His every cell sighed with completion.
"Enough," he said, and for the first time in his life he honestly meant it.
Zoe laid her head beside his hip and let out her breath, but Bryan dragged himself up the bed until they could hug. Though he barely had strength to move, Alex's throat was tight.
"Thank you," he said, the words inadequate but all he had. "That meant more to me than I can say."
Bryan slid his arm under Alex's neck, his bicep a hard but warm pillow. "You're welcome, buddy."
He was grinning just a little, those near-black eyes so gentle it was impossible to believe him capable of cuffing anyone to a chair.
"This was your idea," Alex whispered, his voice failing him. "You knew this was my fantasy."
"I knew," Bryan agreed.
Alex felt Zoe move away from them to sit up, but he couldn't look away from Bryan. This night had been a gift Alex doubted he would have had the generosity of soul to give—especially if his affections had been involved the way Bryan's were. Alex was humbled by what he'd done, not just grateful but awed.
Then, as if his subconscious had been waiting for his guard to fall, a rusty blade of loneliness jabbed his heart. He'd never had a night this sweet, but he'd had many just as daring, and none of those partners were now a part of his life. Alex didn't think he could bear losing Bryan, too.
He touched his friend's face and kissed him, gentle but deep. He couldn't say he loved him, not when he wasn't sure what he meant, or how Bryan would interpret it. He felt it, though, with a fullness words couldn't touch.
Whatever the nature of his feelings, he had no trouble conveying their intensity. The kiss went on and on—though it was never anything but tender. Each time it seemed it might end, one of them would turn his head a fraction, and their tongues would slide against each other, and they'd have to explore the charm of the new angle.
They couldn't let go. They were holding something to them so it couldn't fray. Bryan's hands moved up and down Alex's back, slow, soothing passes of his callused palms. Alex was vaguely aware that Zoe wasn't touching them, wasn't participating in what they were doing like she had before.
It was this that finally made him pull away from Bryan.
He turned to her, his head swimming slightly from the lengthy kiss. She was sitting cross-legged on the mattress, watching them quietly.
"Zoe," he said, his hand sliding up her arm.
She shook her head as if her name had been a question. Wondering if she felt left out, he squeezed her shoulder.
"No," she said. "I don't want you to kiss me now. That's how tonight should end. Watching you two was… really special."
Despite her apparent calm, her voice choked up on the final words.
"Zoe." He swept his thumb over her clavicle.
She covered his hand with a shaky laugh. "I'm sorry. I'm not upset, not the way you think. I… just love the way you look at him. I love the way you look at each other. I thought it would hurt if I ever saw that, but it doesn't."
Alex sat up, needing to hold her no matter what she said. "Something hurts, or you wouldn't be fighting tears."
Her forehead rolled against his chest. "Watching you and Bryan made me realize something I wasn't ready to face."
"I haven't stopped loving you, Zoe. I never will."
She pulled back to smile softly. "And I'll never stop loving you, but we're not in love with each other anymore. I think we turned the last page in that chapter back at the falls."
Was she saying she thought he was in love with Bryan? Alex didn't know how to parse feelings the way she did. He opened his mouth but could think of nothing appropriate to let out.
"Watching you made me ache," she said, lightly touching her breastbone. "But not with jealousy. There's someone I want to open my heart to the way you and Bryan have. It's stupid, I guess. I feel safe with him, even though I know I'm not." She shook her head at herself. "I'm actually glad I'm in love with him. I'm just pretty sure he doesn't feel the same way."
Zoe might not have been jealous, but Alex was small enough to experience a bite of anger when she spoke of loving someone else. "It's that bastard Magnus, isn't it?"
Her smile tugged ruefully higher on one side. " 'Fraid so."
"How can he not feel the same?" Bryan blurted out. "You're really great."
Zoe laughed at that and wiped the corners of her eyes. "Thank you, but Magnus has a lot of women to choose from, and a lot of secrets—neither of which he wants to give up for me."
"Secrets," Alex said, his brain eager to sharpen on a problem it could actually do something about. "If it's secrets you need to uncover, you went to bed with the right two men."
