Page 18 of Blood Oath
MAVEN
That evening, I’ve finished healing my fingertips and I'm watering my plants when Kenzie bursts into my dorm room with an excited squeal. She rushes towards me with her arms extended like she’s coming in for a hug, but I block it by lifting the watering can.
“Wouldn't want to get you wet.”
“Right—sorry, I’m just so excited I forgot the no-hugging rule.” She wiggles her eyebrows and purrs, “But don't worry about getting me wet. I've been wet all day if you catch my meaning.”
“Nice innuendo. I take it you like your quintet.”
Kenzie clutches her heart and drops onto my bed, sighing at the ceiling. “Vivienne is the sexiest little angel in the world, and Dirk is almost as feral as I am in bed. And they're both so nice! We're going to be such a fantastic quintet once…”
She trails off, and her smile drops a little.
“Once that vampire stops being an asshole?” I guess.
“He hasn't been one today. Actually, he's politely given us our space today. He helped everyone else move into the apartment but said he wouldn’t move in until I gave him the green light. There’s all this awkward tension between us, and I can tell he keeps wanting to say something, but whatever it is, he keeps chickening out. I don't know how to feel about being matched to him. On the one paw, he clearly wants to make up for how he treated me before, but on the other paw…well, I don't get over things easily. Am I being petty?”
“No. You're protecting yourself.”
“The gods wouldn’t match me with someone who wouldn't be good to me, though,” she muses, sitting up to braid her hair. “So maybe I should let go of the past and give him a real chance. But enough about me—girl. Can we please talk about your infamous, sexy, wealthy, ridiculously top-tier quintet? I’m so fucking excited for you! I bet you’ll be in one of the highest-ranked quintets of all time!”
I look away. “They're not my quintet.”
“What do you mean? Hang on…May, why are you still in this dorm? Aren't you going to move in with your guys?”
“They're not mine. I turned them down so they can find a better keeper.”
Kenzie stares at me so long that I wonder if she heard me. Then she tips her head. “Wait. Why would you think you're not a good enough keeper for them? You're amazing. And if the gods made the match, then you know you five were all meant to be together. Nobody rejects their matches because it’s fate.”
As if the gods care about my fate. I shake my head and return to watering my plants.
“Trust me. Rejecting them was the right thing to do.”
To my surprise, she throws a hand over her mouth to try muffling a loud laugh. “Gods. You actually rejected those legacies? I wish I were there to see the looks on their faces. How did they take it?”
I glare at the Chinese takeout in the trash can. The fang necklace is in one of my drawers, and I begrudgingly hung both dreamcatchers up over the threshold of my dorm because as much as I don't want Silas’s gift, I want Crypt getting into my room even less.
“They’ll get over it,” I mutter. Then an idea strikes me, and I face her. “Kenzie. You've dated a lot more than I have.”
She grins. “As we’ve established, yes.”
“I'm abysmally inexperienced in comparison.”
“It’s true, you’re basically a monk,” she agrees. “A virgin monk, I’m pretty sure. No offense.”
I fight a morbid smile. “None taken. Tell me. What have your exes done in the past that made you dump them?”
Kenzie blows out a big breath slowly. “Oh, gods. Where to even begin? Honestly, there are so many reasons to dump someone. If they're boring, annoying, clingy, mean…oh, or if they're high-maintenance. That gets old fast.”
Boring, annoying, clingy, mean…
I take mental notes, waiting for her to go on.
Kenzie scratches her nose as she thinks. “Cheating is obviously a huge deal breaker. I've never been cheated on, but I would drop them like a griffin turd if they betrayed me like that. I did have a boyfriend once who flirted with anything that had a pulse, which was irritating. He did it to make me jealous, but he learned fast that I don't play head games.”
I watch as she stands, stretches, and meanders over to examine the magical orbs of light hovering over my plants. She shoots me a sheepish grin.
“I’ve only been dumped once, and they said it was because they hadn't realized just how high my body count is. Guess I intimidated them.”
