Chapter 36

Cole

Garden District, New Orleans, Louisiana

A fter their shower, Evie more or less passed out, despite the sun barely having set. With his witch curled in his bed, her hand and head resting on his chest, Cole felt more at peace than he ever had in his life. That peace, unfortunately, hadn’t followed him into sleep as he fell into dreams that were filled with darkness and angry shadows and screaming.

Now, at 5:00 in the morning, Cole was wide awake with no chance of falling back asleep in sight. After tossing and turning enough that he was concerned he might wake Evie, he left the bed long enough to take a detour through the flower-saturated halls, which now had floral archways spanning the doorways after their shower, into his newly-greenhoused study to retrieve his laptop and his glasses since it was way too early for contacts. As he walked back to the bedroom, he considered the upkeep it would take for their menagerie of exotic flowers to thrive. The moment he crossed the bedroom’s threshold, though, all thoughts of floral care and maintenance drained from his head at the sight of Evie nestled in the black silken sheets. Exactly where she was always meant to be.

He crossed the room and crawled in next to his Angel. Still deep in sleep, she nestled back into him, extending an arm across his waist before sighing softly. A small smile tilted his own lips at the feeling of her wrapped around him. Settling back against the headboard, he rested his laptop on his thighs, turning it on and settling his glasses on his face as it booted up. He had taken off work for the last two days—and was more or less fully off grid generally since he still hadn’t replaced his melted phone and apparently only a few people had that cursed landline number—so his inbox was sure to be a thing of nightmares.

Once he logged in, he dimmed the brightness and muted the damn thing. He wouldn't risk waking Evie up for something as trivial as work. Groaning softly, he finally loaded his email and the firm’s messaging app. Sure enough, 514 emails sat glaring at him from his inbox. The messaging app finally started up and—oh grand—only 72 messages there. Time to triage the damage, organizing the communications into the things that needed to be immediately addressed, those that could hold forty-eight hours, and those that could go into his trash bin without any action. He pulled up the messaging screen, only to see fifteen DMs from Hayden, whose own circle showed him as available.

we have the depo at 2:00. did you want to be there?

you good, man?

seriously, where the fuck are you?

are you dead?

guess no depo for you then.

The messages tapered off once the deposition started at 2:00, but at 2:30, Hayden’s messages got more urgent.

dude, everything’s fucked over here. massive earthquake just took down the building next door, a few of our windows shattered. nyx got hit by some of the glass when the windows went out and we’re getting her to the hospital asap. everybody else seems to be fine, but something big’s going down.

Cole squinted at his computer. What the fuck? And who the hell was Nyx? He knew that probably wasn’t a relevant question, but he hadn’t expected to get hit by this news either.

power’s out. check in, cole. this shit is bad. you good?

cole, you have answered messages while you were getting blown. where the FUCK are you, man.

The messages only grew more intense and insulting from there until, in an intense burst of profanity and caps lock, Hayden threatened to come over to the house to see whether Cole was “a-fucking-live.” That threat came at–Cole checked the message–3:30 am. The final message at 4:58 am made ominous noises about dreamwalking to ensure Cole was alive. Cole’s eyebrows shot up at that one. That was definitely a bold move from Hayden, flexing his power to enter dreams as the god of sleep, especially against his best friend who was also his king.

Cole checked the message receipt times again. Although he hadn’t been keeping a particularly close eye on the time, he felt pretty good guessing that the 2:30 earthquake took place right around when he was sinking into Evie for the first time. His brain and body took very different approaches to that memory; rationally, he knew that an earthquake taking down buildings at the same time he and Evie were having sex for the first time was both a very big deal and not at all a coincidence. Physically, however, he wanted to slide the covers back and wake Evie with his tongue between her legs.

He was still battling the diametrically opposed impulses when his screen lit with an incoming call. Hayden. After kissing Evie’s forehead, he unwrapped himself from her arms and quickstepped into the hallway to answer the call.

On the other end, Hayden looked harried, an unusual expression for the usually collected man. “Where the fuck have you been, Cole? Nobody can get ahold of you, the building is crumbling around our goddamn ears, we’ve got an employee in the hospital because she got hit by glass shrapnel—”

“Man, I get the gravity of the situation, but lower your fucking voice,” Cole snapped, taking a look at the closed bedroom door as he made his way to the study. Evie had had a big few days and if Hayden woke her up, Cole would rain hell down on him, best friend or not.

“Lower my—where are you?” Somehow, Hayden’s face grew more disgruntled, which Cole would have bet wasn’t possible. Fortunately, Cole made it to the study and had the door closed before Hayden started yelling. “Are you serious? You went missing for two entire goddamn days because you were fucking the Kore reincarnate !!!”

In the moment, Cole's eyesight went vibrant blue as his magic built in rage. Mostly, though, he saw himself crushing his best friend’s head in his hands. His words were clipped when he actually found himself able to speak once more. “Don’t. You. Ever. Fucking. Talk. About. Her. Like. That.”

