I was sitting shotgun.
Trent had wanted to talk to Rix and Aelin about their stat distribution. He had told me that I had to hold off on mine since I had twelve Magic and that would be too difficult to mask. He’d promised that he’d let me spend all of my stat points before Level ten, when stats doubled, but until then, I’d have to focus on not revealing my stat spread. I wondered how he was going to intervene if I got in a dangerous situation, but I had no doubt he’d know about the trouble long before I did.
I looked at Ether. "Aren’t you going a little fast?”
“You didn’t want to drive.” She tightened her grip on the wheel and we accelerated. The snow-white-skinned woman looked at me. "Isn’t this fun?”
“Eyes on the road!” I pushed both feet into the floorboard.
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Ether took her right hand off the wheel to smack my knee.
My heart was beating faster as I fought the urge to caution her again. I decided to try to get her focused on a different conversation and maybe that would get her to slow down.
“Have you thought about our party’s composition?”
She looked at me and I began to think that talking to her might not be the safest thing.
“You’re doing the spell sword thing, which puts you in the front lines with me.” She smiled and put her hand on my knee, then turned her focus back to the road. "Aelin wants to be ranged Magic support, which puts her in the back with Justia, and Rix is midrange with that Rope-knife thing she’s made.”
“Right, but aren’t most Power classes close range?”
She looked back at me. "Spears can be mid-ranged, but yes, most are in the front.”
“Will that be too many in the front?” I looked behind us at the others, mainly to see if Aelin was paying attention to us. "When we get our last member?”
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“Atlas Zeb, you wouldn’t be thinking of leaving me?” She gave me a very poor fake pouting face.
“No!” I grabbed the dashboard and braced myself as she hit a bump.
Ether laughed. "It’ll be fine. Actually, it’ll work out better because, until the teens, I’ll only be able to tank one thing at a time, so having you upfront to off-tank will protect her.”
“Her?”
Ether laughed. "You know that Aelin will throw a fit if you replace Edward with another guy.” She looked back at the road. "And I didn’t think you were the type of guy who’d be upset with having an entire team full of women?”
“What are we talking about?” I jumped as Aelin grabbed the back of my chair with both of her hands.
“Nothing..!” I looked at Ether. "We were just talking about what to subclass into.”
“Nothing about the subclassed.” Aelin moved in between us and sat down on the edge of my seat facing Ether.
I scooted to the side to give her as much room as I could.
“What are we looking for?” Aelin started babbling. "Tall, short? Snow or Ginger? Oh! We could try to get a demihuman! Atlas how do you feel about Kitsune? A fox-girl would be hot. Or A…”
I clamped my hand over her mouth. I pulled it away when she licked it.
“Very mature.” I wiped my hand on the seat. I was wearing leather-covered pants and I didn’t feel like wiping it on my shirt.
“Like muffling me?” She looked at me over her shoulder.
“I’d like it if you’d give it a rest about the harem.” I turned to where Rix and Trent were still talking in the booth. “You’re making Rix uncomfortable and me too.”
“Fine, I’ll stop teasing Rix…” She put her hand on my leg, then laughed when I pulled away. "But you’re fair game.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be with Justia?” I tried to push her off the seat, but she braced against the driver’s seat. I could have overpowered her, but it would have hurt her and probably Ether. I sighed and stopped.
“Why? Are you wanting to know if I’d join the two of you?” She wiggled her eyebrows.
Ether laughed.
“Aelin, please.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes until I slowly released it all. “Don’t tease Justia. She’s in a weird enough headspace as it is.”
Aelin’s shoulders sagged as she started to speak, then stopped. "Fine, I’ll…” She lowered her voice even further. "I have no idea what to do.” She slid off the seat in between the space between the two chairs and grabbed the back of both of our chairs as she crouched. "What do I do?”