Page 21 of Bound By Fate
I froze.
"He knows," Kai whispered.
"Of course he knows," Lucien said. "He's Fae. They see patterns in the chaos."
"He's on our side," Ivy said, brushing glitter off her shoulder. "I think. Or... he just hates the Dean because Marrow tried to ban paisley waistcoats."
"An ally is an ally," I said, feeling a flicker of hope. "Even a glittery one."
"Especially a glittery one," Ivy agreed. She looked down at her hands, which were still glowing faintly pink. "Also... I think I still have the handcuffs."
She opened her palm. A tiny, perfect pair of glitter-cuffs sat there.
"Keep them," Kai drawled, smirking. "You never know when you'll run into an Officer of the Law."
Ivy turned bright red. "Shut up."
"Let's go home," Rhett said, putting an arm around me. "I've had enough chaos for one day. I want pizza. And a fortress."
"Pizza fortress," I agreed. "Sounds like a plan."
7
The Penthouse living room had been transformed.
The sleek, modern furniture had been pushed to the walls. In the center of the rug stood a monstrosity of cushions, blankets, and pure architectural ambition.
"It's structural engineering," Kai insisted, propping up a sagging roof section with a stack of spellbooks. "The couch cushions form the primary load-bearing walls. The throw blankets provide tensile strength. It’s unbreachable."
"It looks like a laundry explosion," Rhett observed from the kitchen, where he was staring at three empty pizza boxes with tragic longing. "And we are out of pepperoni."
"There is no way we ate three pizzas," I called from inside the fort.
"I had a high metabolic day," Rhett defended. "Shifting burns calories. Also, stress eating."
I lay back against a pile of pillows, staring up at the 'roof'—a patchwork quilt Ivy had knitted last semester. It filtered the lamplight into soft, cozy squares of color.
This was exactly what we needed.
After the Registry, after the blood draw, after the revelation of Marrow’s hunger... we needed to just be college students building a pillow fort.
Lucien crawled in through the 'tunnel' entrance. He was holding a bowl of popcorn and looking surprisingly comfortable in sweatpants.
"The perimeter is secure," he announced, handing me the bowl. "And by perimeter, I mean I locked the front door and put a 'Do Not Disturb' shadow-glyph on the hallway."
"Good," I said, munching a kernel. "No Deans allowed. No Enforcers. Just us."
Kai wiggled in next, followed by a very large, very reluctant-looking Rhett.
"I don't fit," Rhett grumbled, trying to arrange his long limbs without collapsing the walls. "This was built for Hobbits, not Alphas."
"Cuddle up," Kai ordered, pulling Rhett down until they were a tangled pile of limbs. "Be the little spoon, Rhett. Embrace it."
"I will bite you," Rhett threatened, but he settled his head on Kai’s shoulder and let out a long sigh.
We lay there for a moment in the dim, warm silence. It smelled like popcorn, pizza, andpack.
"So," Lucien said softly, staring at the quilt. "Marrow."
