Yager shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Suspicious eyes locked with his, but she apparently decided not to pursue it as she asked, “Anything else?”
“Just one.”
“This isn’t the Will thing again, is it? Cause I actually like calling you Yager.”
“No.”
“The nice thing?”
“No.”
“The this-‐is-‐the-‐only-‐pussy-‐you-‐can-‐ever-‐have thing?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Tell me you love me, Neecy.”
She blinked, an expression of horror spreading over her face. “I…I didn’t? I didn’t already say that?”
“No. You didn’t.”
Neecy smoothly sat up so that she rested on her knees. “Oh God, Yager, I’m so…”
She stopped trying to move toward him, the chain halting her. Growling, she held her arm up.
Yager bit back his smile as he grabbed the key from off the bedside table.
“Sorry about that,” he chuckled as he unlocked her.
“Where did you get this thing from anyway? It looks fuckin’ medieval.”
“Tye.”
Neecy stared at him for a long moment. “Okay. Keep him away from my girls.
Especially Janelle.”
Now free, Neecy crawled into Yager’s lap. She placed her hands on both sides of his face, stroking his jaw and staring deep into his eyes. He brushed her nipples with the back of his knuckles and when she sighed, her wings unfurled, black and powerful from her back. He’d never seen anything more beautiful besides Neecy herself.
“I love you, Yager.” She leaned forward and kissed him softly. He knew what it took for her to say the words. And he knew she’d only say them if she meant them. “I love you,” she whispered against his lips.
He wrapped his arms around her waist. “I love you, baby. I’ll always love you.”
She gave an uncharacteristically shy smile as she leaned into him. “So what do we do now?”
“That’s easy.” Yager pulled her tight against him and her wings curled around them as she slid her arms around his neck. “We’re going to spend our snow day being nice to each other, Neecy Lawrence. Over and over and over again…until one of us passes out or dies.”
Neecy smiled, resting her forehead against his. “Now that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
Epilogue
Arri forced her eyes open and stared at the snow-‐encrusted window. She smiled. She loved when it snowed. Winter was her favorite time of year. If there was enough snow, she would make snow angels.
She tried to get up and drag her sorry butt to the bathroom before the rest of the Crows took them over. Her room didn’t have a bathroom like Didi and Neecy’s rooms. You had to have seniority to get those…or your own damn apartment.
It didn’t matter, though. She couldn’t get up anyway. Not with that one big arm thrown over her waist.
Arri’s eyes grew wide as she followed that arm around her to find the body attached to it.
She stared in horror at the blond head of hair resting against her back.
“What the…”
She didn’t know what else to do, so she kicked her leg back. The body behind her grunted and turned over. He stretched and yawned. When he finally forced his eyes open, he stared at her with pretty much the same expression she probably had at the moment.
“Arri?”
“Why are you in my bed?”
He blinked. “I have no idea.”
“Then. Get. Out.”
Staring at her blankly, Molinski didn’t move. So Arri flipped over onto her other side and started kicking him. And kept kicking him until she knocked him out of her bed.
“I want you out! Now!”
He jumped up. “Calm down! And stop yelling!” He stopped abruptly, staring at her. “My God, woman. Are you wearing Underoos? What are you? Ten?”
Arri glanced down at her favorite pair of Wonder Woman panties with matching tank top and lost it. She grabbed the hard cover copy of War and Peace off her bedside table and chucked it at him.
“Out! Out!”
She grabbed anything else she could get her hands on and continued to throw things, desperate to get him out of her bedroom and her life.
He snatched up his jeans, boots, and sweater, and backed up to her bedroom door.
“You know, you’re being ridiculous about this!”
Arri screamed in frustration as she looked for something else to throw at him.
His colors swirled around her and she couldn’t stand the sight of them anymore.
Her bedroom door swung open before he could open it and Janelle stood there in her Giants NFL jersey and oversized sweatpants.
“What the fuck is going on?” She looked at him. “And what the fuck are you doing here?”
He smiled. “I have no idea.”
The son of a bitch is laughing at me. Arri was sure her head would explode. I’ll kill him!
Her wings snapped from her back and her talons suddenly extended from her fingers. She had those talons almost on Mike’s face when Janelle caught her in mid-‐air.
“Arri, no!”
“You are a disgusting, ugly-‐colored scumbag!”
He pulled on his jeans and struggled into his boots while staring at her. “I have absolutely no idea what that even means, but trust me, princess. If anything had happened, you wouldn’t be in your underwear.”
Well, what the hell did that mean?
Now she really wanted him dead, but Janelle wouldn’t let her go.
Fine. She had other skills at her disposal now. She started a chant, but Janelle slapped her hand over her mouth.
“Get out of here, Mike! Right now!”
“I’m gone.” Liar-‐Mike Molinski leered at her. “So long, princess. I’m assuming it was fun.”
She fought Janelle harder as Mike, ignoring the growing number of Crows standing in the hallway, slipped out of her bedroom and hopefully out of her life forever.
But somehow she knew better.
Janelle released her. “Jesus, kid! Are you okay? I’ve never seen you like this.”
“I hate him!”
Janelle took a step away from her. “I’ll get you some tea and make sure he’s gone. I’ll be right back.” Once in the hallway, Janelle ordered the other Crows to go back to their rooms.
Suddenly exhausted, Arri sat on her bed. She retracted her talons but winced at the intense burning pain coming from the palm of her left hand.
Horror, cold and brutal, swept over her as she stared down at the rune freshly branded into her flesh. It wasn’t Skuld’s rune. This rune, the Hagalaz, belonged to another god. Hella of Helheim. Goddess of the Dead and Queen of the Underworld.
Arri had no idea how she got this or why, but she knew Molinski was behind it.
He had to be. And she’d get the truth out of him, even if she had to beat the living Helheim out of him…well, more likely she’d ask Janelle to do it.
But someone would be beating Liar-‐Mike Molinski within an inch of his life, if she had to bring hell on earth to make it happen.
Then, with that last thought swirling around her brain, little Arri Chang burst into tears.
End.