Chapter 6

I blankfor a moment because I have no idea who he's talking about until I suddenly remember. Elijah's the guy whose apartment I was squatting in when I met Fox. Huh. I bet he's back from his trip overseas by now. I wonder how he's doing. I hope he's safe from his stalker ex-boyfriend. That guy was a douche nugget.

"I stalked him for a few days after I overheard him talking about going abroad for the summer so that I could house sit for him. He's nice. Cute. I don't know much about him. He's studying kinesthetics, whatever that is. He has a lot of textbooks on the subject. Walks with a limp. Not too smart, though. I mean, he left his apartment wide open for a house sitter like me, you know?"

"You don't know anything about his ethical alignment?" Ace adds.

I shrug as my phone reads the message I type out. "He was just some guy. Nice enough, and I'm a little worried that he might not have taken my note seriously about his stalker, but I did my due diligence, so it's on him if he didn't. Well, it's possible that he's not back yet, I suppose."

Ace does a few typey-type things on his computer, and then frowns prettily. Handsomely? I wonder if he cares what descriptors I use. I should ask.

"Do you mind being called pretty or do you prefer handsome?"

Ace smiles at me. "I'm gorgeous, and sometimes I feel handsome and sometimes I feel pretty, and I'm ok with either descriptor as long as you respect my gender identity."

Awesome. I'm glad my thoughts wouldn't offend him. They're important for the story since I'm, you know, unspeaking, but I still want to get it right because: respect.

"Looks like Elijah is due back today."

Should someone go check up on him? Maybe I'll take Fox over there just to see how he's doing.

Ace smirks at me. "We're going to send someone to observe him," he informs me like he can read my mind.

"That's good. Let me know if he's still got a problem with the stalker."

Ace nods and makes a note. "I think we've talked about everyone I'm interested in."

"We should probably talk about Akile, since he's also a part of my circle now. He claimed me as best friend, and I'm down for that since I've never had one before."

Ace stills and looks at me for a long moment, and I see the calculations happening behind his eyes. He's thinking, Akile? But he's a cherub. Surely not. He's been trying to find the Avatar for a whole year, there's no way we missed this. Did we? Were we so involved in searching out the next Avatar that we didn't see the one amidst our own ranks?

Yeah, I know, I'm so good at reading people's nonverbal cues.

"The easy way to check is to send him to the prison to see if he wakes up the magic," Ace mutters, grimacing. "It won't hurt him."

"And you. You should also go too, since you're now a part of my sphere of influence."I point that out with a wide smile. "Cherubs would fit into the neutral category."

Ace stares at me with horror in his face. "We never should have brought you here. We'll have to take everyone over there to see if the magic wakes up for them. Fuck."

I laugh silently and shake my head. "I think you're mostly safe. It seems like I'm bringing the right people into the family, so you can just exclude anyone who isn't a Foxily for now." If the avatar doesn't make an appearance in a reasonable amount of time, then we can test all those tertiary characters.

Ace grimaces but accedes to my logic. "Yeah, that's reasonable. So Darcy is in the full running, we're eyeing Hassan and Gregory, but not seriously, and we're keeping an eye out for the next Foxily to join the crew, though we do have to test Akile. He decided to join your family when he claimed the spot of best friend. What a moron."

I laugh because that's such a brotherly reaction that I might actually have to make Ace an honorary member of the Foxilys, and wouldn't that just piss him right the hell off.

*rolling on the floor, laughing emoji*

One of myleast favorite things to do is flying with Fox in his thunderbird form. There are a few ways to travel to the arctic where the prison for supernaturals is, but I've only ever traveled via Fox, and that was awful. Fortunately, the cherubs have a better way to get there: a portal that we pretend isn't super illegal.

It opens to an ice cave where the human cult members who put Bellamy into the prison cell busted a hole in the wall of the prison. The cave is big enough to fit our group and probably another eight people, and it's kept warm with hanging stationary balls of light that emit enough warmth to keep the cave comfortable without melting the ice surrounding us. The floor is covered in gravel to keep us from slipping on the ice. The hole into the prison is hidden by an illusion that makes it look like the wall is whole on both sides, but Akile reveals the illusion by sticking his hand into the hole for a moment.

You realize that your hand is now slightly older than the rest of you.

I point that out, glad to be back in text mode. Letting RoboRom speak for me is the worst.

Akile looks at his hand like it's a foreign object. "Yeah, that's weird. Thanks for that thought; pretty sure it's going to keep me up at night."

You're welcome.

I smile brightly at him.

Only the best thoughts for you.

Akile shakes his head at me, clearly in awe of my love and friendship. "So I guess I'll just go hang out in there for a hundred years?" He looks at the illusion with some distaste. "I feel like I already mentioned that I am definitely not the avatar."

You can't decide that on your own; we need proof of concept.

"At least you won't be nailed to the ceiling," Bellamy points out helpfully.

