“You’ve seen my cooking, Mum,” I tell her flatly. “Would you want me serving that to my… to Storm?”
Mum laughs. “Peanut butter and toast is about all you can manage, that’s true.”
“Actually,” Storm interjects, wiping his lips with a napkin and leaning forward in his seat, I love to cook. “It’s relaxing - and a useful hobby to develop when you’re trapped inside for hundreds of years. Karma didn’t have to cook often when we were in there.” He hesitates for a moment before giving Mum a beaming smile. “We never did have meat often in the prison, so this meal is special to me. Thank you, Mrs. Kismet.” The sincerity in his voice is almost too much for me, and I can see that he’s charming the daylights out of my mum. At this rate, she will be declaring him her fourth son before we even make it off this island.
Mum nods approvingly. “Storm, you are always welcome here for a meal,” she practically sighs.
Easy, Mum, I think at her dryly. If you break out the adoption papers now, you won’t be able to have him as a son-in-law. The thought catches me off-guard, making me blush a little, but I do my best to pay it no mind - Storm certainly knows how to charm the Kismet women… and every other woman on earth, it seems. For a moment, my mind reluctantly returns to his interaction with Eenta over dinner last night: the regret on both their faces, the hint of jealousy under her honey-sweet exterior… but then I remember the way he looked at me, like I was his entire universe, and that’s enough to quell the uneasiness in my stomach.
Storm suddenly slides out of his seat, stretching before coming to stand beside me as I pass Mum my empty plate. Putting his hand on my shoulder, he says, “I want to take you somewhere,” and there’s just enough romance in his voice to leave me intrigued. I follow his lead, standing up and pushing my seat in as I give him a quizzical look.
“What did you have in mind?” I ask, putting a hand on my waist and tilting my head to one side.
“It’s a surprise,” Storm replies, and there’s a gleam in his eyes that makes my stomach do a flip-flop. I remain silent as he extends his hand to me, no doubt knowing I won’t say no to a surprise. I slide my hand into his, and he smirks at me before turning back to my mum. She is watching us with a knowing look on her face, one that would irk me a little if I wasn’t so keen on going with Storm.
“Have a good day, you two,” she says, crossing her arms as she holds a tea towel. She has the nerve to wink at me before turning away, and Storm lets out a heady chuckle when he sees my offended reaction.
Still, I can’t help but grin in spite of myself; I may get annoyed with her at times, but she really is the best mum anyone could have. I’m glad we are getting back to where we were before I found out the truth - to be honest, I wasn’t expecting the adjustment to go this smoothly, but you can be sure I’m happy about it. Maria will always be my birth mother, and I’m sure she would have been a brilliant mum, but that doesn’t take away the years that her sister brought me up. It’s occurring to me now, as our dynamic adjusts in the aftermath of the truth coming out, Mum didn’t have to treat me like her child. She could have put different expectations on me, or tell me I was adopted… but she chose not to, instead treating me like her own child so that I could grow up with a normal life. , Never once did I feel different from my brothers. Never once did she push me away when I needed her.
“Bye, Mrs. Kismet,” Storm says. “I’m stealing Karma for the day.”
“Bye, mum,” I call to her before letting Storm lead me out of the apartment. We make our way down the winding corridors and out into the courtyard. The weather is brilliant today, a sign of Storm’s mood, no doubt.
I frown when Storm comes to an abrupt halt in the middle of the courtyard, turning to me and wrapping his arms around my waist. “Careful,” I tease, “we don’t want the others to see us making out in the courtyard.”
“Who said anything about making out?” Storm asks. “Maybe I just want to steal you away from here.”
I laugh. “You know, I can think of worse ways to spend my day.”
“Glad to hear it.” His grip tightens around me just a little, and I’m reminded again of how much I love the feeling of him holding me - how I can just relax into his grip and forget about the world around me for a little while.
“You might want to hold on,” Storm says. “I haven’t done this in a long time.” That’s enough to make me more than a little anxious.
“Hugging?” I nervously enquire, tightening my grip on Storm even more, because I’m feckin’ sure that wasn’t what he meant.
“Oh, no,” he replies. “I was talking about using tornado wind to portal.” The nonchalance in his voice catches me off guard, and I lift my head, staring up at him with wide eyes.
Did he really just say tornado? “What are you-” I begin, but my voice trails off and I’m left to watch him in shock as his eyes start to glow with a bright violet light. The glowing purple makes all his features somewhat darker, giving him the sort of otherworldly aura that the other gods have, except it’s much more rugged, somehow - much more human. I really like it, so much that it almost distracts me from the wind that has begun to whirl around us, whipping my clothes and sending my hair flying in all directions.
You know, if he wasn’t calling a tornado to take us to some unknown destination, this could even be romantic. We aren’t Dorothy and Toto. We could take a car or a boat like normal people… but that feels wrong, somehow. As startling as Storm’s weather magic is, the fact that he’s using it to take me on a date feels right. It feels like us.
I look up into the sky, following Storm’s gaze to see the wind gathering together, swirling into a funnel shape. I’ve never seen a tornado up close before, and the sight of the black anvil clouds that have suddenly formed in the sky, blocking out the sun, is enough to make my heart beat faster. The funnel moves across the courtyard until it’s right above us, the shrieking of the wind nearly deafening. I cling to Storm for dear life as it slowly begins to lower down around us, shaking the trees in the courtyard and flinging dirt around.