Magnus's eyes blinked open and immediately stung with sweat. His skin throbbed all over, as if every inch of his body were about to spasm in climax. He shoved his hand under the towel to make it happen, then realized his energy was already blazing like a sun. If he worked himself to release, he'd as good as turn on a search light for his mother's minions to follow. No way could they miss the galaxy-sized flare of ecstasy he'd sent up.
He forced his trembling hand away from his erection and sat up, wincing as his balls shifted position.
He hadn't planned on being reminded what a fairy orgy was like, nor would he have guessed two humans could jog his memory. The strength of the urge surprised him, but part of him wanted to drive to that hotel and take them all himself, just let loose of everything but being satisfied. He'd been careful for so long, concerned about sparing Zoe's feelings. But if tonight were any indication, she might like that side of his nature.
Magnus thrust his hands into his hair and groaned. If anyone had told him he could want Zoe more, he would have sworn it was impossible. He'd never get her out of his system now, never stop wanting to explore every twist and turn of her fantasies. She was his match in so many ways. Even the thrill she found in pleasing another he understood. The thought that they could never truly be together nearly drove him mad.
Zoe was enough to be an orgy all by herself.
And then a smile broke across his face, as unstoppable as sunrise.
She was in love with him. Magnus hated that Alex was going to poke into his secrets, though chances were his safeguards would hold against the changeling's untrained powers. What mattered was that Zoe was in love with
him
. His grin stretched wide enough to bare his molars. Regardless of how he'd disappointed her, she wanted to open her heart to him.
The Will-Be shimmered on the edge of vision like a heat mirage. Magnus hadn't called it consciously. It was simply drawn to his joy and eager to deliver some unmet desire. Even as he wondered what freak of fortune might unfold, a loud crash from his yard brought him to his feet. Not with fear, though. Nothing bad could happen if Zoe loved him, especially if she loved him better than her old boyfriend.
Indulging in a chuckle that was purely male, he went outside to see what had transpired.
He found a pizza delivery car smashed into his scrubby yard's one large rock. The dazed but unharmed young driver was scratching his head over the wreck.
"Dude," he said on seeing Magnus, not seeming to register that his clothing consisted of a towel. "I don't even know how I did that. My radio is, like, totally crushed."
"You can use my phone," Magnus offered. "Call your boss and a tow truck."
"That'd be good," said the teenager, still sounding spaced. He looked at Magnus. "I don't suppose you're hungry, 'cuz I'm, like, never gonna make these deliveries now. No charge, of course."
Magnus let out a startled laugh. Clearly, this was the Will-Be's idea of making up for his missed pizza night at Zoe's.
"As a matter of fact, pizza is my favorite midnight snack." He smiled at the boy, knowing he probably deserved some recompense for being yanked into this. "Why don't you come inside, and I'll tell you a few of my secrets for getting anything you want while working half as hard."
"Cool," said the boy. "Just, you know, put on some pants."
Magnus swallowed the last bite of pizza-with-everything and slid the other two pies the delivery boy had given him into his fridge. He'd enjoyed playing magical mentor to the laid-back lad, who probably didn't suspect half the value of what he'd been told. His stomach full, his cheer restored, Magnus felt more himself than he had in days. He even had pizza for breakfast to look forward to. With that prospect before him, any problem seemed solvable.
Hadn't he learned that nothing was impossible to a man who believed? Magnus didn't have to know
how
he'd be with Zoe, he simply had to know he would. With that assurance trembling to be born inside him, all was right with his world.
Or almost right.
"Ahem," said a high-pitched female voice from a spot above his right ear. "The universe has a message for Magnus Monroe."
Magnus's mood was too good not to smile. Despite the officiousness his invisible visitor was trying to put on, he knew it represented neither the "universe" nor his mother.
"All," he said, closing the refrigerator door. "Are you certain this message doesn't come from a small fairy? Maybe one who's too proud to admit she's deigning to speak to me?"
The air vibrated with a tense silence.
"The reason I ask," he continued casually, "is because if my honored guest were a small fairy, I'd feel obliged to tell her I mean her and her kind no harm. As an emigre myself, naturally I respect her choice to live in the human realm."
