Phantom of the Library - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,19

or…human-ish man because it gives them a soul and then they can evolve and become smarter and stronger. Sort of…like a Pokemon.”

“So she wants one of us to marry her?”

“She’s probably feeling extra seduce-y because she probably wanted Sam or one of Sam’s friends and then they all got old and stopped visiting her.”

“I don’t want to be seduced.”

“I don’t either, obviously.” I tried to kick my limbs out of the sea vines.

Maya came swimming back to us holding the third map. “I bet you’re looking for this…”

“We are,” Graham said. “But I hardly want to ask what you want in return.”

“You don’t have to ask. I’ll just give it to you.” She swam over to Graham and unfastened his belt, and the girl definitely knew her way around buckles and zippers. She had his cock in her hand within a second.

“I just miss a man’s body,” she said. “So how about this? You let me play with you for today and then you can take the map and go home. Just let me play…and we can sway…in shadowed seas…you’re all for me…” She was singing in a beautiful, melodic voice. More than beautiful, really. Enchanting.

I mean…there are worse prices to pay. But—I’d never had anyone to come home to before. And I realized that I was thinking of Hel that way. Like someone who was always there, a part of my life that I couldn’t imagine disappearing. A fling didn’t have any appeal when I thought about how she might feel. Even if I had to share her, that was something earned, something we all had to figure out together.

“Helena,” Graham gasped as the undine was caressing him with both hands. He looked at me. “Jake, help me out here! I don’t want to betray Helena. She’s preying on my incubus side.”

“You don’t need an incubus side to get preyed on by a nymph,” I said. “So don’t blame yourself.”

Graham and I had been rivals, and now we weren’t quite that. But we were also a long way off from the sort of bond that we needed to have to share a family with Helena.

Priorities.

Graham and I hadn’t been best friends before this, but trust sneaks up on you sometimes. We’d fought together, and in a time like this, he was looking to me for some help dealing with a magical world he didn’t fully understand. He would also have my back, I thought. It was a quick calculation I realized I already knew the answer to.

“She’ll lure you in if you let her,” I said. “We’re going to have to fight her off together.”

“I’m with you,” Graham said, shoving Maya off of him. He zipped up his pants. The vines were fighting with his wrists and I grabbed the undine from behind so he wasn’t fighting her too.

“Whyyy?” she moaned. “I just want to touch.”

“We’re not interested. I know your deal. You want to marry a human type and get a soul, but our souls are already taken. So it’s a waste of your time.”

“Your girl won’t devote herself to you every single moment, I’m sure. And no human girl is as silky and wet as I am.”

“I don’t know,” Graham said. “Helena definitely delivers. But the last thing I would want is for her to devote every single moment to me. The reason I fell for her is because she’s not especially devoted to me at all. She’s devoted to her craft.”

“Sorry, little faery. Graham’s right on the money. I’ve been on dates who were, honestly, more skilled in the bedroom,” I said. “But a mate is more than that. The sexiest thing a woman can do is work as hard as our girl does, and care as much as she does. So maybe you can force yourself on us. But you’re not going to win either of us.”

“And you really think you can work together? Through it all? A mating is hard enough with two people! You are doomed to fail.”

“Only one way to find out,” I said. “We have a house to fix up together, and that’ll show us how well we work. I’m sure we’re going to have some fights.”

“We’ve already had some,” Graham said. “But not with each other. We have common goals. More than anything, I want to figure out my magic. Protect Helena. I don’t want her putting everything on her shoulders.”

“I’m with you on that,” I said, as Maya seemed to be getting weaker the more we united against her.