Fox walks to a hole in the cave wall that presumably leads to the prison cell where the body of the previous avatar is kept. He struggles with how long Bellamy was in the prison, and even though we've killed everyone we knew for certain was involved in the imprisonment, I'm sure he's feeling at least slightly murderous toward the cherubs for their part in it. I bet he would put a cherub in the arena if he could pin down who made the decision to put a contract on Bellamy.

I'm not sure if I want him to figure it out or not. On the one hand, no one fucks with the Foxilys, and if we haven't made that clear, we will happily make another high profile example, and another, and another until the whole world finally gets it. On the other hand, it's really foul to think about killing a kid, even if that kid is five hundred or more years old.

Yeah no, we're not killing cherubs. That's just wrong.

Me: If you figure out who made the final decision about the contract on Bellamy, turn them over to their parents for a time out or whatever. Like maybe they can regress them to infancy again or something.

Future Husband Even If I Have To Buy The Ring Myself: I understand.

Me: That is not an agreement.

Future Husband Even If I Have To Buy The Ring Myself: You're right.

Me: You can't kill a cherub.

Future Husband Even If I Have To Buy The Ring Myself: I assure you I am fully capable of killing a cherub.

Me: No.

Future Husband Even If I Have To Buy The Ring Myself: I understand.

Me: Hard limit.

Future Husband Even If I Have To Buy The Ring Myself: I won't kill a cherub unless they are adults and the depot has put the bounty on them.

Me: Acceptable.

Whew. He almost had me worried. Fox probably doesn't need me to tell him not to kill a cherub, but I feel better knowing for certain that we're on the same page about that.

Future Husband Even If I Have To Buy The Ring Myself: Or they do something to our family, but I will still limit my revenge to adults.

Me: Ok, yeah, that's fine too.

I look up from my text conversation with Fox and smile at the other two. They also look up with me as they finish reading the messages. I included them in the chat because it's rude to have a private conversation where other interested parties can't eavesdrop; I'm just nice like that.

Akile widens his eyes at me. "You know that technically I'm an adult."

I pat his shoulder and then hug him for emphasis.

It would hurt me if Fox hurt you, so he won't. What are you going to do for a hundred years?

He didn't bring anything with him, and it's not like there's anything in the cell.

Akile side-eyes me. "Hibernate."

Bellamy scowls at him. "You're going to sleep for a hundred years?"

Akile shrugs. "It's a better way to pass the time than, um—" he stops talking and shrugs.

Bellamy snorts in disgust and follows Fox to the other cave.

I give Akile a look of sympathy. He didn't know what was going to happen to Bellamy, and I'm sure he wouldn't let anything like that happen to another Foxily now.

"He's going to hate me forever, isn't he?" Akile whispers wistfully. "Such a shame."

I blink at him twice before replying.

He's not off limits, but it would hurt me if anything hurt him.

The only person not allowed to fuck him is Darcy, unless Bellamy asks for it, of course. That's part of the blood oath I have with Darcy.

Akile sighs. "Fine. I won't flirt too much. So, come wake me up in an hour, please."

I nod once, and Akile steps into the prison cell that's going to age him a hundred years in about an hour. I set the alarm on my phone and go in search of my men, walking down a steep tunnel in a curve and finding them in another ice cave, staring at a wall of glowing green. It's not a building material; the wall is crawling with bioluminescent bugs emitting green light. It's both amazing and gross.

What is happening right now?

Fox reaches out and pulls a worm off the wall, showing it to me. "Soldat worms. They were created by a sorcerer to eat magic."

These worms are fat and healthy, glowing brightly.

The cherubs are trying to use these to break through the magic.

Fox nods. "That's what they said."

Akile's hibernating, but I need to go get him in an hour. What are you going to do with this?

I wave at the wall of magic bugs.

Fox drops the soldat worm and then swipes a swath of them off a part of the wall. Underneath the bugs the material looks like stone, except it's glowing black. Don't look at me like that, how else am I supposed to describe a blackness that feels like it's emitting a glow? It's not purple like the misnamed blacklight. It's black for real, and my eyes are telling me it's glowing, hence glowing black.

"Well, that's not what I expected to see." Bellamy's dry declaration matches my thoughts, though I'm much less inclined toward understatement than my son.

Fox presses a hand to the material, closing his eyes and concentrating. I don't know what he's doing, but this is an opportunity. I loosen my muscles by shaking them out, close my eyes, and open my mind up to the telepathic bond between us. Maybe if I meditate on him I'll be able to hear his thoughts again.

Meditation isn't easy. It is, unfortunately, a precursor to sleep for me, so I have to practice it without letting my mind wander so far that I fall asleep.

Don't worry, I'm going to become the best at meditation just so I can telepathically communicate with my man. Practice makes better, right? And the last time I meditated I developed our telepathy way further than expected. This will be good for me.