“You’re something else, Claws,” Gabriel slurs. His body grows heavy. “I wish…”
His words trail off as he collapses in on himself, slumping against me, completely out of it.
Wonderful.
I sense a shadow hovering at the door. Noah flicks on the light, plunging the looming cemetery into a pitch-black void. “I see you found Gabriel.”
“Yup. And his ass is heavy.”And his pain, too.I smooth back his hair as he clings to me. “I think we should get him home.”
Noah slings Gabriel’s arm over his shoulder. I take the other arm and together we drag Gabriel to his feet. I start for the door but then remember the raging party going on downstairs. “Is there any way to get him out of this house without everyone seeing him? I don’t want his finest hour to end up as Cleo’s next YouTube video.”
“I don’t think we have a choice—” Noah snaps his fingers. “The fireman’s pole.”
“The…what?”
“Lauri – he’s the guy who runs the house – has a fireman’s pole in his bedroom that leads down into his gaming dungeon. So he can just roll out of bed and start slaying orcs.”
I roll my eyes. “And I thought Malloy Manor was ridiculous. Where is this pole?”
“I think it’s the master bedroom.” We drag Gabriel to the doorway. Noah looks left and right, then nods to the room at the end of the hall. One of Gabe’s creepers slides off but I don’t stop to pick it up. This is one long-ass hallway. Sweat rolls down my face, and I know George’s fine work on my hair has been destroyed. If Cleo sees me like this it’ll be all over social media, but I don’t care about myself. All I want is to shield Gabriel from more pain.
The gods smile upon us, because the hallway is empty. No one will see us—
A door flies open and a guy steps out of a bathroom, right into our path.
Not just any guy.
Eli.
His eyes bug out as he takes in Gabriel’s state. “Shit. Is he okay?”
“If by ‘okay,’ you mean ‘absolutely shitfaced and probably in need of a stomach pump,’ then yeah, sure. He’s okay,” Noah says. “We’re going to try to get him out of the house through the dungeon so no one sees him.”
“I’ll help.” Eli takes Gabriel’s arm from around my neck. I let him. I know Eli needs to feel like he’s solving the problem. And helping Gabriel is something he can do that doesn’t directly impact me. I step back and watch the two of them maneuver Gabriel into the master bedroom, which appears mercifully empty of revelers.
We keep the lights off, but this room overlooks the lit-up terrace, and the light from below casts an eerie glow over the already surreal space. Everything in the room is circular – a giant, circular window, circular beanbag chairs, circular rug, circular bookshelves that hold plushie toys and sculptures ofLord of the Ringscharacters. There’s an insane circular bed that looks like it revolves. And in the corner is a large circular hole in the floor with a shiny fireman’s pole sticking through.
I roll my eyes. “Rich people are ridiculous.”
Noah sits on the edge of the hole, dangling his legs over the side. “I can’t see anyone downstairs, but it’s a three-floor drop.” He gestures to Eli. “Get him on my shoulders.”
“I need you,” Eli grunts at me as he shoves Gabe’s prone body onto Noah’s back.
I need you.
The words wash over me like a wave, sloughing off my skin. I wonder how bitter they taste on Eli’s tongue, but he doesn’t acknowledge them. I crawl over and support Gabriel’s ass while Eli wraps his body around Noah’s shoulders like a scarf.
“Will you be able to support him?” he asks, his voice tight with worry.
“I’m about to find out.” Noah wraps his legs around the pole and pushes off from the edge.
He grunts as he takes Gabriel’s full weight, but he doesn’t lose his grip. I hold my breath as Noah spins, knocking Gabriel’s knee against the rim as the pair of them disappear into the darkness below.
The temperature in the room rises ten degrees as Eli glares at me from across the fireman’s pole. He’s changed clothes since the dance, and he looks devastating in a deep blue shirt that matches the exact shade of his eyes. Those twin oceans fix on me, swallowing me into their depths.
“Gabriel…” Eli trails off.
“He needs me. I have to go.” I grip the pole between my thighs, wrapping my hands around it and pushing off from the edge. As I spin toward him, Eli leans over and briefly captures my lips on his.
