need to look into his eyes – but Gabriel grabs my legs, wrapping me against him. His whole body shudders with a sob. Over his shoulder, the cemetery’s mouth yawns wider.
I’m pissed as hell at him for drinking himself into this state. I had plans for after the party, plans involving continuing what he and Noah started on the dance floor. But I can’t ignore the crack in his voice. He’s breaking apart, and the stars are far away and cold. But I’m here, and I have to do something.
“I killed him.” Gabriel’s shoulders tremble. “I killed him because I’m a selfish prick. He was my friend, and I didn’t listen to him. I was so busy lapping up all the attention that I didn’t notice what was up with him until it was too late.”
“So what? Being a shitty friend isn’t the same as murdering someone.” I roll my eyes. “You didn’t point a gun at his head and pull the trigger. You didn’t stab a knife through his chest.”
“I might as well have.” Gabriel’s eyes roll back in his head. “I’m such a useless prick. No wonder my parents…”
“Your parents what?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing. I’m nothing.”
“You’re being melodramatic.” I take Gabriel’s hands in mine. My eyes adjust to the dim light and I take in the room – the canopy bed draped in red and gold damask, the Middle Eastern antiques, the ornate desk in the corner with lights blinking on a laptop and webcam, and one wall decorated with gold flocked wallpaper decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphs. We’re in Cleo’s room. I need to get him out of this snake pit. “You’re talking bullshit and you know it. What’s this really about, Gabe? Is it the text you got tonight?”
“Dylan needed me,” he whispers. “And I ignored him. And now you need me, and I—”
I think I understand. Gabriel’s afraid. He’s afraid if he gets close to me, if he loses the bollocks (in his vernacular) and gives himself over to this thing that pulls us together, he’ll lose me like Dylan. He lay with me in that room while Antony and Tiberius and Noah washed Brentwood down the plughole. He sees just how real the possibility of losing me is.
“I’m not Dylan,” I whisper back. “I’m a queen. I’m your queen, remember? I’m not going to leave you, Gabriel.”
“Maybe that’s what you think now, but I’ll drive you away. I’ll poison you, just like I poison everything good in my life.”
I laugh, to cover up my surprise that he thought of himself as poison when really, he’s the antidote, the cure. “I’ve been described as many things, but never good.”
“You’re something else, Claws,” Gabriel slurs. His body grows heavy. “I wish…”
His words trail off as he collapses in on himself, slumping against me, completely out of it.
Wonderful.
I sense a shadow hovering at the door. Noah flicks on the light, plunging the looming cemetery into a pitch-black void. “I see you found Gabriel.”
“Yup. And his ass is heavy.” And his pain, too. I smooth back his hair as he clings to me. “I think we should get him home.”
Noah slings Gabriel’s arm over his shoulder. I take the other arm and together we drag Gabriel to his feet. I start for the door but then remember the raging party going on downstairs. “Is there any way to get him out of this house without everyone seeing him? I don’t want his finest hour to end up as Cleo’s next YouTube video.”
“I don’t think we have a choice—” Noah snaps his fingers. “The fireman’s pole.”
“The…what?”
“Lauri – he’s the guy who runs the house – has a fireman’s pole in his bedroom that leads down into his gaming dungeon. So he can just roll out of bed and start slaying orcs.”
I roll my eyes. “And I thought Malloy Manor was ridiculous. Where is this pole?”
“I think it’s the master bedroom.” We drag Gabriel to the doorway. Noah looks left and right, then nods to the room at the end of the hall. One of Gabe’s creepers slides off but I don’t stop to pick it up. This is one long-ass hallway. Sweat rolls down my face, and I know George’s fine work on my hair has been destroyed. If Cleo sees me like this it’ll be all over social media, but I don’t care about myself. All I want is to shield Gabriel from more pain.
The gods smile upon us, because the hallway is empty. No one will see us—