Chapter 60

I take a deep breath when I open my eyes the next morning and just…stare at the ceiling wondering if everything is as much of a disaster as I think it is.

But…well. I’m still here, aren’t I? At least the God of Death hasn’t banished me already and scooped up one of my baby cousins in my place. Which means that there’s a pretty good chance that I will at least have some chance to negotiate.

I frown, considering. Maybe I can give him Mark…

But then I sigh, knowing that won’t work. Orion’s stupid prophecies insist on a Queen, after all, and while Mark is many mystifying things, he’s certainly a boy.

I turn my head to the side, grimacing a little to feel that my hair is still wet, and quietly observe Anton’s sleeping face on the next pillow over. I smirk, unable to help it, thinking that Laila would flip if she saw him curled up next to me like this.

But…he’s just so adorable, all asleep like that. Not frowning at me with his hands on his hips shouting “June!” or “June, quit that!” or “Oh heavens, June, not again!”

I laugh a little, turning on my side to look at him more easily, my wolf leaping to her feet and starting to scratch at the walls of my soul like she’s trying to get at something on the other side. But I just swat her tail and ignore her – she’s always doing weird stuff like that.

Anton flinches a bit – probably at my laugh – and then slowly starts to open his eyes. A little smile finds my face as he blinks back to this world and focuses on me. “Hello,” he murmurs, his voice thick and foggy as he smiles too. “This isn’t creepy at all, waking to find you staring at me.”

“I can find ways to be creepier,” I say, raising my eyebrows as I consider the prospects.

“No no,” he murmurs, reaching out to pat me on my arm. “This is plenty. Thank you, June.”

I laugh, sighing with peace I probably don’t deserve to feel, and scootching a little closer.

“How are you, Maestro?” he murmurs.

“I’m okay,” I whisper, truly considering it. “I feel…better. After the roof.”

He hums his confirmation, but doesn’t push, as I take a minute to remember back to it. To how insanely…cathartic it felt to play that piano on the roof, and to feel the rain splashing down around me, to listen to the thunder rumbling along with my song. There had been moments, even, when it felt almost in tune with the song – some kind of freak accident that was still somehow wonderful.

When I’d finished I’d felt…empty. The anger and rage were gone but so were the abilities to feel anything else very keenly. I’d just looked over at Anton, laying in a puddle, and laughed. And he’d stood up and sat with me on the piano bench, and wrapped me in his arms until I started shivering. Then he’d insisted that I vanish us home – and I couldn’t, so we’d called on Nic, who just rolled his eyes at us and did the job. And then Anton had bossed me around, making me get changed and wrap myself up in a blanket and drink some hot cocoa laced with whiskey and cream before I went to bed.

Under his ministrations, I have woken up today feeling…better. Certainly still filled with dread at facing the God of Death, still angry at Orion for…hurting my feelings, for a lack of a better phrase. But cozy. Warm.

As I watch Anton, a little smile curls on his lips.

“What’s that for?” I murmur.

“What’s what for?”

“That,” I say, reaching a finger out and prodding the insubstantial corner of his mouth.

He laughs and shakes his head. “I’m just excited,” he says with a shrug.

“For what?”

“To see Ariel’s face,” he says, grinning when I go stiff in the bed, my eyes going wide. “When she learns that you stole her power. And completely kicked her ass at it.”

I bolt up straight in the bed. “What!?”

“Have you forgotten, June?” Anton asks, laying all long and languid in my bed, an arm tucked beneath his head. “In all of the rooftop concert mess of it all? That you set a grand piano on fire just by glaring at it hard enough?”

A ridiculous little laugh bursts from me and suddenly I realize that he’s right. That I…I did do that. God, I was so angry – Orion’s lucky I didn’t set him on fire. But even though I haven’t seen much of it, I am well aware that fire magic is Ariel’s gift – mom told Mark and me all about it, and dad is really excited to see how it can be used in battle.

In fact, at home, maybe…maybe they already are using it in battle.

My little heart aches to think of everyone at home, and what I’m missing, and Faiza’s implication that events are occurring – ones I’d find quite interesting. But I shove the thought away and concentrate on frowning at Anton instead.

“What do you mean, kicked her ass at it?”

“There she is,” Anton says, winking and pointing a finger at my face, “Juniper Sinclair, always concentrating on the most important part of the sentence. What I mean,” he says, pulling himself up with a sigh and folding those long legs beneath him as he turns to face me, “is that it took months for Ariel to learn how to use that power.”

“It did?” I ask, my spine straightening in surprise.

He nods steadily. “At first she could only like…melt really tiny things. And then she could start little fires. It took a lot of work before she figured out she could do a big conflagration, and still she needs to hold Jackson’s hand to make it big and Luca’s to give it oxygen and…blow it around or something.” He waves a hand, dismissing the fine details. “But you, Junie.” He grins at me like he’s terribly proud. “You blew up a piano on your first try without holding anyone’s hand. Ariel couldn’t do that.”

Even though I try not to, I preen. Anton laughs at me openly and I laugh too, moving my messy hair back over my shoulders and blushing a little.

“Wow,” I say, my shoulders turning in a bit. “I mean…that’s very cool. Do you think that means it like…runs in the family? That…I’m a fire magic person too?”

Anton turns his head a little, curious. “June, you…you did more than that last night.”

“I did?” I ask, going a bit still.

“Well, you vanished away to the roof, remember?” he says, looking to me like I’m a little bit crazy for not remembering. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to do that.”

“Yeah, but I couldn’t come back,” I say, screwing my face up.

He rolls his eyes like that part doesn’t matter. “Also, don’t you think that –“

But before he can get any further, a knock comes at the door. Anton whips around to stare at it and I peer through him, my stomach tying in knots. Is it…is it the God of Death come to expel me?

My heart starts to pound.

“I think you should get the door, June,” Anton whispers, as anxious as I am.

I don’t do or say anything, just staring.

The knock comes again, accompanied by a voice.

“Juniper? Are you…up?”

My fear wipes completely away, replaced with the feeling of being utterly pissed off. Anton’s shoulders just slump in relief as he turns to me.

“You gonna let the Prince in?” he asks, smirking a little, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb.

“No,” I say, haughty and proud as I bounce off the bed and head for the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower.”

Anton just laughs a little, pleased with my taciturn nature. Facing away from him, I allow myself a little smirk too, pleased that someone finds that part of me funny when so many find it annoying or objectionable.

The knock comes again but I just pass into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. For all I care, the Prince can stand out there and knock all damn day. There’s no way I’m talking to him.

Anton lays back on the bed, wishing Orion would stop knocking and calling, because Juniper can’t hear him and it’s getting in the way of his laying around on the couch and doing nothing, waiting for Juniper to come back. Which is a complicated activity that needs peace and quiet.

Soon the knocking does stop when the Prince gets annoyed or loses heart, though, and Anton sighs in relief.

Only to leap in the air a moment later when someone says his name.

“What the hell, Orion!” Anton gasps out, spinning on the couch to glare at the Prince. “You scared the crap out of me!”