25. Chapter 25

Iwas worried about Andy. I had every confidence that we would find a way out of our current predicament, but I could see that the stress was wearing on her. And I thought it might have to do with something more than just the problems with the pocket world and the SA. She had been wounded by her falling out with the necromancer, and I was certain that it was still affecting her, even though she tried to hide it.

It was ridiculous. The man"s brain had obviously been damaged by his own dark magic, if he was stupid enough to push Andy away. It was disappointing, really. I might not see what Andy saw in the skinny redheaded male, but I respected his ability to protect my witch and his willingness to stand by us all throughout the hardships we faced. He had helped save us from the O"Leary coven, at substantial risk to himself. I had watched him slowly move from loner to protector. And I had developed this strange pride for him, like one would feel toward a fellow hunter who was earning their rank. But he had destroyed that by trampling on Andy"s heart.

I knew Andy wasn"t the type of woman to get hung up on someone, to pine after them or take rejection personally. But I think we all knew connection was important to her. As much as I wanted to scoff at the soft sentiment, I understood all too well. Fae were clan people. We operated best when we were surrounded by others of our kind and felt most secure when we had a role to fulfill in our community. I had felt so lost when I was freed from the bestiary and realized that my people were gone and I was alone. Finding Andy—and the other idiots, too, I suppose—had given me back a bit of that sense of security and purpose. And I thought maybe it was the same for her. Her family might have been evil, but that didn"t negate the fact that she had been separated from them, cut off and alone, and shunned by most of the witch community all her life.

I saw her.

I watched her withdraw from us all in small ways. I saw the sadness in her eyes when she smiled. And I knew the bastard necromancer had gotten her hopes up with their damned lifebond. Andy must have felt like she had something permanent in her life. And then he snatched it away and left her bereft again. My witch was strong, but she was also far more vulnerable and sensitive than she liked to admit. There was an abandoned child inside her, just begging to be loved.

So, it was a shock when she sauntered into the kitchen looking well-fucked and more at ease than I"d seen her in some time. "Beans again?" she groaned, her gray eyes landing on the beans I was shelling into a bowl. "At this rate, we"ll run out of ingredients to make digestive remedies and we"ll all die of bloating long before the pocket world collapses."

I rolled my eyes. "If you have another idea for a source of easy protein that we can grow in a pocket world, then by all means, speak up."

She huffed, but there was no heat in it. Her grumbling over our food options was just a distraction from the bigger problems we faced, and we both knew it. She passed by me on the way to the fridge, and my eyes landed on the faint silvery tracings on the area between her neck and shoulder. Zhong and Aahil trailed into the kitchen after her, and I glanced between them all. Andy straightened, and I met her eyes, arching my brows. "Clever witch, you seem to have gained a new tattoo since I saw you last."

She blushed faintly, a pretty hint of pink coloring the apples of her cheeks. "Mmm. Very observant. Gold star for you."

Zhong came to take the food containers from Andy"s hands, then turned to beam at me. "She wears my name. We have a real bond now."

I shook my head, but couldn"t stop the smile that lifted the corners of my lips. The gargoyle was sickeningly sweet and eager to please. Andy had just made him the happiest male alive by finally giving him the formal connection he craved. "Congratulations," I said dryly. He ignored my flat tone and went to heat the black bean burgers on the stove.

Aahil hitched a slender hip against the counter on the other side of the kitchen and watched us all. Something about the way the tiny terror moved had changed. I narrowed my eyes at him as I tried to figure out what it was. "I know I"m captivating, and you"re envisioning me naked," the jinn drawled, with a lifted brow, "but do you have to stare quite so hard, fae?"

I scoffed. "Even if I liked dicks, I wouldn"t want yours."

"That only highlights your failings, not mine." He straightened and went to rummage around in the fridge, and I finally realized why he seemed different. The jinn had been so guarded since we were rescued from the O"Leary coven. He possessed the innate beauty and grace of a fire elemental, still. But he had lost something indefinable. Some quality that I couldn"t quite put into words. Some of that indefinable thing had returned now. It was there in the way he moved, in the sensual roll of his hips and his fluid grace, as he closed the fridge and glided over to Zhong with a pile of strawberries in his hands.

I looked at Andy in question, and she seemed to know exactly what I was asking. She could probably see the change in him as well. She held up her arm, showing me the underside of her forearm where the jinn"s mark resided. I could sense the increased power in the mark. "Aahil got a new tattoo today as well," she told me, glancing over at the jinn.

His pert nose lifted into the air, and he gave us both an arrogant look. "What of it? Stop staring at me like that or I will remove my charm and turn you both to ash."

I ignored him and focused on Andy. "So, they"re both bound to you now?" I tried to keep the note of sudden anger out of my voice.

Andy shrugged. "They"re bound to me, and I"m bound to them. It"s equal. It goes both ways. It"s not some one-sided, master-slave Lovell trickery, I promise."

Ambrose chose that moment to materialize from the shadows near the doorway and stroll into the room with tendrils of darkness curling around his feet. "What kind of Lovell trickery are we talking about now?"

Andy rolled her eyes and let out a dramatic sigh. "None. We were talking about the lack of Lovell trickery."

"These two idiots are bonded to our witch," I informed the boogeyman. I didn"t mind Ambrose. He was a remarkably constant and reassuring man, for a monster. And he might understand the anger that was building inside me for no apparent reason right now. Dark emotions were his favorite meal, after all.

His weird red eyes with their black sclera scanned the room, then he returned his gaze to me, crossing his arms over his suit-clad chest. "Oh, I see. Your jealousy makes sense then."

