“I don’t think it can,” Lexen told her. “There are multiple bonds between all of us. This would just be one specific one that connects you all to the stone.”
Emma nodded, turning back to examine her house again. “Did you paint our door?” she asked suddenly. “Actually, are all of the doors painted now?”
Sara clapped her hands, her face transforming into one of delight. Michael just shook his head, watching his wife with a soft stare.
“We’ve been overseeing the renovations of the street,” Sara said with a chuckle. “It has been so much fun.”
Emma turned back to her family. “Renovations?”
Sara nodded. “Yep, my job for the past few weeks. You haven’t noticed because you’ve barely been here.”
“Lexen, Daniel, Chase, and Xander organized it all,” Michael added. ‘We’ve just been overseeing the work.”
Emma let out a low breath of air, turning to the man at her side. “You … you did this?”
Lexen laughed. “You don’t have to sound so surprised. I can, on occasion, think about helping others.”
Emma shook her head, sniffling. “It’s not that. You are very involved when it comes to Daelighters. You’re an amazing leader. But humans … you don’t often think about humans.”
He wrapped her up before she could blink, hauling her into his body so her feet were dangling off the ground. Emma didn’t seem to mind; she flung her arms around his neck and clung tightly to him. “I think about you every second of every day,” he said softly. “I know it bothered you that these shacks were for humans.”
“So we fixed them up,” Chase added. Maya let out a little sound of happiness, and then she was throwing herself into his arms.
I wrinkled my nose at Xander. “While I think this is a nice gesture, don’t expect a hug from me.”
He quirked an eyebrow in my direction. “Bad form not to show your gratitude.”
“I said it was a nice gesture.” I shrugged. “That’s as much as I’m giving you.”
Oh, and me, naked beneath you. Because we were going to do that.
Turning away, I pretended to be very interested in the scenery. “That’s my house there,” Xander said. I jumped when his voice was much closer than I expected. I glared at him.
“Back up, dude. You’re way too close.”
He actually laughed at me, and somehow I managed not to throat punch him. “You definitely embrace the surfer vibe. I like it.”
Placing one hand against his chest, I attempted to shove him back. He barely moved, which was freaking annoying. Why were men always so much bigger and stronger? Okay, human men usually weren’t. I held my own with a lot of them, but Xander was built like a fucking tank.
“Stop flirting with me,” I said. “This is not what we’re doing, okay?”
His gaze flicked down to my hand, to where my fingers were almost bunching in his shirt. I yanked it back quickly, realizing what I was doing, and hurried away from him to stand with Maya and Emma. I didn’t even care that I’d have to put up with the PDA.
Emma was saying goodbye to her family. “…see you all really soon,” she said as she pulled back. “We have to go now though.”
Sara and Michael’s faces fell. “Please be careful,” Sara begged, hurrying in for one more hug. “We love you so much.”
“I love you, too.” Emma blew them a kiss, straightening. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
She sucked in a deep breath, turning to walk along the street. The rest of us hurried to follow. Emma was on a mission. I tried not to look Xander’s way, but I was far too aware of him to be able to completely ignore him. It didn’t help that I had a million questions I wanted to ask. Not just about us, but also about his world.
Deciding it was better not to get too friendly with him, lest we blur these lines we were trying to establish, I asked Maya, “How are we getting to Overworld?” The wordspaceshiphad been floating around in the back of my mind, but it just seemed so far-fetched.
“A transporter,” she said with a soft smile. “It’s like this … ball of light that Daelighters created using their network.”
Ah, yes, they had mentioned that to me before. “The permanent transporter set up in the treaty…?” I confirmed.
“Yep,” she said.
