I wake a few hours later to voices, but my eyelids feel heavy. Sleep still weighs them down.

“Let her sleep,” Dev’s voice says, close to me. “Who knows how long she stayed up after that dream.”

“I’m taking a shower,” Jules announces, and I feel the bed shift on my other side. The bathroom door creaks closed a moment later.

There’s a silence where I feel my grasp on consciousness slipping again but Dev snaps me back to attention when he says, “Why don’t you come take his spot, James?”

Just the thought of being the meat in a Devereaux-Brody sandwich ignites a fire in my belly. I feel my nipples tighten underneath my shirt and hope they don’t notice. I’m on my back with an arm over my head and the other resting on my stomach, so my chest is on full display. I pray to the goddess that there’s a sheet over me but I’m not quite in touch with my body enough to tell, and if I move to find out they’ll know I’m awake.

“Shouldn’t we just get up? It’s like nine thirty.” Brody’s morning voice is deep and grumpy sounding. I picture him stretching. His grey Crescent Creek football t-shirt is probably riding up on his toned stomach deliciously.

What is wrong with me today?

“I just want you to be charged up on Emmy energy, that’s all. Come get your fix.” Dev sounds mild.

Brody joins us on the bed a few seconds later and settles into Jules’ spot. He gently rests a hand on the arm that’s thrown above my head.

“Let me warn you, man. It’s gonna hurt like a bitch for a minute or two when you stop touching her. I think prolonged exposure makes it hurt worse when you let go. Like a punch to the gut. Found that out the hard way yesterday morning,” Brody says.

Dev is touching me? I flex my fingers slightly and feel them at my side, so the hand resting on my stomach must be him. My heart flutters.

“It’s only been a few hours,” Dev mumbles.

“Still. I bet it’ll sting.” Brody’s hand moves down my arm towards my elbow. “So what really happened with Claire?”

Dev’s fingers twitch against me. “Claire was just a distraction.”

Brody chuckles and skips his fingers over my shoulder and across my collarbone, gently grazing. “Thought so.”

Dev growls. “Stop. You’re gonna wake her up.”

“Her skin is so soft,” Brody says faintly, as if in wonder.

“James…” Dev’s tone is full of warning.

Brody ignores him. “What are we doing today?” he asks instead, resting his calloused fingers on my neck.

“I’ve got to mow and go down to city hall and pay the gas bill. If she doesn’t need us here.”

“It’s weird that our lives revolve around her now,” Brody murmurs. “I crave time with her more than alone time, and that’s new to me. Usually I’m happiest when it’s just you and I doing our own thing.”

“Yeah,” Dev agrees. “That’s why I broke it off with Claire. Because that’s how you’re supposed to feel about your girlfriend. I never did, even before this whole guardian business happened. I put up with her annoying personality so I could get laid, and kept hoping I’d feel something. I’m a shitty person.”

“Don’t be like that. It’s not like you didn’t try and leave her every other week. She kept roping you back in. It’s not entirely your fault. We gotta be careful at school now, though. Make sure she doesn’t do some stupid girl revenge bullshit against Emmy.”

“You’ve seen too many movies,” Dev says, shifting slightly, but keeping his hand on me.

“Girls can be fuckin’ cruel, Devereaux. Don’t kid yourself.”

“Well it’s not like I told Claire that I was leaving her for Emmy,” Dev grumbles.

Brody snorts. “We all heard your spat last night, or part of it at least.” He adopts a gruffer voice than his own to imitate Dev. “‘He’s not her girlfriend’. Stupidest response ever.”

“Stupidest isn’t a word,” Dev snaps. “And y’all heard that?”

“We were lookin’ for some place to chill away from the crowd and came across you two.”

“All of you?”

“Mhmm. Emmy’s family wouldn’t stop hounding her about sex.” Brody sounds amused.

Dev’s fingers spasm against me.

I’m fully awake now, and it’s a wonder they’re both not catching on by the speed of my breathing. Thankfully they seem lost in their conversation. I should make my presence known, but for some reason I’d rather just listen for a little longer.

“I’m surprised, honestly, that she’s still got her V card. I figured baby brother would have hit that like a screen door in a hurricane,” Brody says.

Dev sits up suddenly, removing his hand from me in the process. We both gasp at the loss and I open my eyes, blinking disorientedly for a moment.

“Dev, you woke her up!” Brody says in fake outrage.

Dev is radiating barely contained rage, and I don’t know why.

“Are..” I clear my throat, trying to find my sleep-stolen voice. “Are you okay?” I push myself up into a sitting position.

“I’m fine,” he grunts, staring hard at the quilt. His fists are clenched, probably to stave off the ache of our parting. I’m not loving it myself.

The bathroom door opens and steam rolls out. Jules is dressed only in low slung jeans and I stare at him. I’ve seen him in various stages of undress throughout our friendship but he has never affected me like this. His bare chest looks like it was cut from stone. He’s not as ripped as Brody or his brother, he’s not an athlete, but he’s lean and made well. And obviously no slouch, based on the muscles in his arms. He wears a leather necklace with a ring that was his mother’s. I almost forgot that he had it. Usually it’s tucked under his shirt.

