"Is he...?"
"How many cookies did you give him?"
Jaydis' entire being shook with unbothered laughter. Wiping a tear out of the corner of his eyes, he said, "Chocolate, huh. What do you know?"
"Shouldn't we—I don't know—get him some water or something?" I asked, trying and failing to keep the tinge of worry out of my voice at seeing Haze's unmoving form on the grass behind Jaydis. Only the steady rise and fall of his chest kept me from barging right over to him.
Syn scratched the back of his head and sighed like he would rather be anywhere but here right about now. Kenas arched a brow, looking between a still chuckling Jaydis, me, and the chocolate-high demon.
I'd already raised my fist to knock some sense into the one that clearly needed it most—yup, that'd be the seelie whose continuous laughter made me wonder if he was somehow affected by those cookies too—when a low groan made me hesitate.
Haze raised one of his arms to cover his face, stifling another sound.
Seeing his chest no longer moving rhythmically, I pushed myself off the bench and darted over to him, nearly tripping over his foot in the process.
No one else moved. Jaydis was laughing even harder now—no idea how that was possible—and Syn merely shook his head and chewed on the last bit of his cookie. Kenas just rolled his eyes and brought the cup to his lips once more.
Haze had just collapsed! Why weren't they worried? For all we knew, multiple cookies worth of chocolate could seriously harm him.
Eyes closed and mouth drawn into a frown, he looked distraught. My fingers automatically touched the grove next to his throat, searching for this carotid artery, and I started counting in my head.
I was no expert, but his pulse was much, much too fast. And that wasn't all. He'd started shaking too.
"Guys, cut the crap," I hissed. "I don't think—"
More laughter. But this one was lower, deeper. No less amused though. And it didn't come from Jaydis.
But—
My eyes snapped back to Haze. His arm still covered his eyes, but there was no mistaking the stupid smile splitting his face.
"Aww, Cupcake," he drawled. "You're worried about me."
"You... You jerk!" I pulled my hand back with such force that I found myself sitting on the cold grass next to him a moment later. "You too!" I added when Kenas started laughing right alongside Jaydis.
"You see?" Jaydis grabbed himself another pastry. "He's fine."
Haze grumbled a soft complaint when I used this chest to push myself up. "I clearly need to get myself some new friends," I muttered.
"When you find some, let me know," Syn said with a slight eye roll.
In a movement that should not have been possible for someone in his current state, Haze did some sort of reverse combat roll and catapulted himself onto the tabletop, nearly knocking the platter and its contents onto Kenas. "Cookies..." he breathed. "More cookies."
Before anyone could react, his hands latched onto the last remaining chocolate peanut butter ones. He'd already inhaled the first one and taken a huge chunk out of the next one when Syn, apparently the only one with a brain, snatched the others out of his unsuspecting hand.
"Hey!" Haze protested. "I was gonna eat those."
"I'm aware," Syn replied dryly and bit into a cookie himself. "Not anymore."
"But I'm starving!"
Until this point, neither Kenas nor Jaydis had said anything, but seeing Haze huddled there, dark eyes fixated on the half-eaten cookie in his hand, I couldn't even blame them for bursting out laughing once more. Hell, I could barely keep it together at this point. Never in a million years did I expect to see an Ember Knight, the pride of the demon army, crumbling a chocolate peanut butter cookie all over his jersey like a frat boy straight out of one of those college romcoms with a severe case of the munchies.
"Do we have any more?" he asked.
"No!" I grabbed the platter right as his greedy eyes settled on what had to be a chocolate cupcake. "No more chocolate for you."
"I need sugar." He flopped over, arms and legs extended over the edges of the tabletop. "Someone get me some sugar."
Turning to the others, I added, "I'm gonna go find him something to eat. Don't let him do anything stupid, please. I'll be right back."
The guys would be more than capable of handling him for five minutes, right?
I made my way back over to the buffet, already scouring the tables for anything sugary. A familiar head of caramel hair caught my eye as I reached for a napkin. Ri. And she wasn't alone.
A sudden sense of deja vu hit me when I took in the guy she was making out with. They were partly concealed by the tree Ri was pressed up again, but there was no mistaking that face.
Aidan. What the actual hell?
If he'd been the same guy from the biology hallway all those weeks ago, no wonder she was all paranoid and up in my face making threats. If anyone, friend or not, found out she was locking lips with a shifter, her father would likely disown her.
I'd only met the man once, and while first impressions could be misleading, it was highly doubtful that was the case with him. He'd been the one to suggest confining the refugee shifters to Flumerra after all. If I remembered correctly, his exact words had been, Forget about them. They're the naiads' problem now.
Yeah, lovely individual right there.
As if Ri could feel my gaze on her, her eyes snapped open and locked right onto me. Only then did I notice the triangular gray ears peeking out from between perfectly styled locks and the long gray gloves with what had to be claws at the fingertips covering her hands and most of her forearms.
She pushed Aidan away and said something to him. Not a second later, he was glaring daggers at me too.
With my best screw-you smile, I curled my fingers in a slow wave.
Angry shouts made all three of us turn our heads. The music was loud, but the muffled sounds of a commotion still reached me. And they were coming from the direction of my roomies.
