Chapter 52

“Oh god,” I sigh, shaking my head at Laila. “Why on earth do we need Orion for the divination?”

She shrugs, looking between me and Anton, her face apologetic. “Because it’s his land. Even if we get a map, none of us understand the relationship between the map and the land itself. It’s…” she purses her lips, her eyes unfocusing as she searches for the words. “It’s about relationships really, and you need ties between everything for it to work.”

I frown at her, not getting it, and she nods to me, understanding that she needs to explain further.

“Think of it this way,” Laila says, holding my gaze. “You lost the boy, right? And you need to use the divination tools to find him in the Deadlands. But the only thing you truly understand about all of that, the only thing you have a tie to, is the boy. Yes?”

“I see,” I say, leaning forward and resting my chin on arms, folded on the table, to peer at the divination supplies. “So I need you to help because you’re the tie to the tools. And Orion, because he’s the tie to the Deadlands.”

“Or anyone else with a tie to the Deadlands would work,” she murmurs, considering. “But, I mean, I think he’s the only one you know. Or are close to.”

“True.” I nod.

Anton scoffs. “Well what do I get to bring to the table?”

Laila looks at him, her mouth twisted in pity.

“You’re pretty,” I say, turning my head to the side and smiling at my handmaid. “You bring good looks and charm.”

“Thank you,” Anton says, sitting up straight with a smile. “Yes, I accept this role. I’ve always thought I’d do well as ornamentation.”

Laila laughs, grinning at Anton, and he laughs too.

“Okay, well,” I sigh, conjuring a notepad and a pen out of the air. “Let’s get Orion over here –“

“What!?” Laila gasps, for probably the millionth time today. She reaches out a hand to still the pen as I begin to write. “Juniper, you can’t just summon the Prince of the Underworld!”

I glance at her as I keep going, shifting the paper and the pen out of her reach. “Why not?”

“Because he’s busy –“

“Doing what!?” I ask, laughing. “Going on dates? Brooding in his room being all ‘oh, I wonder what the ghost population is getting up to today? Oh, nothing? As usual? Cool.’”

Laila scowls, crossing her arms. “I’m sure he’s doing something very essential.”

“I am sure he is doing nothing of the sort,” Anton murmurs. “I think it’s a good idea. Besides, I miss my pal, we haven’t had any bro time in days.”

“B-bro time?” Laila asks, screwing up her face as I finish my short note and vanish it away into the air, ordering it to appear wherever Orion is. “You have bro time with the…Prince of the Underworld?”

“Well, not really, because June is always around,” Anton replies, giving me a mock glare that I respond to with a very pretty Princess smile. “But,” he shrugs at Laila. “Yeah.”

“You two,” Laila sighs, leaning back on her hands and shaking her head at us. “The nonchalance with which you navigate your incredibly dramatic lives. I honestly don’t understand –“

But then she squeaks in horror, her head snapping up as Orion appears in the middle of my room. “Well, this is weird,” he murmurs, his face curious as his eyes sweep over us, taking in our cozy little morning scene with the three of us seated on the floor around a table with mouse bones and pastries scattered across it.

Laila immediately panics, scrambling to her feet and diving for her corner of the sofa, immediately desperate to be cool and nonchalant, not sitting on the floor like a toddler. I grin, watching her, thinking that she’s completely adorable.

When I shift my eyes back to Orion, I see by his expression that he’s thinking the same thing. “Hey,” I say sitting up straight. “Thanks for coming.”

“Good to see you, man!” Anton says, getting up and reaching for Orion, who takes his hand, giving it a hearty shake. Anton laughs and takes it a step further, wrapping Orion in a brotherly hug that takes Orion by surprise for a moment before he laughs too and returns it.

“Goodness, he wasn’t lying,” Laila murmurs, sitting with her back straight and her hands primly on her knees, her eyes wide as she takes in the sight before her. “They are friends. And they can…touch?” She looks to me for confirmation.

