Blind Warrior (The Weavers Circle #3) - Jocelynn Drake Page 0,50
he shook his head. “Water Weaver…geez…I…”
“Yeah, it’s a lot to take in.” Wiley gave a sage nod. “I know what it’s like. I kind of got a crash course like you.” He snorted and smiled at Cort. “I’m actually their first ‘prisoner,’ if you can believe it.”
“What?”
“Yep. Can you grab the creamer?” he asked, pointing to the fridge while turning to pull the carafe off the maker. There was just enough in there to pour two mugs of coffee.
“Sure.” Cort pushed off the counter and walked to the fridge. “What happened?”
“Oh, Baer was on a doughnut run, and we ended up at the same bakery. He claims that he was just about to get his flirt on when pestilents walked in the door. He mistook me for one of his missing brothers and shifted right in front of me before taking out the pestilents.”
“Shifted?” Cort grabbed the creamer and shut the door.
“Into a cougar.”
“Holy shit! You had to have been scared out of your mind!”
Wiley laughed and shook his head as he accepted the bottle. “Not as much as I should have been. It was like watching a superhero come to life. You gotta remember that I’ve been drawing comic books and up to my eyeballs in fantasy for a long time. I loved it.”
Okay, so Wiley was a little crazy, but then it obviously helped him adjust to the world he was now living in.
“But…how did you end up a prisoner?”
Wiley handed the unicorn mug over to Cort and started to doctor his own. “Well, between the mix-up of thinking I was a Weaver and me seeing Baer shift, they thought it was better if I stay here for my own protection. The pestilents don’t really care who they kill so long as it gets them closer to wiping out the Circle. And well, turned out there was way more to it, but it all worked out in the end.”
Cort stared at the mug he was gripping tightly in both hands. The world had suddenly become so much bigger and more complicated. Wasn’t it enough just trying to work a job, pay bills, and find a guy he could spend his life with? Now there were goddesses, magic, and monsters.
A gentle hand landed on his shoulder, and Cort looked over to find Wiley’s worried gaze on him. “Trust me, it gets easier. First few days are really overwhelming, but then you remember that these are also normal guys who argue over who has to load the dishwasher and why they can’t have steak three nights in a row.”
“How long have you and Baer been together?”
“Actually together?” Wiley’s nose scrunched up a little as he stared at the ceiling while digging through his memory. His eyes suddenly widened, and his mouth fell open. “Not quite two months. It feels like so much longer.”
“Yeah, the way you are together, I would have guessed longer too. What about Dane and Clay?”
“Umm…I think five or six months.” Wiley took a sip of his coffee and moaned softly.
Cort turned his attention to his own cup, adding a little sugar and a splash of creamer. He took a couple of careful sips, trying to balance the scalding heat with his need for caffeine to get his brain chugging along.
A low chuckle left Wiley, and Cort followed the young man’s line of sight to see him watching a trio of squirrels darting around the backyard as if in a frantic search for food.
“They’re waiting for Ruby to be let out. She’s usually up already and chasing them, but with all the excitement last night, she’s still sacked out at the foot of the bed,” Wiley explained.
“She’s a sweet dog.”
“True. Chasing the squirrels is just a game to her, but that one right there is really frustrated with her,” he said, pointing at the squirrel that was staring straight at the back patio. “He’s keeping watch while the others forage. It sounds like they’re even laughing at their friend.”
“Laughing?” Cort huffed a soft chuckle. “How can you even tell?”
“Well, I can hear his tho—” Wiley suddenly cut himself off, his eyes going incredibly wide as he looked up at Cort. “Oh. You don’t know. Grey didn’t tell you that part?”
“What? What didn’t he tell me?”
Wiley took a step back, chewing on his bottom lip. “I don’t know if I should. I mean, I’m not sure why he didn’t tell you when you apparently know everything else. But there might be a reason.”