“What do you want?” Dante growled, his curling lip giving Onyx a run for his money.
“To talk to you. I don’t have your phone numbers.”
Ash tutted. “That’s not a mistake. Go away.”
“No. I’ll respect your boundaries, but first I need to tell youwhat I’m planning.” Luc refused to do this through Onyx. It wasn’t the same as getting support from the vampires or Valac.
“Planning?” Ash shot a look at Dante. “You can’t be serious.”
“If it was anything bad, I wouldn’t tell you?—”
Dante bowled over him. “We don’t trust you, Luc. Finding your mate doesn’t change that. Nothing comes at face value with you.”
“For a long time, that was true. But you’ll see that’s not how I operate anymore.”
“Or we won’t see, and be much happier for it.” Ash turned away and flew back the way he’d come.
“Everyone else knows.” It was a desperate, manipulative move, but Luc wasn’t giving up easily. He’d respect their wishes to stay away once he had this off his chest.
As expected, Ash swung around. “Everyone who?”
“Onyx, Dex, Valac, Rowan.”
“Rowan?” Ash glared from Luc to Dante in confusion. “The vampire?”
“Yes, Nico’s friend. It goes without saying, Nico knows as well. And Dex will probably tell Ollie, if he hasn’t already.”
Dante’s nostrils flared. “Fine, talk.”
It was too much to hope that Dante would lower his protections and let Luc land. He’d have to do this hovering there like an overgrown bird.
Luc let his bitterness go. “I’m sorry.”
Dante made a rude sound. “That’s what Dex is going to tell Ollie?”
“No. I’ll get to that. But I can’t until I come to you as the man who used to be your friend. I am so deeply sorry for what I did to both of you. For not talking to you. Or listening to you. For disrespecting you. For giving up and not caring about you because I’d stopped caring about myself. And for hurting you inevery conceivable way. I was wrong to treat you the way I did. It was selfish and cruel. When you’re ready—if you ever are—I’ll make amends however you deem fit.”
There was a long silence save for the squawking shearwaters.
Ash hovered as unmoving as possible while keeping himself in the air.
Dante sighed. “Ollie already said he’d forgive you if you gave him Dex.”
“And I’m humbled by the chance he’s given me, but this isn’t about Ollie. This is about the three of us. I hurt you, too, and I’m sorry.”
“I never dreamed you’d apologize.” Ash’s tone was flat and almost baffled. “If you did, I assumed it’d be fake. But this is real. I don’t even doubt it anymore. You seem different than you were in the tower and when we rescued you from Valac.”
Luc flew closer. “I am different. Dex believes I can be better. I believe I can be better. None of us are irredeemable. The Fallen didn’t inexorably destroy anything. I wronged you all, but it’s not unfixable.”
Dante closed the remaining gap between them. “What do you mean?”
Luc explained everything he and Dex had discussed, emotion giving his voice a frantic edge, words tumbling from him like a cleansing rain.
Ash’s eyes blazed. “Magic was here all along? It can’t be that simple.”
“Why not?”
He growled. “Because if it’s all arbitrary, then we did nothing wrong.”