I shrug and nod, reaching for my half-finished donut and taking a big bite as Anton and Orion finish greeting each other, moving towards the couch and sitting next to each other. My eyes move between them as they sit, again stunned by…

Well, I don’t know what by. Because it’s not that they look alike, not really. Anton is much slimmer than Orion, and Orion is more ruggedly masculine, and Anton is all…blue. But somehow, there is an affinity between them. I just…can’t quite place my finger on it.

“So, did we interrupt something?” Anton asks, gesturing towards our table full of breakfast food, inviting Orion to take his pick.

“Not really,” Orion says with a shrug. “I was just hanging out in my room.”

“One point for me!” I say, raising the pen cheerfully in the air before tossing it onto a book shelf. Laila scoffs, her penchant for keeping things neatly organized clearly offended. I grin at her and toss the notepad after it. She glares at me and I laugh.

“A point?” Orion asks, curious. “Is there a…game?”

“Beyond the one in which we two might soon lose our lives?” I ask, far too cheerful as I gesture between Laila and myself. “Nah, not really, just a joke. Hey, want to help me locate my fiancé in the Deadlands?” I give him a bright smile and gesture at the divination tools in front of me with a slow wave, like a model showing off a luxurious prize in a daytime game show.

Orion – justifiably – takes a moment to look at me like I’m insane before peering at the divination tools. “Where’d you get those?” he asks, terribly curious.

Anton murmurs “don’t mind that” in the same moment that I answer “Anton’s girlfriend gave them to me.”

Orion just blinks between us and then looks to Laila for help.

“I know,” she sighs, nodding, her hands still tense on her knees. “They’re…a lot. But you get used to it.”

Orion shakes himself – quite a wolfish gesture, I’m pleased to see – and glances between us like he’s not sure that will ever be true. But then he moves past it, ignoring any curiosity he might have. Instead he just leans towards me, a little smirk on his lips. “Again, you want me to help you divine the location of your fiancé, Juniper? Even though you’re in a competition to marry me?”

Laila sighs dramatically, looking away like she’s again wondering why the hell I make any of the choices that I make.

“Yes,” I say, quite perky. “And then I want you to take me there and keep the dead away so that I can have a chat with him. But we can just do the finding part first and then figure out the rest later.”

Orion laughs a little at me and glances at Anton like he’s wondering if I’m serious. Anton just nods seriously, and I grin, pleased to see him giving me his full support.

“You’re seriously going to let her do this?” Orion asks Anton, gesturing towards me.

“She is my Princess,” Anton says, pressing a dramatic hand to his heart. “I am honor-bound to follow her orders and see that her desires are met.”

Orion narrows his eyes. “Tell me the real reason.”

“Fine,” Anton says, a smile breaking out on his face. “I can’t wait to see Blythe’s face when he sees that I’ve been hanging out with her for weeks when he’s just been stupidly dead –“

“Anton!” I gasp.

“It’s going to be hilarious, June,” he says, turning to me with that wicked smile. Even as I scowl at him, conjuring a new pen in the air and hurling it at his blue form, my wolf pants a little in my soul. Because…damn it, but I love that smile, and that cruel edge to his sense of humor.

Orion blinks in surprise as he watches the pen move right through Anton and bounce off the back of my couch. Then his face bursts into a grin as he looks around at us. “You guys have…kind of a nice thing going here, don’t you?”

“You should hang out,” Anton says, leaning back on the couch and grinning at the Prince. “We need more boys.”

“No we don’t,” I mutter, taking another bite of my donut. “More boys just means increased chances of having our virtue violated. About which Laila is deeply concerned.”

“Juniper!” Laila hisses, horrified, as both the boys turn towards us – Orion surprised, Anton laughing.

“What,” I ask, snapping my head to her, a little grin coming to my lips. “Do you want Orion to impinge upon your virtue? Because I’m sure that he –“

But before I can finish my wicked sentence and further the blush already coloring Laila’s cheeks, my words are cut off by the appearance of two dark envelopes on the table. Envelopes with mine and Laila’s names on them.

“Well, that’s a mood killer,” Anton says with a sigh, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Sorry,” Orion says, looking guiltily around the room.