Blossom Fable

Chapter 26

Lunch and dinner with Princess' family are pleasant. Her brother turns out to be quite the chatterbox, while her mother butts in occasionally with a story about Princess as a child. Both of them extend their gratitude that she found such loving party members. Eventually, snow begins to fall outside, and Mist reluctantly enters the home again.

I'm sorry, Mist, I tell him.

He refuses to say anything to me, hopping over to the fireplace and curling up like a ball.

"He'll come around," Juno says.

Our party decides to spend the night at Princess' place before heading back to Halo Island tomorrow morning. We consider hunting monsters on the continent, but the nearest monster grounds are far too advanced for us, so we will work on our skills back home. Until we are strong enough to come back eventually.

Princess and Avery first head to Princess' old room. I decide to crash in the living room, but Juno soon convinces us that Princess' room is big enough for our whole party. After trying to nudge into Mist's mind one more time, I head to the bedroom and test out sleeping on the carpeted floor with a collection of blankets and pillows making it comfortable for me.

"I still don't understand why you did it," Juno says in the hallway.

I turn away, trying not to meet his eyes. "I was wrong."

Juno uses a finger to tilt my jaw back to him. "I'm angry, but that doesn't mean I won't keep sticking with you."

Before nodding off, I spare a glance at Avery and Princess sharing the queen sized bed, and Juno on the floor with his shirt torn off from him again. Last night comes back to me. All of the pleasure, the rush of finally being as close as I wanted to him. Finally letting him see all of me, to touch all of me....

I close my eyes when fatigue takes over. When I open them again, I'm back in Kara. Smoke unfurls at the corners of my vision, and I recognize the heavy air, the cackle of the brother god before it comes.

"I see you're joining me again?" he says.

I turn around to see him leaning against the mage Avatar building. He's dressed casually, with a fitted pair of garments that remind me of a rogue. Of Juno. He seems to grasp this from my mind, letting out a chuckle in response. He sweeps his platinum hair across his forehead, and it somehow falls in an effortlessly beautiful wave.

"Why did you call for me?" I say.

"I figured that I should." The brother god leans forward, relying only on his two feet rather than the building behind him. He regards me as if trying to study a creature of old. "And also. I saw that you finally shared a bed with Juno? I thought you were so against the idea. Who knew that actually, you craved it more than anything?"

Anger spurts through me. I reach for my mythic staff, but all I have are my clothes—which somehow, match the brother god in both fit, style, and color. "Don't come between me and Juno."

"He enjoyed it, craved for it, as much as you did." He offers me a fox-like grin. "Anyway, that's all good that you are no longer a virgin."

"Save it," I growl out. The volume of my voice rises almost at the same as a lion's. The brother god opens his eyes wider, as if shocked. He quickly returns to his normal, uncaring mood.

"My sister and I rarely have seen love like that before," he says. "Something so fiery red, so filled with passion. Didn't you love it when he was inside of you? I bet it felt like the most divine thing in the three continents."

I rush forward, but he raises a palm, and an invisible force stops me in my tracks, pinning me down to the foresty floor. I try to claw him, to reach his pretty yet infuriating face. I wonder what my claw marks would look like down his cheeks. I loathe him for offering me more power, for ruining what I have with my party members.