The air hummed a little harder. "Titania's blood has been known to lie, Big One."
"True," Magnus admitted. "But many say my father's blood runs truer in my veins." He turned to face the almost-glow in the air, catching an elusive hint of purple wings. "Come on, Rajel. I've seen you already, when you were hovering over Zoe's kitten. Why not show yourself and say what you came here for?"
The queen of Zoe's fairies blinked into visibility with her arms already folded across her chest. "Don't imagine we've forgotten your shameless ploy to suck up to us."
"Careful," Magnus teased. "You stay that grumpy long, and some more mirthful member of your flock is liable to steal your throne."
"As if!" Rajel exclaimed, demonstrating an admirable command of human attitude. "We all think this matter is serious."
"Tell me what it is then, queen, and maybe I'll think it's serious too."
Rajel squinted suspiciously at him, her wings beating so hard her sparkly yellow crown slid over one eye. She pushed the headgear level with one tiny hand. Finally, she huffed and landed on his countertop.
"I hope you think it's serious," she said. "Because if you don't sever your ties to Zoe, your mother is determined to do her harm."
"Zoe told me she showed up at the falls."
"She didn't just show up, Big One, she attacked Zoe with a self-doubt spell. If my flock and I hadn't saved her, Zoe would be a mass of insecurities the Will-Be couldn't do nice things for. Why, she might have gotten so bad she'd forget to believe in us!"
Magnus's face went cold. "Zoe didn't tell me that."
"She didn't know how dangerous it was."
Shaken, Magnus pulled a chair out from his kitchen table and sat. Zoe's confidence was an integral part of who she was. He couldn't imagine her without it and frankly didn't want to try. "We can't let my mother attack again."
"
You
can't let your mother attack." Rajel flew off the counter to land on his knee. Though she wasn't made of matter, her magic gave the impression that she weighed as much as his cell phone. "
You're
the reason Zoe is in danger."
"I can't return to Fairy," Magnus said. "And that's the only thing that would convince Titania to back off."
"You wouldn't go home even to save Zoe?"
"It's not that simple. My mother wants me under her thumb to solidify her position with the other nobles. If I refuse, she'll consider it an act of war. I saw what happened when my father tore the realms apart. I don't want our people to suffer that again."
Her Lilliputian size notwithstanding, Rajel understood a ruler's responsibility to protect her own. Her little face was sober.
"Then you need another plan," she said. "Zoe doesn't understand your mother's brand of magic. She won't know how to defend herself."
The answer came to him between one breath and another, no doubt the lingering effect of his recent attunement with the Will-Be.
"I have a plan," he said. "But it's going to require your help."
Zoe was as interested in Magnus's secrets as anyone, but after the night she'd spent, she needed shower time more. Leaving Bryan and Alex to their detecting, she grabbed her purse and shut the door. The solitude was immediately comforting. She'd made a choice tonight, possibly a choice that wasn't going to work out, but just knowing for sure what her heart desired was a relief. If nothing else, tonight proved she could be brave if she wanted to.
She felt renewed by the time she'd rinsed the last of the hotel's spicy soap down the drain—which was when the lovebirds, Samuel and Florabel, apparated in the middle of the spray.
"Hey!" she said, covering her breasts.
"Outside the curtain!" Florabel scolded, pointing her finger firmly at her new boyfriend. "Remember your boy-girl human etiquette!"
Florabel didn't seem to realize Zoe might want privacy from
her
. Resigned, she asked the obvious. "Why are you here?"
"We need a curl of your hair. Please cut one off for us."
If this was an example of Florabel's communication skills, Zoe understood why her toaster still didn't work. "Am I allowed to know why?"
"We need it for a private bit of magic we can't talk about."
"A private bit of magic."
"It's
very
important."
"You're sure you're not going to use it to turn me into a toad?"
"Zoe!" Samuel cried from outside the curtain. His agitated shadow buzzed closer. "You are our human. We wouldn't harm you no matter what."
No matter what
suggested their patience might have been tempted these last few days. Zoe supposed she ought to be glad they were talking to her at all.