“Look at me,” Hudson murmurs. “Ziggy’s smart. He can handle himself. We both know he’s fine, and if something happened, we’d know already. Okay?”
Slowly, Wilde nods. “Okay.”
Then Hudson thumps his shoulder. “And yell at my brother like that again and we’ll have real issues, got it?”
Wilde’s stormy gaze moves slowly from Hudson to me. “Sorry.”
“Uh, thank you?”
They huddle together, and if it weren’t for my complete freak-out over Ziggy, that short interaction would actually give me hope for things with Hudson. But I can’t hope for anything until I know Ziggy’s okay.
“Five more minutes,” I say, pacing again. “If he’s not back in five minutes, I’m going looking.” Not that I think I’ll be able to do anything, but there’s no way in hell I can keep waiting around. It feels like my damn chest is being torn out.
“If anything’s happened to him?—”
“Nothing’s happened.”
I send a glare Wilde’s way. “I’ll join Lynx in making a project for Booker.”
“Wow, dark, bro,” Hudson mutters, head on Wilde’s shoulder.
It might be dark and not like me, but I think I mean it. I don’t care if they think I’m being dramatic; even the possibility of Ziggy being hurt is making it hard to breathe. I talk about love and losing it all the time, but all my other relationships ending felt like failure. Like something to be embarrassed about. Something to beat myself up over.
Losing Ziggy feels like … nothing. Like being emptied of all the things that make me who I am and being left with a vacant existence.
I don’t want to try again.
Because there is noagain.
I said I wanted to fall in love for the last time.
And it feels a whole lot like falling in love for the first as well.
There’s sound from the forest, and I look up to find Lynx manhandling a man into the opening with Ziggy right behind them.
Relief crashes into me.
The others barely register as I tear past them to get to Ziggy, and as soon as he’s within reach, I haul him into a hug. It’s like every cell in my body lets out a relieved breath, and I sink into the feel of him in my arms.
“Are you okay?” I ask, pulling back to check he’s in one piece. “What happened?”
Ziggy’s gaze strays over my shoulder to where the others are, and then he holds up the two enormous knives he’s holding.
I look at them and back to the man in front of Ziggy. He’s got waterlogged blond curls, big blue eyes, and I can’t work out if he’s wearing a huge T-shirt or a tiny dress. “That guy is who we were searching for?”
Ziggy nods. “Said his name is Sasha.”
I watch as Wilde leads them up the short wooden steps and into the Cutty. “Did you want to go with them?”
“No.”
Good. After the stress of the last hour or so, all I want is to crash, knowing that Ziggy is okay and everything is exactly the way it should be. “Did something happen, or did you just … leave?”
He’s chewing on his tongue, and I can tell he’s in that space where he really, really doesn’t want to answer. I just hope he wins the fight because after all that stress, I want to be able to understand.
“I thought … I knew … where he was,” he says, and his voice is a relief.
“It’s okay,” I tell him. “Take whatever time you need to.”