“I don’t think this is a good idea!” I shout at Storm, but the roaring of the tornado is nearly deafening, and I only hear his laughter as my feet begin to leave the ground. I scream, holding onto Storm as tightly as I can. It suddenly becomes hard to breathe as we shoot further into the air, and I bury my face in his chest, afraid to look down as the movement of the cyclone carries us away from the palace. The feeling of his strong arms around me is the only thing keeping me from losing it as we continue to fly, and I realise I’m screaming as I feel us picking up speed.
I don’t know how long we fly with the tornado, but it feels like only a few minutes before my feet slam onto the ground, and I stop screaming. I open my eyes, looking up to see the tornado disappearing into the dark cloud above. The fact that neither of us is seriously injured is a miracle in itself - I guess there’s a reason most gods, not even the higher ones, don’t use “tornado travel” as a viable way of getting around. I whack my hand on Storm’s chest, staring up at him disbelievingly.
Seeing the offended look on my face, Storm bursts out laughing, and that only exasperates me further. “You feckin’ eegit!” I cry, pulling away and crossing my arms. “I thought I was going to pee myself!” Storm just continues to cackle, and I can feel myself getting pissed off - although whether that’s a holdover from the fear and adrenaline or the fact that he has such a smug look on his face, I can’t tell. I throw my arms up in frustration and begin to walk away from him, listening as his hysterical laughter continues behind me. Boys. It doesn’t matter if they’re four years old or four hundred - they’re always immature.
It’s only after I finally calm down that I finally register how cold it is, a far cry from the tepid warmth of the island. Shit, I think, looking around, and here I was starting to get used to it. Squinting my eyes and moving in a slow circle, I can see that we’re standing in the middle of an empty dirt road that winds into the distance. A treeline of evergreens surrounds us on all sides, and a chill wind whips their needles rhythmically back and forth. I feel Storm come up beside me and wrap his arm around my waist, giving it a good-natured squeeze that melts my agitation away in an instant. It also helps that he’s warm as hell. “Look,” he says, turning me to face the opposite way. I can make out a row of squat buildings at the end of the road we are standing on.
“Where are we?” I ask, craning my neck to look at him.
“I did some research,” Storm replies, looking a little sheepish - an odd expression for such a powerful man. “With the twins’ help, I was able to track down where Jade used to live in Jersey.”
My eyes go wide at the mention of our late friend. “You… you did?”
Storm nods, his expression serious. “If her friend is still around, this is as good a place as any to start the search,” he explains to me, meeting my eyes earnestly.
I feel like my breath has been taken away. “You did all that for me?” I ask quietly, and in an instant I find myself forgetting the fact that he scared the living shite of me just now. Not only did he remember, but he went out of his way to help me get closure… it’s so sweet I could almost cry.
He shrugs his shoulders like it’s nothing, although I can see the care and concern on his face. “We all knew how much Jade meant to you,” he replies softly.
“Yeah, but…” I run a hand through my tangled red hair. “You didn’t have to… I mean, there are other things you could have been…”
Storm smirks down at me, his grip on my waist tightening just a little. “And if you haven’t realised yet, we want to make you happy.
We? That one word holds so many implications that a wave of butterflies rushes through my stomach.
“I never thought I’d say this,” I tell him slowly, “but I’m damn happy I got my arse thrown in prison.” I take a long breath, meeting his exquisite eyes with my own, my heart beating out of control in my chest. “It meant I got to meet you and the twins,” I continue. Storm searches my eyes with his own, and I hesitate for a moment before I say, “Look, Storm… I know things are complicated between us all, but you feel like home. All of you. I can’t put my finger on it, but that’s just the way it is. And no guy, no one outside my family other than Mads, has felt that way for me.” I shake my head, a lump forming in my throat. “And it’s worse around you three. I feel desperate, out of control, and empty when you’re not around.” I can’t believe I’m blurting this all out, and a voice in my head is yelling at me to stop, to quit while I’m ahead or risk losing him forever, but I can’t help it; the words are pouring out of me like a tidal wave.
So here we feckin’ are, I think, my breathing heavy as I wait for Storm to reply. There’s no taking it back now.
“We aren’t going anywhere again. That isn’t happening,” Storm promises, and relief floods through me. I know it’s a promise when I hear one. “I will even try to tolerate and not kill those twins for being in your life.”
“Killian and I—” I begin, feeling the need to have it all out in the open.
Storm holds up a hand to stop me. “I’m aware that he is… important to you,” he says slowly, sounding like he’s picking his words carefully. “And I’m aware that Seth is, too. Which is why I can’t ask you to choose between us.” My eyes go wide as I process this, a familiar feeling stirring in the pit of my stomach. I open my mouth to reply, but Storm continues to speak, and I realise that this must be as difficult a conversation for him as it is for me. “That said, though, I can’t handle seeing or hearing about you and him...yet. I’ve never had to share in all of my life, and it’s going to take some getting used to,” he admits to me. I get that, and honestly I don’t know how he does it. If it were the other way around, I’d be stabbing every girl that tried to touch Storm. Or Killian. Or Seth. Gods, I’m a selfish person.
