Mantle of the Gods

They didn’t wake me up.

I hadn’t expected them to, but part of me had hoped they would. I hated that I had placed some of the burden on them, but they had taken it, so I wasn’t going to ride them about it.

Ether was lying on me with her head on my chest. I hadn’t felt her lay down next to me, so they might have tried to wake me last night and I had just been too out of it to respond.

Aelin walked up and stood on my other side. "Sleep well?”

I nodded as I sat up, taking Ether with me and slowly waking her up. “Morning.” I kissed her forehead as she blinked.

“Let’s get going lovebirds!” Aelin shook both of us. "We’re burning daylight and we’ve got a damsel to save!”

I chuckled. "Can I be the one to tell Rix you referred to her as a damsel?”

Aelin stopped her dance around us. "Please don’t. You know I was joking.”

“Sounds like we have to now.” Ether stretched as she stood up. She held out a hand to help me.

“JUSTIA!” Aelin scampered off to find the brunette Healer.

I thought about just getting up on my own, but I took the hand. I didn’t need it, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t grateful for the help. After a full night’s sleep, my body was feeling much better than it had the night before.

“Any trouble last night?”

Ether shook her head. "Justia and I took first watch, then Aelin switched out and then I switched out with Justia. If anything exciting happened, it was after I went to sleep.”

“Good.” I looked around, I didn’t see Justia or Aelin, which was weird, but if the two of them were together, I wasn’t going to go looking for them. I didn’t want to be the one to catch an eyeful in case they were doing something more personal.

“Have you thought about the boss?” Ether was trying to look busy straightening a few things.

There wasn’t really anything to tidy up. Honestly, if everything went well, we wouldn’t be coming back here tonight and maybe not ever. The penalty for farming below your level wasn’t as harsh as going down a tier, but there was still a penalty. So once we hit level two, we’d need to do our farming on the second level.

“Do you think they’re..?” I couldn’t think of a polite word to use for the possibilities that were running through my mind. "Okay?”

Ether laughed. "No, I don’t think they’re hooking up.” She tilted her head. "Okay, maybe they’re hooking up, but Justia is way too wound up about expectations and appearances to do much?”

“You think Justia is the limiting factor?” I’d assumed that it’d be Aelin, but maybe I was just bad at reading women.

“Have you been around the woman for a minute?” Ether chuckled. "That girl might act reserved about that stuff, but she’s a freak.” She shook her head. "Like I told Justia last night, Aelin is very open to something like that.”

“Huh." Maybe Justia wouldn’t kill me for outing her crush. "How long do you think we should give them before we interrupt their fun?”

“That depends, lover.” She batted her red eyes at me. "How long do you want to take to have some fun of our own?”

My heart skipped, I almost walked over and grabbed her, but deadlines loomed in my mind. "Is this another test?”

“Could be.” She gave me a roguish smile. "Or maybe not. There’s an easy way to find out.”

I took a step forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her close to me. I got so close that our noses touched. I felt her press into me, begging me to cross that invisible boundary between our lips.

“Work first.” I felt her body relax like she was disappointed. I took that moment to kiss her. Her eyes shot open in surprise as I ran my fingers through her hair. She leaned into the kiss, so I held it longer than I’d planned. I pulled away, her lips followed mine for just a little bit as she tried to prolong the moment.

“We can play later.” I kissed her forehead. “Let’s go embarrass the lovebirds.”

“Lovebirds?!?”

I spun around and moved Ether behind me. Edward was at the edge of the clearing. Aelin was unconscious over his left shoulder and he was dragging Justia with his hand holding her at the base of her skull. He had the ax and the dagger in his free hand.

“That will make this more fun.”