“We mean no disrespect,” Malachi said calmly.
“As if I care.” Gray waved him off and took a sip of his beer. “You can disrespect him all you want in front of me.”
Flynn cracked his neck. “In which case—"
“Don’t,” Malachi warned him.
Waverly sniffed. “It’s difficult to tell where you all stand at times. He came to your defence when that mortal attacked your relationship.”
“He was defending his pride, not me,” Gray explained. “Can’t let a mortal have the last word and show up the Gods.”
“Do you think he’ll deal better with Gods showing him up?” Flynn mused, nudging me and winking.
My eyes widened. “I’m not trying to show anyone up.”
“Not everything’s about you, sweet cheeks.” Flynn pinched my cheek, and I swatted his hand away. “Sometimes it’s about the rest of us.”
Gray became uncomfortably tense before leaning across the table. “If this is your idea of a sick joke—"
“I pride myself on having a better sense of humour than that. Quentin can attest.”
“We wouldn’t joke about something like this, Grayson. It isn’t worth your eternal wrath,” Waverly pointed out.
“Can you stop speaking in riddles, please?” I asked.
Malachi leaned forward, looking past Flynn to me. “The reason we asked you to come and join us for a drink was because we wanted to tell you—"
“We want you to live,” Flynn cut across him, grinning wildly, while Malachi shot him a withering look. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a crushing hug. “We’re going to change our vote when Hunter calls the council meeting.”
“All of us,” Waverly added. “Which will push you over the threshold you need to ensure you can keep your life even if someone else changes their mind.”
“This isn’t a cruel joke?” I asked, not daring to believe them.
“I wouldn’t let them do something like that,” Malachi assured me.
The lump in my throat grew so fast that I couldn’t swallow it and a tear spilled over. After the nightmare at work, I was losing hope again. Hunter’s mood was difficult to decipher, and I couldn’t tell if he would hold Aria’s mistake against me. Fighting, although necessary, was exhausting, and every setback made me question why I should bother. Winning felt like an impossibility.
“Don’t cry, tiny demi. An eternity with Grayson isn’t as bad as it sounds,” Flynn assured me.
I laughed through my tears and saw Gray’s blurry pissed off face. My boyfriend reached across the table, and I wiggled out of Flynn’s grasp to change seats so that I was between Gray’s legs. He stroked my arm and kissed the top of my head.
“Why did you change your minds?” I asked, hiccupping midway through the sentence.
“You need to calm down before you end up showing this bar what you are,” Gray mumbled against my temple.
I shook in his hold, trying to control my breathing. The pad of Gray’s thumb swiped away the stray tears and stroked my cheekbone comfortingly.
“Good girl,” he whispered as I let my body relax against his.
“What happened to make you change your minds?” I asked them again.
“We’ve spent time with you, Quentin,” Waverly said, shrugging. “You’ve indulged us in conversation, and you’re bound to Grayson. We don’t believe you’re a threat. Please don’t prove us wrong in that assumption.”
“You could have told the entire facility the truth about where we stood with you, but you lied to them. If you’d told them the truth, it would have aided in our demise. Plenty of people to spread the word about how barbaric we are,” Malachi mused.
“You took one for Team Divine,” Flynn said, offering me his fist. I bumped it gently with my own. “You’re one of us. It would be a dick move not to welcome you home when you’ve given us the loyalty we were looking for.”
“Shall we toast?” Malachi asked.