At his furious, clipped response, Hayden’s icy gaze narrowed on Cole, the astute asshole recognizing that his shouted question still hadn’t been answered. “Cole, man, you didn’t actually say why you vanished during an earthquake that all but took down the building and injured our employees. Did you fuck the Kore reincarnate?” At Cole’s irate glance at the laptop’s camera, he rolled his eyes. “Fine, made love, had sex, did the boom boom, what the fuck ever.”

“Yes,” Cole gritted out. “And before you ask, you nosy motherfucker, yeah, I’m pretty sure the first time we had sex was around when the earthquake hit.”

“Does she know what that means for the two of you?” Hayden demanded, just as the door to his study creaked open.

Cole looked over to see a very naked Evie, still half asleep by the looks of it, standing in the doorway. “Hey, Angel,” he greeted her, interrupting Hayden’s stream of consciousness speaking. “Did I wake you up?”

She shook her head slowly. Her hair was tousled, her voice hoarse from sleep, her eyes barely open. He had never seen anything look so good in his life. “I woke up, and you weren’t there. When I heard yelling, I came to see what was wrong.” She moved towards the desk, but he stood before she came into view of the webcam, wrapping her in the blazer he kept on the back of his chair for Zoom hearings. It hung past her knees, completely dwarfing her petite, curvy frame, but at least it covered all the essentials.

“Is that Evie?” Hayden shouted, clearly shifting into his role as obnoxious best friend meeting the significant other. “Let me see her!”

Cole gathered Evie into his arms, drawing her into his lap as he sat back down in his office chair. She stared owlishly into the webcam, auburn hair tousled from sleep.

“You Evie?” Hayden asked.

“Last I checked,” Evie snipped at him. “Who are you?”

“I’m Hayden, Cole’s best friend, business partner, and life coach.” Cole and Evie snorted simultaneously at the clear bullshit emerging from Hayden. “Hey, that’s not fair,” Hayden—an immortal god whose good looks appeared to be of a man in his late 30s—pouted childishly in response to their mockery. “You two aren’t supposed to gang up on me. When you finally got a girl, Cole, she and I were supposed to gang up on you. It’s the rules of friendship.”

Cole shrugged, smothering a smirk as Evie nestled further into his arms. “I don’t think Evie’s gonna agree to that. Think she’s showing a strong preference for me.”

She yawned but nodded. “Definitely going with Cole. No question.”

Cole looked down at Evie, commented quietly, “Angel, we’re gonna get you back to bed soon. Think you still need some sleep after yesterday.” A blush rose along her cheekbones, the color intensifying as he nuzzled her ear and whispered, “We’ve got a lot of missed time to make up for.” Her eyes went lusty; she leaned into him, running her hand along his chest. Before he could get distracted by her, Cole turned back to Hayden. “Ask me again what you asked before Evie got here.”

“Whether you two have had sex? I’m pretty sure by the way you’re pawing at each other that I already know the answer to that one.”

“No. Whether she knows.”

Hayden’s face went serious once more. “Evie, did Cole tell you what being intimate meant for you? For the two of you?”

“Are you talking about the fact that we’re reincarnates? That we’re meant to rule the Underworld together? That we’re fated in some kind of way?” At Hayden's nod, Evie's spine stiffening. Although her tone was pleasant when she spoke again, her face belied her anger. “Or are you actually asking whether your best friend hid information from me to have sex and trap me in a long-term relationship?” She was now turned fully towards the camera, ass resting on Cole’s cock, which was rapidly hardening as she came to his defense.

“Let me make myself perfectly fucking clear, Hayden.” She spat out his name like a curse. “I chose Cole. I've chosen Cole every night since I was a child falling asleep with his voice in my ears and his eyes in my sight. And when I met him in person, I chose him then too. He told me everything before we ever had sex. He made sure I knew I had a choice before we had sex and wouldn’t touch me until I had made my own decision about what I wanted to do. It was infuriating.” Hayden’s snicker echoed through the speakers, but Evie’s voice drowned it out. “And I chose to have sex with him too because Cole is my whole godsdamned world and always has been, and I would be proud to rule by his side as his queen. And I really don’t appreciate you thinking that he would hide something like that from me.” She settled back into Cole’s lap with a huff of irritation.

Her frustration only lasted a moment when she recognized just how hard he was. She gave a soft wriggle against him that almost had him ripping open the blazer she wore to feast on her, camera be damned. “Now, Cole and I are going back to bed. Whatever is going wrong with the office or the world or whatever we have to do can wait until we wake up, and then we’ll meet you—” She looked at Cole.

“We’ll meet you at the office, man. I’m gonna take my girl back to bed.” Cole shut the laptop lid on Hayden’s murmured, “This is a good match, Cole Aidoneus.”

Without checking whether the call had dropped, Cole tilted a giggling Evie into a searing kiss before carrying her back to bed where he stripped his suit jacket from her and proceeded to remind her who she belonged to.