weren’t imbibing in the orgy,” I blurt before stealing another few gulps of air until my stomach doesn’t feel like it’s revolting anymore.
Echo shares a smirk with Crux. “Were you worried?”
“Kind of,” I answer honestly.
I straighten up, but even as I do, Iceman keeps his hand on my back, and his touch sends delicious chills down my spine.
I look at the four of them standing around me, and it’s finally sinking in fully that they’re okay. They’re here with me, and we’re all okay.
“I thought you died. All of you,” I say, my bottom lip wobbling.
“We thought we were going to,” Iceman admits.
“That was a close one.”
“Too fucking close,” Echo says, his shadows moving around his pale skin with agitated twitches.
“Now that we know some fucking demon called the Ophidian wants you, we’ll be more prepared,” Jerif tells me. “We knew there was unrest, but we didn’t know they were that organized. We learned a lot from what happened, and there won’t be any repeats of anyone almost taking you.”
My heart swells with the fierce protectiveness that just fell from his mouth. The other three guys look at him with surprise. Hell, even I’m looking at him in surprise. But there’s no denying it. Something between us changed down there during the Vestibule battle. It’s like we saw to the core of each other, and somehow there’s no going back to the distant tense relationship we had before.
We both fought with everything we had to get to each other, to protect each other, only to be ripped away. I saw Jerif’s true feelings in his flame-filled eyes that night as he got up and battled over and over again. The anguish. The regret. The heartbreaking sadness. I recognized it all because I felt it too.
I look at all four of them, so damn grateful. I know how close we were to losing everything for good. To losing each other. I’m not going to waste this second chance or get caught up in petty, stubborn arguments.
“So what do you want to do?” Crux says with that heartbreaking surfer-dude smile of his that I adore.
“Yeah, it is your first Nihil party,” Echo points out as he looks around.
“It is,” I agree. “Yours too,” I point out, wondering what they think about everything. Do parties like this happen in their Rings? Are orgies the thing to do in Hell? I suppose that wouldn’t be too far-fetched, but I can’t really tell how they’re feeling about everything going on around us. Do they want to stay, enjoy themselves? Or go like I want to? I study them for a moment longer and then decide just to confess what I want and see what happens.
“This isn’t really my scene,” I tell them on a shout as the music changes over to something even more fast paced. “What I’d really like to do is just get out of here. And I was hoping...you guys would come too?” I declare, going out on a limb. “If you want to stay, you can stay, of course. Not that you need my permission, because you don’t. I’m just saying, if you want to come with me, that would be great, if you don’t, then that’s fine, and—”
“Delta.” Iceman’s voice cuts through my long-winded rambling.
“Yeah?”
“We definitely want to go with you.”
A whoosh leaves my chest, my shoulders losing their tension. “You do?”
“We do,” Jerif replies gruffly, looking around like everything around us is giving him the heebie-jeebies.
“Lead the way, Little Dove,” Echo jokes as he and Crux start pushing the crowd to part for me.
“Ugh,” I groan. “Don’t call me that; you know how I feel about those vile birds,” I shudder. “Representation of peace, my ass! Those things are mean. Besides, I’m still trying to pretend I’m just carrying a purple backpack.”
The guys chuckle. “What was with the air show?” Crux teases, his eyes full of mirth. “You looked like Hermione Granger trying to play Quidditch. It was bad.”
“Thanks,” I say dryly as we start making our slow way across the yard. “It wasn’t my fault. These prick wings just took off on their own with no fucks given about how I might feel about it. And apparently, I get fly-sick, which is just icing on the disgustingly feathered cake. The broomstick scythe was the least of my worries.”
Echo and Crux bust up laughing so hard that I think they might start leaking happy tears.
“Shut it,” I tell them, though my tone isn’t as harsh as I was going