I fly out of bed and fling my door open. Mal blinks at me. Hand frozen mid-air as if he was about to knock again or he hadn’t even finished his first knock when I opened the door. My shoulders slump.
“Hi,” I mutter as I trudge back to my bed.
Mal steps into my room and gently shuts the door. He has a strange expression on his face. I don’t like it. It’s making the hairs on the back of my neck prickle.
“What?” I ask uneasily.
He takes a deep breath. “Blue has gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Back to the ocean.”
My heart thumps once. Loud and heavy. Then it stops.
“He can’t. The other sirens will eat him.” My voice shakes.
Mal’s dark eyes fill with surprise. “He didn’t tell you? Gray gave him a talisman.”
I don’t know what the fuck a talisman is, but I get the idea. It’s some magical thing that means Blue can go home. That little fucking shithead of a twink demon is fucking with my life.
And Blue didn’t tell me. He never breathed a word. Even though he must have been so very excited. He had to have been bouncing with joy. But he didn’t want to share his wonderful news with me.
I squeeze my eyes shut and try to remember how to breathe. I don’t think my heart has restarted yet. Maybe it never will.
“He sent an email to Red. There is a message for you. Do you want me to read it?”
My heart springs back to life. Frantic and fast enough to make me shake. He left me a message? Why didn’t he send it to me? Oh yeah. I don’t have an email and he knows I can barely read.
I sit up and nod.
Mal clears his throat. “I’m going home to the ocean. Sammy, I’m sorry I hurt you. I will love you forever. I will never forget you. I’m so sorry things didn’t work out between us.”
It’s not the most poetic note, but I don’t care. Besides, it could have been written in simple words so that I have a chance of reading it myself.
I pick up my phone. Mal understands my intent and turns the screen of his phone to face me. I take a picture and flop back down. My fingers hover over the words. I don’t know if I’m reading them or if I’ve already memorized them. They do feel as if they are etched onto my heart. Maybe not the exact wording Blue has used, but definitely the meaning.
Blue is sorry.
Blue loves me.
Blue is gone forever.
I rub at my chest. It feels like I can’t breathe. It feels darker and colder in my room now, even though I know that can’t be true.
“Did he definitely make it to the ocean?” I gasp as the thought hits me and propels me into sitting upright again.
The boys are supposed to be staying in the house for their own safety because some creep is trying to start his own collection of beautiful sex slaves.
Mal nods. “There is a tracker in the car. It’s pinging from a car park right next to the coast. I’m going to grab Brodie and head down there to check Blue made it those few hundred feet. And to get the car.”
“I’ll come!” I say suddenly. “I can drive the car back.”
Mal raises an eyebrow and gives me a skeptical look. He knows how shit my driving is and that I don’t have a license.
“Come on, it’s a Sunday. There won’t be much traffic and it’s a straight road all the way.”
If Blue has gone to the nearest coast, which presumably he has because there is no earthly reason to go anywhere else.
