“Not sure what I can do about that, but my buddy did make us these.” He dropped a pair of brown leather bracelets on the bed beside my hip. “Ching said these will help hide our connection from the others.”
“Ching?”
“My buddy who specializes in hiding bonds. Apparently, mating bonds are a popular thing to hide, so he already had several tools available at his disposal to create these.” Zeph studied the bracelets. “I didn’t give him your identity, mostly because I imagine he’d freak out if he knew. Because there’s only one reason someone would specialize in this type of magic, and that’s to hide things from the Council.”
“But he knows who you are.”
“He does. Just as he also knows I want out.” He met my gaze, daring me to comment.
I didn’t.
Mainly because I was too exhausted to fight with him right now.
I just wanted this night to end already.
Besides... “There’s no getting out now,” I told him softly, my focus falling to the bracelets. “So how do these work?” I asked, giving him a chance to deflect and change the direction of our conversation.
He accepted it. “They’re generic concealing spells. Wearing the bracelet cloaks the mating bond, making it impossible to sense or trace.”
“What about Aflora? If she wears one, it’ll hide her link to Shade, and people will suspect something is up.”
Zeph nodded. “Yeah, Ching is making something special for her. He’s going to try to have it done by morning. If not, we need an excuse to keep her out of class.”
“I’ll just say she was hit by some stray magic during my duel with Shade. No one will question it. Hell, Emelyn will probably be thrilled.” The bitch had painted a target on Aflora’s back solely because of her affiliation with me. Well, that hatred would become a lot worse when she realized we’d mated each other.
Assuming we lived long enough for anyone to find out beyond the Council.
My shoulders slumped as I sunk deeper into the pillows.
“It’s not like you to mope,” Zeph said, his tall frame towering over me as he stared down at me from beside the bed.
“Fuck you, Z,” I muttered, tugging a pillow over my head. Childish, yes, Unhelpful, also yes. But I just wanted to hide for eternity.
“You realize this connection between the four of us is powerful, right?” Zeph asked.
“Haven’t had a minute to analyze it.” My words were muffled by the pillow.
A pillow that disappeared when Zeph took it from me. “Stop being a lazy, woeful dick, sit up, and start thinking.”
I glared at him. “I don’t want to think, asshole.”
“Well, too fucking bad, jackass,” he tossed back. “We broke a few rules. So fucking what? The mating laws are archaic and you know it. You also never wanted to mate Emelyn anyway. Aflora is a much better match. She’s hot as fuck, too. Strong. Powerful. A Quandary Blood. That means, with the right training, she can rewrite all this bullshit in our favor. The only truly shitty part of all of this is having Shade involved. I’d suggest we kill him, but that’d hurt Aflora, which would weaken the bond overall.”
I blinked at him. “Who made you King Practical all of a sudden?”
“I’ve always been the practical one, Prince Crybaby,” he returned.
“I am not a crybaby.”
“You’re lounging in a pile of pillows feeling sorry for yourself instead of realizing the opportunity that exists here. She’s fucking powerful. You felt it tonight when we grounded her. The Council is going to lose their shit over it because they can’t battle it, unless we bend over and take it up the ass. Which I’m not keen to do. You?”
“What happened to they’ll probably just kill her and then you?” I asked. “Isn’t that what you said just a few hours ago?”
“Yeah, and you told me you weren’t going to let that happen. And I believe you. So stop feeling sorry for yourself and help me figure out a solution. As you said, there’s no getting out of this now. Let’s figure out what to do with it, unless you have a time spinner lounging around that I don’t know about.”
“That’s a whole different realm of fae beings,” I muttered, thinking of the Paradox Fae. “But they would be so useful right about now.”
“Yeah, except they’d never help us. Actually, they’d probably make it worse.”