Chapter 308

Jesse grins at Daphne as they reach his floor. “Good. Do you want to hang out then?”

“Of course,” she says, grinning at him and starting towards the familiar Sinclair doorway.

But Jesse reaches out a hand and puts it on her shoulder, stopping her. “Actually,” he says, turning his head a little, a small smile quirking at the corners of his mouth. “Do you mind if it’s…a smaller party tonight? Rafe and Jacks just found out they have a draft tomorrow and they want peace and quiet in the room – they’re stressed as hell.”

“Oh,” Daphne says, her eyebrows going up as she looks at the door and then back at Jesse. “Um, sure. Did you have something else in mind?” A hesitant smile arches across her face.

“Yeah,” he says, taking a step closer to her and dropping his hand from her shoulder. “I’ve got an idea of where we could go. You just…wait here, all right? For…fifteen seconds?”

“But I’ll be all lonely,” she says, twisting her face in mock disappointment.

Jesse laughs and raises a hand, a little shadow kitten forming in it immediately and making Daphne squeal with joy to see it. “Here, Mittens will keep you company,” Jesse says, laughing and tipping the kitten into her arms.

Daphne laughs, petting the kitten’s barely-there fur and peering down into its adorable face, completely distracted as Jesse moves towards his room.

Distracted enough to miss the fact that Jesse stands at his door for a few seconds longer than he needs to before he opens it, just watching her, his eyes crinkled with joy. He only starts back into motion when his wolf gives his heart a sharp bite inside – telling him to hurry the hell up.

Jesse grins and presses open his door, moving fast towards his cousin and Jackson, sitting across from each other on the sofa and talking seriously about plans for the draft.

“Whoa,” Rafe says, looking up at Jesse in surprise. “I thought you were going to the library?”

“Change of plans,” Jesse says, dropping the note in Rafe’s lap and Ariel’s bookbag at Jackson’s feet. Then he ignores their questions, heading immediately for his bed and reaching behind the headboard for the contraband hidden there.

“Okay, so,” Jesse says, ducking through the wide sixth-story window and stepping out onto the ledge. “Just come out here with me, and then –“

“Jesse,” Daphne groans, leaning away from the hand he extends to her. “I’m not – I don’t want to jump out a window –“

“It’s just a little jump!” he says, grinning at her and keeping that hand extended. “Honestly, just like, a mini leap. Barely a hop.”

“Jesse,” she sighs again, but somehow her hand is already in his, and he tugs her out onto the wide ledge with him. When she sees the drop below them, though, Daphne gives a squeak of fear and slams her eyes shut, turning hard to bury her face in Jesse’s shoulder. “I hate this. I hate you.”

“No, you don’t,” he murmurs, wrapping a warm arm around her. “you’re perfectly safe, Daph. And it’ll be so worth it! Just…I do need you to open your eyes for the next bit.”

“No,” she groans, “I wish to meet my death blind.”

“Daphne!”

“Respect my final wishes, Sinclair!”

Jesse bursts out laughing and raises a hand to her cheek, giving her a little pat. “We seriously have to take one step to the left. My dad took me here when I was a kid – before they had five replacements for me! Do you think he would have risked me if it wasn’t safe?”

“I don’t know, Jess,” Daphne says, looking up into his face with wide blue eyes. “I don’t get the impression that you were the most likeable kid.”

He bursts out laughing again but turns away from her, dropping his hand from her face and taking a single leap – a hop, really – down onto a balcony just a few inches away, holding onto her hand the whole time.

“All right, you next,” he says, holding his hands up to her.

“I can’t believe you left me up here,” Daphne says, pressing her back to the outer wall of the stone castle, squeezing his fingers hard in her hand.

“Just jump –“

“I hate you,” she whispers, but then she presses her eyes shut and turns towards him and gives a frightened little leap. Jesse catches her, of course, and easily sets her on her feet, smiling the whole time.

Daphne loosens a long breath when her feet are again on wide, steady ground, but Jesse keeps his hands on her waist holding her steady. A few moments later, she opens her eyes and lets out a long breath.

“Still hate me?” he asks, smirking.

“Yes,” she replies, narrowing her eyes.

“How about now?” Jesse uses his hands on Daphne’s waist to turn her around towards the incredible view spreading out before them – the incredible ends of the sunset still lingering in the sky, turning the horizon purple and blue with streaks of pink, stars just starting to peek out in the night. Daphne gasps a little, walking forward to the balustrade before her, spreading her hands out on the stone and peering into the distance.

“Wow,” Daphne says, her voice soft with awe. “Why – why can’t we see this in the castle? Why aren’t there any windows that looked this way?”

“Selfish king, apparently,” Jesse says, coming to stand next to her and leaning against the balustrade himself. “Only wanted his balcony to take in this view. Kind of a dick move, if you ask me.”

Daphne looks up at Jesse and then at the wide glass doors behind them. “Is that where we are? What used to be the King’s suite?”

“Still kind of is,” Jesse says with a shrug, following her gaze. “Uncle Dom and Aunt Ella use this room when they come to the Academy overnight.”

“Oh, so we’re trespassing,” Daphne says, eyebrows raising as she turns her face back to him.

“Nah, I’m royalty too,” Jesse says, giving her a wink and nodding over to a set of cushioned chairs at the corner of the balcony, a tiny table set between them.

“Royalty adjacent,” Daphne says, deliberately casual, needling him.

Jesse, quite satisfyingly, gives her a bit of a glare as he sits down, pulling his backpack off. “If you’re mean to me, no whiskey for you.”

“You think I want whiskey?” she asks with a laugh, sitting down in the chair next to his and pointing back at the window ledge that they jumped off of to get over here. “When I have to climb back up on that to get back to my room tonight?”

“Oh, we don’t have to go back that way,” Jesse says, giving her a wicked grin and pulling out a pack of cookies as well, placing them next to the whiskey bottle on the tiny table. “You have keys, don’t you?”

Daphne’s mouth falls open as she realizes that…that Jesse’s right. That she does have a ring of keys in her pocket that get her into every residence room in the Castle in case she needs to make a clothes delivery – including the royal suite.

“Oh, you rat,” she snarls, reaching out and snatching the whiskey bottle off the table, pulling at the cork. Jesse laughs again, pleased as sin, and opens the cookie pack, popping one in his mouth.

“Oh, come on, Daphne,” he says, shaking his head at her and relaxing back in his chair. “Life’s no fun without a little adventure.”

“Yeah, well,” she sighs, taking a long swig of the bottle before handing it over to him. “I’ll choose the level of adventure next time. Maybe we’ll go for a thrilling walk. Feed some spicy ducks by a haunted pond.”

“If you’re there, I’m in,” Jesse murmurs, taking the bottle and holding it up to her in a toast. Then he raises it to his lips and takes a long drink.

Daphne watches as he does, her eyes drifting over the long length of his neck, the drift of his tawny lashes over his cheeks, the way his hair curls, just slightly, at the ends.

And as she watches, her stomach tightening, her wolf dodges from paw to paw in her soul, sniffing anxiously. But still, even when she doesn’t find what she wants, the wolf sits back on her haunches and raises her snout to the air. I think it’s him, she says, desperately confused. It has to be – who else could it be? He smells so nice.

But there’s no bond? Daphne murmurs to her wolf, stroking an anxious hand over her fur.

I will find it, the wolf says, jumping again to her feet and turning in an eager circle. It has to be here – it has to be.