Chapter 74

“Jesse,” I groan, stumbling forward and knocking my hand hard against his shoulder, making him fall back a step and laugh. “If you go to pieces on me, I’m going to kill you! And trust me, the Deadlands is not a nice place, okay? So, save us both the trouble.”

“Yes ma’am, yes ma’am,” he murmurs, glancing out over the wasteland of this place and holding out his glass for a refill. I oblige, the whiskey appearing in the glass.

“Is that what this little conference is about?” I ask, glancing inside where Anton sits with Laila and Midnight, not precisely himself yet but working hard to participate and cheer himself up. “You want to get all sentimental about me growing up?”

“No,” Jesse sighs, looking at me again. “I – June, we’re not in a good spot here. I don’t know what’s going on in Moon Valley, but they were heading to serious war on the day Midnight took me away. And I’m making inroads with her, but she is still refusing to take me back – I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon. Do you have like…any way of reaching anyone at home? Any way of getting or receiving a message?”

“No,” I say immediately, shaking my head. “Or, maybe…” I frown, remembering Faiza and…wondering. I mean, I don’t think I can summon her, but…it could be something. “Let me work on it, Jess. I think it’s a long shot, but I’ll see what I can do.”

“Okay,” he says, giving me a steady nod.

“Do you…” I bite my lip. “Do you think they’re all alive?”

“Wouldn’t you know better than me?” he asks, gesturing around. “You’re in the land of the dead, dating the Prince of Death. Wouldn’t he tell you if they were?”

I go a bit cold at the thought, thinking it would be a great betrayal if he did not. “I’ll ask.”

“Good.” Jesse claps a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t lose track of things, June. You’ve got…well, it’s very nice here, and I’m glad to see that you’ve made friends and built a little happiness amidst the trauma. But I’m not going to be able to be here protecting you all the time – if ever – and you’ve got to keep your mind focused on the goals, all right?”

I nod steadily, looking up at him.

“And in case you need reminding,” Jesse says, leaning forward towards me. “The goals are you staying alive, and you getting home. You.”

I nod, but I take a little more time with it this time. Because I’m lying – I know that I am. Those are the goals, but there’s another one there now too. Several more actually.

Because I’m not leaving without Anton. Or ensuring that Laila survives. And that Orion gets out from beneath his father’s thumb. And all of the other girls in the competition –

“Ah, shit,” Jesse sighs, shaking his head at me as he straightens up and clasps a hand on my shoulder.

“What?” I ask, my brow furrowing.

“I can just…see you going all Ella,” he says, shaking his head. “Listing the people in your mind that you want to save alongside yourself.”

I frown at him, putting a hand on his chest and giving a little shove that makes him laugh. “I so am not,” I snarl, even though he can see through my lie. “I was thinking of all the people upon whom I wish to wreak my bloody revenge! I was –“

“Oh, you little liar,” Jesse laughs, shaking his head at me. “You’re all scary on the outside but you’ve got that Sinclair heart on the inside. Don’t worry, I get it.” He sighs, and looks over into the room at our friends, his mate. “It is…a burden, sometimes. Caring about everyone.”

“Is that what she feels like to you, Jess?” I ask, looking in at Midnight. I hope that my tone is not accusing, just…curious. The way I intend it.

“No,” he says, instant, his eyes still on the room. “Midnight was…a surprise. But she’s a blessing and she’s mine. I’m going to get her out of this. Take her to a place where she can be healthy and…heal. Or whatever.”

When Jesse looks back at me he blinks in surprise to find me with my arms crossed, glaring a little up into his face. He steps back, clutching his glass of whiskey protectively to his chest.

“Jesse Sinclair,” I snap. “You’d better not be sleeping with that girl.”

“Oh my god,” he groans, tilting his head back to the sky. “Why does everyone think that I would do that!?”

“Just because she’s your mate does not give you any right to her in that way! She is an innocent, and she has been abused for years –“

“I know, Juniper,” he snarls, leaning down to glare at me a bit. Then he straightens up and shoots back his whiskey, closing his eyes and holding out the glass for another refill, apparently needing it for this conversation. “I haven’t touched her and I’m not going to, all right? It is…so not our relationship.”

I narrow my eyes for a moment, considering my cousin, but then I decide that I believe him. Jesse – he’s a good boy, after all. Our mothers raised him right. I fill his glass with a double as a reward.

“So, what is your relationship?” I ask, sipping from my own glass.

“There’s no real term for it,” he sighs, shaking his head. “I…like her a great deal, I want to be her friend. But I don’t want to be her dad, and I certainly don’t want to be her boyfriend. It’s…weird. Not to mention, she keeps asking me for pups –“

“What!?” I gasp. “Oh, ew!” I swat at him again before I can really think about what I’m doing.

“June!” Jesse gasps, his whiskey sloshing a bit as he dodges me, but then he laughs, shaking his head. “I – I don’t even think she knows what it means. She’s had very little education and –“

He pauses then, going very still, his mind turning.

“Actually, June,” he murmurs, his eyes still far off. “Can you…maybe help me a little bit? On this point?”

I raise my eyebrow at him. “What did you have in mind?”

“Hey Mids,” I say a little while later, walking back into the room and playing it very cool. “Just out of curiosity, where do pups come from?”

She blinks at me in surprise as I sink down on the floor next to her, sipping from my whiskey.

“You should not drink demon juice,” Midnight says, her eyes flicking to the glass in my hand. “It will make you produce bad pups, all twisted and deformed.”

I smirk a little and nod towards Jesse. “Then you’re going to be really mad at him, because he had three.”

Midnight gasps and turns her head up to stare at her mate, who just gives her an unsteady little wink. “Answer her question, Mids,” Jesse says, flopping down in some blankets and pillows, clearly a bit drunk and enjoying it a great deal.

Midnight rolls her eyes and turns back to me. “It is ridiculous that you don’t know this yet, Juniper, considering that you are a candidate to marry the Dark Prince. You or Princess Laila are going to give him many pups. So, you should know.”

“Well, then you’ll have to help us, Princess Midnight,” Laila says, smiling a little as she folds up a set of soft pajamas and tucks it away into another bag, onto Jesse’s game.

Jesse’s little mate squares her shoulders, quite proud. “I am going to be a Duchess now, not a Princess. But since you asked nicely, I will tell you.”

Anton grins and settles in next to Jesse, lifting his chin at the glass in my hand, letting me know I should drink for his sake. I laugh a little and oblige.

“Pups come,” Midnight says, quite authoritative and proud, holding her hands together in front of her in a cup shape, like she’s scooping water from a stream. “When you go to bed with your mate. And then he…gives you a pup!”

We all stare at her for a second and then, as one, we all work very hard not to smile.

“And where,” Laila says, her voice curious. “Does the pup come from?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Midnight says, dropping her hands and leaning back on them with a shrug like the details can’t possibly matter. “He probably calls it up from the air, like you do with all of the snacks and the presents.”

“And what do you do with the pup once it is there?” I ask, desperately curious about the strange innerworkings of Midnight’s mind.