me, and then as air bubbles slowly leaked up and he never emerged, I grew nervous. When no water bubble had surfaced for a long time, he started to freak me out. He wouldn’t really drown himself just to be a jerk, would he? Was he that stubborn?
I could believe Duncan was that stubborn, actually, and it gave me a sudden jolt of anxiety.
I reached through the water and grabbed his shoulders. He surfaced suddenly, shooting back up, and I felt his legs hit mine. As he bobbed on the surface, I was straddling his lap, my hands still on his shoulders.
He pushed his wet hair back with one hand, revealing his impatient face. “What now?”
“I thought you were…” I trailed off, because it sounded ridiculous.
He smirked. “Always heroic. Now you’re rescuing me from the bathtub.”
“You were under the water for a long time.”
“My mother’s actually from the sea court,” he said. He raked his hand through his hair again. “That’s where the dark hair comes from. Mostly browns and reds in the autumn court.”
It was more than he’d ever told me about his family. I said, “Can you breathe underwater? Like Raile and his Fae?”
“No, I wish. I can hold my breath for a long time though. Probably what helped Azrael come through that trip with the worm.” He shook his head. “What a show-off.”
“He’s really insufferable,” I agreed.
Duncan’s lips turned up at one corner. “Right. So you say. But you’re the worst of us: all brave and self-sacrificing and sweet too. It’s embarrassing.”
“Are you saying nice things to me, Duncan? I thought we had a thing going on.” I pointed back and forth between the two of us. “Mean banter. Isn’t that how we flirt?”
He snorted. “No. We are not flirting.”
“But we used to.”
He gave me a long look and rose suddenly from the tub. We were so close together that his long, broad cock was suddenly bobbing in front of my face. I had the brief maniacal temptation to reach out and swat it and see just how much it could bob. But before I could, he turned. His tight, nicely-shaped ass was in my face instead, right before he stepped out of the tub, streaming water across the floor.
“I’m starving,” he said. “Let’s go eat.”
He began to towel himself off, and I watched his muscles ripple with the movement as he leaned over, rubbing the towel across those defined calves. When he straightened, the powerful muscles in his shoulders and back and the narrow definition of his waist were on full display as he twisted and turned.
“Sure. Me too,” I said.
But maybe I was more thirsty than anything else.
Chapter Six
Duncan
Seven years earlier
During the break between classes, I leaned against the wall in the hallway. The droning chatter of my fellow students faded as I read the letter from my little sister Zora for the sixth time.
Dear Duncan—it always seems hilarious to call you dear, because I never would in real life. Not that you aren’t dear to me.
Azrael is too of course. Are you looking after him? You know he needs someone to look after him, even though he would never admit it, even to himself. He’s always tortured himself to look after us both. I wonder if the academy is a break for him—one time he only has to worry about little things like slaying monsters and winning wars, and not keeping the two of us out of trouble.
I would never understand why my sister wrote in stream-of-consciousness and didn’t edit her letters. But today, I was thankful for a glimpse into that strange child’s brain. Azrael had looked after her since our mother grew sick, and the two of them had always been close—close in a way I wasn’t with either of them. It was lonely to be the middle child, neither the eldest son and heir, nor the sunshine baby of the family.
Do you think they’ll ever let girls into that academy of yours, speaking of? Da has me training now, just the same way he did with you two.
Those were the words that haunted me. Azrael had helped prepare me for the academy, and he hadn’t gone easily on me—but I knew he’d been merciful compared to what our father had put him through. What he’d done to us when we were just boys.
I’d always taken it in stride—Az and I were proud of how tough we were—but I couldn’t stand the thought for Zora. Sweet-faced Zora looked so much like the