Not even five damn minutes.
Luckily, a pile of pumpkin bars just happened to be on a table between me and my destination. I grabbed a handful and bolted. Haze would just have to make do with these.
By the time I made it back, Jaydis and Haze, whose eyes were now pitch black, were both atop the table, caught in some kind of wrestling match with what looked like an oversized gray noodle. Kenas still sat on the bench, cup in hand, shaking his head at the other two. Syn was nowhere to be found.
"Give that back!" Jaydis whisper-yelled.
"Here ya go," Haze replied smugly, releasing it. As the color slowly returned to his eyes, he added, "Have fun with that."
"I should have let you get your ass whooped by Calla."
"Do I even wanna know?" I asked, placing three pumpkin bars in front of the insatiable demon, who, of course, proceeded to dig right in.
"Well, she made some backhanded comment about us getting lucky during the tournament and Zee just lost it," Kenas said, shaking his head. "Had to grab him by his legs to keep him from lunging at her. Then Jay got in the middle and suddenly, Zee wanted the spear. Jay didn't wanna give it up, so, Zee melted it."
He'd melted it?
Sure enough, there was a distinctly pointy tip on one end.
I took a deep breath and handed another pastry to Kenas and Jaydis. "Maybe feeding him chocolate was a mistake."
"Yeah." Kenas nodded, raising the bar to take a bite. "Think even Jay's starting to see that."
Suddenly, a pale hand shot forward and snatched it right out from under Kenas' nose. Literally.
"Mine!" Haze grumbled, hovering over the pile of pumpkin bars in front of him.
"That's it!" Jaydis mumbled, staring at his hand, which was now empty too. "Someone needs to put you to bed." He exchanged a glance with Kenas before his yellow eyes narrowed and snapped to me. Slowly, he raised both eyebrows.
"Nope," I said. "No way."
"Oh, come on!" He pouted. "You're the only one he hasn't threatened."
Except, he quite clearly had. In a way. Even if it wasn't quite verbally.
"So? I don't wanna babysit him."
Haze interrupted his munching to glare at both of us. "I don't need a babysitter. I happen to be an E—"
"Exceptionally gluttonous sloth, yes," I said quickly. "Very much so."
And then it hit me. The sins! He was losing control of them. All of them. They were a part of him, he'd confirmed as much before.
By my count, there were only two sins he hadn't exhibited yet and I wasn't particularly keen on witnessing either. Five sins were definitely enough for one night. And judging by the intense glint in his eyes, he wasn't far off from displaying number six.
"Fine," he said huskily, "if you wanna sit, you're welcome to sit on my—"
"That's it," I said, taking his hand and attempting to pull him upright. "Don't make me call Susie."
Of course, he didn't even budge an inch. If anything, I nearly lost my balance and caused a repeat of the cave incident.
"Who's Susie?" Jaydis asked.
"My feral guard dog," Haze said proudly. He was looking at Kenas when he spoke, but the way his calloused thumb caressed the inside of my wrist just barely was no accident. Goosebumps erupted on my flesh.
Kenas' unblinking face likely mirrored my own when he asked, "Your what now?"
After a moment of stunned silence all around, the feral guard dog's owner's eyes widened until the crimson was surrounded by white on all sides and he coughed. "I'm kid—I, uh... I'm... I should go now."
"That might be the smartest thing you've said all night," I teased, trying and failing to ignore the different kind of warmth that traveled up my arm when his grip on my arm tightened. Stumped Haze was kind of...cute.
In one wobbly motion, he pushed to his feet, my hand still holding his likely the only thing that kept him from faceplanting in front of the table.
Without thinking, I wrapped an arm around his waist to steady him. Not sure who was more surprised—him or me.
"This brings me right back to that cave," he breathed, lips curling up into a small smile.
"I see he's in good hands," Jaydis said, motioning for Kenas to get up. With both hands planted firmly in the middle of his gigantic back, Jaydis pushed him toward the haunted house. "You got this. We're gonna go, uh, do the thingy over there now. Bye-bye."
"You're the worst," I replied in my best singsong voice.
He pointed at his left ear with one hand like he couldn't hear what I was saying, but judging by the way his shoulders shook, he'd definitely heard me.
"What do you say, Cupcake?" Haze's warm breath caressed the side of my neck. "Wanna go into the haunted house with me?"
I slowly turned to face him—and immediately had to crane my neck yet again. This time I couldn't even blame our closeness on him. I cleared my throat and put some distance between us, albeit somewhat reluctantly. "I would rather go to Furnace Peak and fry, thank you."
His grin widened. "That can be arranged."
"Can you stop being so"—intense, close, hot—"infuriating?"
"Nah, it's a special talent of mine." His teeth sunk into his bottom lip, and he tilted his head. "Now if you're wondering about my other talents—"
I grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around before he could finish that sentence. And maybe so he wouldn't see the redness that was surely creeping into my cheeks for what had to be the third time tonight. Surprisingly, he let me. With a much too gentle push toward the supernatural dorms, I hissed, "Go!"
"I like this side of you, Cupcake."
"Yeah?" I grumbled. "Well, don't get used to it."
"Why not?" His voice was barely audible. "Already got used to you."