I just stared at him for a moment as his absurd words sank in. "I"m not jealous." But… I was, wasn"t I? That "anger" I was feeling wasn"t anger at all, was it? I was just mad that Andy had tied herself to the two men, and she hadn"t wanted me to share that level of closeness with her.

Oh, Goddess. Did that mean I was jealous of Dyre, too? Yes, I realized. Yes, it did. I had been hurt that Andy lifebonded with the necromancer when we were all parted from her, and that she hadn"t wanted to dissolve the bond once it had served its purpose. I wanted to be her favorite partner. And that she had not offered that honor to any of the rest of us made it that much more insulting when the stupid necromancer carelessly threw it away and asked Andy to dissolve the bond.

I ran a hand over my face and groaned. I should be above such things. How mortifying. "Damn it."

Andy laughed as she patted me on the back. "Oh, Niamh. It"s okay to have feelings. Mushy, lovey, possessive little feelings. You"re so cute."

I slapped her hand away and bared my fangs in a mock growl. I was a proud fae hunter, damn it. "Nonsense. Your recent bedroom activities must have knocked something loose in your brain. I would never be jealous of a bunch of men. Disgusting."

If it was just the two of us, I might be more forthright about my feelings. But I wasn"t keen on pouring my heart out in front of the others. Especially the jinn. He and I were more likely to use each other for target practice than talk about our feelings together.

Ambrose came to stand nearby, glancing between Andy and me. A creepy, shark-toothed grin stretched across his face as he put a hand over his heart and bowed to Andy. "Since your fae lover is clearly not jealous or at all bothered by your bonds with others, I must ask," he straightened and brushed his blue-black curls from his face. "Would you do me the honor of granting me the same bond as the others? Because I am most assuredly jealous of their closeness to you, and I"m not afraid to admit it."

Andy rolled her eyes. But I knew this meant a lot to her. These men were undoing the damage Dyre"s dismissal had done to our witch. I could see how much more centered she was with her new bonds in effect and her newly strengthened connection to Zhong and Aahil. And I think Ambrose saw it too. And… maybe he was also a little pissed-off with his corpse-like redheaded lover. Taking up the bond that Dyre had thrown away would certainly be a good way to make a statement.

"Are you sure, Ambrose," Andy said, her voice serious this time. "I"m not… collecting pledges of lifelong loyalty here. They asked and it just kind of felt… right. There"s no pressure for anyone else to be so reckless."

"It"s not reckless," I said firmly. "Andy, we all love you. Surely you can see that, witch. Even you cannot be that oblivious."

She gave me a soft smile, amusement dancing in her eyes. "Oh, so you are jealous, then," she said sagely.

I huffed and took her hands in mine, lifting them to kiss the back of each one. "Oleander Lovell," I said formally, "would you please do me the honor of binding our magics and our lives together?"

She looked at me and Ambrose, then glanced at the others as if seeking reassurance. When no one said anything, she squared her shoulders and met my eyes. "Of course." Then she glanced at Ambrose as well. "Of course I want to be connected to you both. I just…" She blinked rapidly as our tough, determined witch fought back tears. "I"m so sick of being alone. Of wondering when you will all leave, and I"ll have to go back to how things were before. I"ve been so lonely all my life. But I feel pathetic for wanting—for needing—this forever kind of commitment from you all."

Ambrose touched her cheek, drawing his deep black shadow fingers across her flushed skin. "There is nothing pathetic about it. I think we all crave that kind of assurance in our lives. Not a single person in this household has managed to escape the experience of crushing loneliness, Andy."

She nodded and sniffed a little, and I had to hold back a laugh. She wouldn"t appreciate my finding humor in her vulnerability. But she was just so… perfectly Andy. "Okay," she said with a determined nod. "Do you want to do this… now?"

Aahil let out a dramatic sigh as he popped the last of his strawberries into his mouth and glided over to join us. "Give me your hand," he told me impatiently. "I"ll help guide the spell. And you"re welcome. You owe me a favor now."

I shook my head at him, but did as he said, placing my hand in his. He might be annoying, but that just meant he was feeling more like himself. It was probably a good thing, I supposed. His hand gripped mine, and I realized I had never actually touched the jinn before. I hadn"t realized that his skin was this warm, super-heated, as if he had just warmed his palms before a fire.

"Envision a pattern or a mark of some sort," Andy told me as she took my other hand. "It can be something simple. Then you"ll draw it on my skin, and I"ll draw it on yours as we do the spell."

I nodded my understanding. I already knew what I wanted my mark to be. And where. Releasing Andy and Aahil"s hands for a moment, I pulled off my sweater, leaving me in just the soft tube top I preferred to a bra most days. "Here," I said, touching the area at the center of my chest, just above my breasts.

Andy smiled fondly and pulled off her own tank top, standing there shirtless and braless as if she didn"t have a care in the world. Goddess, I loved that witches shared the fae belief that there was nothing to be ashamed of in our natural bodies. I took Aahil"s hand again, then touched my fingertip to the center of Andy"s chest, over her gorgeous breasts. Andy and Aahil guided me through the new spell as I traced the outline of a leaf onto Andy"s skin. A leaf from the sunfire tree. The symbol of my clan.

Andy"s magic tingled through me as we completed the bond, and I gloried in the feel of her there, in my aura, connected to my essence, to my soul. Aahil released my hand the moment the spell was complete, and I stepped forward, gripping Andy"s chin and tilting it up as I bent to kiss her, the animal part of me surging to the surface. Mine. My love. My mate. Mine.