“You weren’t kidding about this game room,” Dex said to Ollie.
Dante’s game room was as big as Dex’s new condo. There was a TV on each wall, an elaborate desktop set-up, and even a few arcade machines in one corner.
Ollie chuckled. “Told you Dante has everything.”
“I guess it’s easy to collect it all when you’ve been there for each new development.”
Ollie flopped into a beanbag. “Let’s play something. I know it feels weird to fuck around while everyone is in another realm, but sitting around is even worse.”
“Good point.” Dex lowered himself into the other beanbag.
“I can still feel Dante through our mate connection, so I’ll know if anything big happens, even if I can’t tell exactly what.”
Dex looked at Ollie more closely. “You canfeelDante?”
“Yeah, when we want to share. Dante blocks out my emotions most of the time.”
“Isn’t reading each other like that weird?”
Ollie laughed. “It was at first. I might have panicked—a lot—but now, I like being connected. Especially at times like this. Itmeans I can help Dante and support him even though I’m not with him.”
Dex’s heart sank. He couldn’t help Luc from afar. Fuck. It felt wrong to sit around gaming while Luc faced the unknown.
What if he and Luc were supposed to face this together? What if Luc couldn’t do it alone? He had support, his brothers back at his side, but what if it wasn’t enough?
Sitting here safe and sound, Dex wasn’t risking anything. How could he expect someone else to change the world for him?
If this fight had been about letting mates into the Eternal Realm and nothing else, that would have been one thing. But it was way bigger than that. Staying behind suddenly seemed like putting himself before everyone else.
Dex had been too focused on whathewanted. On his parents and Luc. His own loss and worries. He’d been thinking too small.
What if the only way to change the universe was to show the Eternal Realm that he—a human—was willing to risk it all to abolish the Realm of the Damned and shift the perspective on magic and mortality?
“What’s up?” Ollie nudged him in the shoulder. “You look freaked out all of a sudden. I promise the mating connection isn’t anything to worry about. Luc won’t read your mind.”
“No, it’s not that. I—I should have gone with them.”
“What! No.” Ollie grabbed Dex’s arm. “You could get stuck in the gateway. You could die and never come back to Earth. You’d lose your time with Luc. With me.”
Dex’s chest seized. “I know. But if we win, I’ll get it all. You, Luc, my parents. If we lose, there’s far more at stake than me and my life. I want an undivided world.”
Ollie’s understanding look was tinged with something more frantic. “I want that too. And we’ll get it. The plan is sound.The truth is getting out no matter what. Luc made sure of it. There’s no reason for you to go.”
“I don’t know. I have a bad feeling.” Dex closed his eyes as an increasingly sick sensation twisted his insides. What if he was making the biggest mistake of his life? “I don’t think I’m supposed to be here waiting safely to see if someone else can fix everything for me. I have to try to fix it too.”
“No,” Ollie nearly growled.
Dex opened his eyes. “I’m sorry. I love you, Ollie. But I don’t think they’ll let mates enter the Eternal Realm without me. Even if Luc gets his way on everything else. Even if witches are freed. If the Eternal Realm has to face those they’ve damned, then a human mate needs to be there as much as a vampire or witch.”
“No.” Ollie shot out of the bean bag. “That’s stupid. Pamala will never take you. She promised to keep us safe.”
“But being safe isn’t helping anyone but us. I’m not saying we all have to go, but I can’t sit here.”
Fuck, he’d screwed up. He never should have let Luc leave him behind.
Dex couldn’t explain why this change had come over him so fiercely. It was almost like magic. Maybe fate was giving him a sign.
“Something is telling me I’m doing the wrong thing. I was distracted by my fear of losing Luc before, but if I hadn’t been, I might have realized he needed me the way I need him.”
