shade of his lips with a silver ring looped through the bottom. The mark of immortality tattooing across the pale skin of his forearm. It was such a relief to see him. I had so much I wanted to tell him and so many questions I wanted to ask.
“Are you alright?” He eyed me over as if he were checking to see if I was broken. “What were you running from?”
“I was—”
“From me,” Alex’s voice drifted up from behind me.
I spun around and scooted closer to Laylen.
Alex, in typical Alex style, strolled lazily down the stairs, as if he had thought I’d never actually run away. “I don’t understand why you have to be so difficult,” he said, his eyes locked on me like a target, the sparks reacting with such eagerness that my legs felt a little weak. “I told you I’d tell you what was going on. There’s no reason to try and run away.”
“There’s no reason to try and run away,” I said exasperatedly. “Are you kidding me?”
He frowned as he reached the bottom of the stairs. As he walked closer to me, I inched myself closer to Laylen. So close in fact that my shoulder bumped into his.
Alex’s eyebrows dipped down as he stopped just short of me. “What do you think I’m going to do to you, Gemma? Hurt you?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I never know anything when it comes to you.”
He glowered at me, and I glowered right back, the electricity heating hotter and hotter the longer our eyes stayed on one another.
“Gemma,” Laylen said, and for the second time in just a few short minutes I nearly jumped out of my skin. “Everything’s okay. No one here’s going to hurt you.”
I looked up at him. And I mean it, I really had to look up because Laylen is like six foot four. “Everything’s okay?” I asked with skepticism. “Really?”
He nodded. “Yeah, let’s go sit down, and Alex and I will explain everything that’s happened.”
I casted a quick glance at Alex, and then looked back at Laylen. “I want you to explain it to me.”
“Gemma, I already said I’d tell you the truth.” Alex sounded irritated.
I opened my mouth to tell him that I really didn’t care what he said he’d do. And that he was a liar. But Laylen spoke before I got the chance.
“Alex, you really can’t blame her for not trusting you.” He paused, deliberating something very charily. “After what you did.”
That, of course, pissed Alex off. “I didn’t do anything. And you have some nerve for saying that I did.”
Laylen got this look on his face that I could tell meant he was about to say something that might start a fight. And Alex looked completely ready to fight back. That’s what these two did sometimes; they got into arguments that became more heated the more they opened their mouths.
But I didn’t have time for this right now. I needed to know what went on back at the cabin, after I’d…blacked out?
“Can’t you just tell me what happened?” I begged Laylen. “Please. I trust you more than I trust him.” In fact, I don’t trust him at all.
Laylen glanced at Alex, who shot him a dirty look, and returned his bright blue eyes on me. “Yeah, okay. I’ll tell you what I know.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling slightly less anxious. But still anxious enough that my legs were wobbly.
Laylen motioned for me to follow him as he swept through a beaded-curtain doorway, which led us into a living room with dark blue walls that were decorated with shelves holding odd looking knickknacks. Black and white tile checkerboarded the floor, and a set of purple velvet couches centered the room, along with an apothecary table topped with black candles.
Hmm…I was getting a weird sense of déjà vu with this room. Then it dawned on me. “Is this Adessa’s house?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Laylen took a seat on one of the purple velvet sofas. “Which is actually attached to her store.”
I sat down next to him, and Alex, looking annoyed, dropped down in the chair across from us.
“So where do you want me to begin?” Laylen asked me. And I liked that he asked, instead of trying to evade my questions, like a certain someone with bright green eyes would’ve done.
Having options, though, was kind of confusing me. “So…um…what happened?” I shook my head at the ridiculousness of my own question. “I mean, what happened back in Colorado? And how did we