My aura grew around me. “You always did forget exactly what my responsibilities are.”
“Hard to forget when you destroy everyth?—”
“Is that it?” Quentin asked, shoving me slightly so she could stand in front of him. “That’s all you could find?”
Archer pulled his attention away from me and back to her.
“I searched Mabel’s home and grounds,” he reported. “This was all that was left.”
“Mabel?” I asked. “What’s she doing with oleander?”
“Keeping it safe for Hunter,” Quentin muttered.
“He must have got there before us,” Archer replied.
“We’re only going to have one shot at this.”
“Don’t even think about it,” I told her, iciness creeping into my voice.
Quentin looked up at me. “I don’t need your permission.”
“Lovers’ tiff?” Archer let out a dark chuckle.
“Get out of my home,” I told him darkly.
“Considering it’s our home, I’d rather he stay,” Quen shot back.
“This is not a time for arguments.” Larkin’s voice joined us in the hallway. “They all wanted to give you some privacy,” she explained, jerking her head back to the room she’d just come from. “But we don’t have time for some heartfelt reunion.”
“Larkin—” I started, but Quen cut me off.
“You’re right.” She pushed past me. “Archer, bring that with you. We need to discuss the best way of doing this.”
She marched towards Larkin and disappeared into the room. Cries of elation were loud as she reunited with friends and family. Jealousy left me rooted to the spot, unwilling to walk in and see the way she would open her arms to them. The hallway darkened as my aura billowed around me.
“Maybe you won’t get everything you want for once,” Archer mused, having been left with me. “Wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing?”
Ididn’t know what to expect when I saw Grayson again for the first time. I wanted to be calm. To park our issues until we had resolved the chaos that was unfolding in Elysia. But when he called me his, I lost my mind. It was the casual way he expected us to fall back into the way we were before. Before he had said things that broke my heart.
My heart… but not our bond.
A part of me had known all along that he hadn’t meant what he had said. That he couldn’t have switched his feelings off when he’d been so possessive and obsessive over our bond from the moment he learned of it. That didn’t mean I was willing to let his behaviour slide.
We’d have a conversation about everything eventually, but now was not the time.
“Quentin!” Erik’s voice boomed through the room as I entered it.
But it was Elva that got to me first, pulling me into a hug. “You’re glowing.”
“I’ve enlisted a little help,” I told her as we came apart.
“You’ve spoken to some others?” Larkin asked. She looked as unimpressed as she had when I left Erik’s home on Hunter’s arm.
“No. Hunter took me back home. Clearly didn’t trust me to be kept up here. I spoke to the rest of the team and accidentally a few more hundred, maybe thousands, of people. They know what I am and what is happening, and they are praying to me right now.”
“That is brilliant!” Erik finally made his way over and I was scooped into a bone-crushing hug. “We’ve been worried sick about you.”
The room darkened, and a familiar voice followed that omen. “Quentin.”
