would say yes.”
We’re mated nearly popped out of his mouth, but one dark look from her silenced him.
Hadn’t he told Hadley he had made a mistake in expecting her to conform to his customs without taking her beliefs into consideration? Hadn’t he told her, only yesterday, he regretted how their story had begun? Now he was almost, almost fumbling again not twenty-four hours later.
“Mating is hard.” Ares patted him on the back. “Mating outside the pack is better and worse. You get to learn a new person and experience life from a different perspective. But culture shock is real, and no one expects you to upend your beliefs in a day. Just be careful you don’t grip your roots so hard that you rip hers out of the ground.”
As happy as Ares was in her mixed-species marriage, he would be a fool to disregard her advice.
“Thanks.” He exhaled hard. “Though I’m not sure how I’ll pull off a proposal if I can’t manage a simple date night.”
But he would try. For Hadley, he would succeed. The right ring, the right words. Everything. All of it.
“Ouch.” She winced. “I heard about Choco-Loco.”
Eyebrows climbing, he cut her a look. “Did everyone know I was taking Hadley there?”