My mouth has gone dry and I realize that I’m blatantly checking him out. His curls are dark and drenched, dripping onto his shoulders which in turn send rivulets running down his pecs, over his nipples and onward to the tanned skin of his stomach.

Devereaux’s agitation only increases, threatening to choke me. I give myself a little shake and turn back to him.

“Put on a fuckin’ shirt,” he orders Jules.

I can’t tell if it’s hot in here or if I’m just drowning in hormones.

“Devereaux,” Brody says carefully. “Take a deep breath.”

I place a hand on the bare skin of Dev’s wrist and he seems to calm a little, huffing out a breath. He finally looks back at me, his green-grey eyes are dark. I shiver in response and try to offer him a comforting smile, but it’s hard when all I’m feeling is the intense urge to kiss all three of them. Which is weird. Especially in relation to Jules.

“I need to get dressed,” I say, cheeks red. I push to the edge of the bed, brushing against Dev’s knees as he pulls them up to let me by. I grab my clothes and escape to the bathroom, finally taking a steadying breath when my back is against the door.

I am brushing my teeth when I open the door again. All of us are dressed now. Jules even has a shirt on.

“Mama said y’all should go on home today,” I announce around my toothbrush. “The rest of the day is just family stuff.”

Three sets of eyes darken this time. Jules exhales roughly and Brody scowls.

“When will you be back home?” Dev asks. He’s wearing dress slacks and a grey Crescent Creek Football t-shirt identical to Brody’s.

“Tomorrow sometime. Today is just cleanup and the ritual later.” I turn around and spit before rinsing the toothbrush and setting it on the counter.

Brody groans. “That’s forever, Mistress.”

“We can stay and help clean,” Jules offers.

I shake my head and pull my hair over my shoulder to braid. “I don’t like how the rest of my family treats guardians. I don’t want you to have to deal with it. Besides, I’m sure you’ve got stuff to do. You have lives.”

Brody grimaces and Devereaux rolls his shoulders back a few times.

Jules looks mildly amused and moves to stand behind me. He pulls my hair back over my shoulder and proceeds to braid it for me.

I walk them out to Dev’s truck, ignoring the looks we get from my relatives as we pass through the house.

A long hug each and then they climb in and take off, and it almost physically hurts to watch them disappear down the driveway.

Persephone waits for me on the porch when I turn around, arms crossed and expression sour.

“It really isn’t fair. I’ve been begging for guardians, but grandmother never gave me the time of day,” she says once I reach her.

“Again, it wasn’t by choice. I’m lucky I can stand them.” I step past her and tug open the door. She follows.

“They haven’t even been through the culling?” she asks, her bravado starting to falter.

I shake my head. “Doesn’t that happen before the actual binding?”

“Yeah, it does.” She offers me a small smile and I finally see the cousin I used to play with as a child. Hours upon hours spent between the two of us playing hide and seek in the orchard, or pretending we were warrior goddesses on various quests to save unfortunate souls.

“It’s good to see you, Seph.” I mean it.

She nods and bites her lip for a moment before pulling me into a hug. “At least they’re cute. Your guardians could model.”

I laugh. “Right? Cheekbones for days.”

She links arms with me and we head inside and to the dining room, where Mama is serving eggs benedict to thirty or so witches who are in various stages of wakefulness. For a moment I’m confused at how good the food looks, but then I realize that Andre must be cooking. Eggs benedict is one of his specialties. Silently I curse Mama for not letting him come around more when I was growing up. I missed out on so much amazing food.

Persephone and I grab our breakfast and go out to the sun porch to eat.

“So how are you still a virgin with those three tall glasses of water at your beck and call?” Seph asks me, leaning forward in her white wicker chair.

“They’ve only been mine for a few weeks. And they’re not - they don’t exist just to serve me.” I blush. Suddenly the image of Jules, Dev and Brody as some sort of dungeon sex slaves comes to mind.

“Uh, they kinda do, Artemis. My mama’s men cater to her every whim. Shit, two of them are at home adding an expansion onto the house right now.”

“Well, I wasn’t raised like that, Persephone. Mama’s men were friends of the family. Still are.” I gulp down sweet tea to cool my flaming face.

My cousin considers what I said thoughtfully, then wrinkles her nose. “Sounds lame.”

I snort.

“So, seriously! Don’t you want to have sex with them?”

“Well, I guess. But the only reason they want to is because of the bond.”

She smirks. “Sweetie, I’m sure they’d hit that one way or the other.”

I grimace. “Jules is my best friend but we’ve never been romantic. And up until last night Dev had a girlfriend. And Brody is just … a slut.”

She laughs. “Well if you get tired of them, send ‘em my way. And if you beat me and become high priestess, make sure you summon me some guardians like yours, okay?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” I reply, thinking of the challenges ahead.