“What?” I ask.
“She’s scared,” he says.
“She should be. We’ve ruined her life. What the fuck is wrong with us? Why did we think this was okay?—”
“I want this,” Juniper blurts.
We both stop to look at her.
“I want to be with you both. I don’t want to spend another day not being yours.”
Chapter 27
Blaze
I’m a mess trying to pile things into the trunk of my car. Books, drawings, basically anything I need from this bungalow that I’ve been studying the past couple of weeks. Anything we’ll need once we’re on the road because after we seal the island, it would be stupid to come back.
My trunk is loaded.
Gods, I hope Juniper had time to get a storage unit. I can’t risk losing any of this on the road, and I certainly can’t take it back to the Nether Realm yet.
North was taking Juniper to the bar so she can tell her friends goodbye.
We won’t have time tomorrow.
The anxiety of needing to wrap up every loose end before midnight has snow following me. I haven’t bothered to quell it. The island is already covered, and news outlets have poured in to broadcast the anomaly.
The chaos helps us. It’s diverting attention and crowding out a lot of the creatures I can feel moving in. Everywhere I’ve gone this morning, I’ve left my mark—a growing red, symmetrical symbol like interconnected snowflakes embedding into the earth. The same etchings that will be on Juniper’s body later.
North’s two jobs are to keep Juniper safe and leave his own symbol behind anywhere they go.
Which is why finding him standing in front of a black sprinter van outside Juniper’s house mid-afternoon stops me in my tracks.
“I bought a van,” North says, hands in the pockets of Juniper’s sweatshirt that he’s still wearing
I almost laugh at how proud he is of himself. “I see that,” I reply.
“Completely custom. Leather interiors. All the bells and whistles, including a sink, a bench seat, bed, and more fun things that I won’t spoil for you,” North goes on, waving his hands around like he’s trying to sell it to me.
Footsteps sound inside, and Juniper pops her head out of the open door, smirking at me. “You know, van life was not on my Bingo card, but I’m open to it,” she says as she jumps out of it and strides across the road to me.
“Already christened, too,” North says with a wink.
Juniper pinches his ass, and upon reaching me, she glides her hands up my chest and pulls me to her lips. The kiss makes my heart skip, reminds me why we’re risking everything and putting her through all of this.
I can’t stop the smile on my face when we part.
“Hi, angel,” I say, kissing her nose. “Did he distract you too much?”
“Just enough. I quit my job. Got cash out of the bank. Rented a storage unit just in case the fae decide to ransack my house. Told everyone I was going to travel the world and I would see them next winter…Hopefully…” She glances back at her house. “I just need to pack.”
I see the sadness in her eyes, and I tug her chin back to me. “Still your decision,” I tell her.
“And I’m still saying yes,” she says.
I kiss her again, and she groans into my mouth in a way that causes the hair on my neck to stand. I can smell her arousal in the air, and it nearly makes me feral.
North is smirking coyly at us when we part, as if he’s hiding something.
