“Sure.” Myers nodded with sturdy enthusiasm. “I’d love to put faces to the names I’ve heard so much about.” She chuckled warmly.
Her giggle doubled when Larsky bent down and started laying kisses on her neck. She playfully swatted him, but I could tell from the blush adorning my sister’s cheeks and the megawatt grin laying claim to her face that she was loving Larsky’s attention. He mimicked her laughter, feigning a chomp in the air in her direction before he wrapped an arm around her again. “Whatever you wanna do, babe, I’m in.”
They were calling each otherbabenow? Yeah, I definitely wasn’t the only one with reservations about leaving town.
Arze led the way to the open section of the field where people were gathering to witness the massive fireworks that were set to go off around ten. We only had a few minutes before the show was set to start.
With an ease I wished I could have mustered, Arze found my former co-workers huddled together up close against the barricade that sectioned everyone safely away from the fireworks. Of course they were in the front of the crowd, I wouldn’t have expected any less from them. We did some quick introductions, allowing my sister and Larsky to meet everyone. Chase, Abigail, and Ripp hadn’t brought anyone, but Khalice was there with her entire family, and Jane was alone as well. Although, I could have sworn Abigail and Jane were standing unusually closer than normal, but I could have been imagining it. We were cramped, but they were talking low and hushed after introductions that gave me the impression that something might be going on between them.
Shortly after we’d settled into our spots with my friends, the fireworks started to pop off in the sky, illuminating the night and showering the sky with a multitude of decorative shapes. Skulls and pumpkins, spiders and bats were laid out in bright colors and shimmering sparkles.
Ripp started to holler in excitement, causing everyone to uproar and Arze took the distraction to pull me away from the group, allowing us to fade into the crowd until we were on the outskirts of the fireworks display, safely tucked behind a tree. My brows tumbled into aerial formations at the sudden scenery change as Arze readied himself in front of me.
“Before we continue celebrating,” Arze began, his gorgeous eyes like jumping clementines. “I wanted to update you about that surprise.”
My stomach both jolted and sunk. I’d been looking forward to this so-called surprise, but if Arze wanted to tell me or show me before tomorrow, it meant that it had to be connected to the fact that we’d be swapping North Carolina for Virginia tomorrow. I tried to plaster on a facade that felt a lot more excitement than I currently did.
“What is it?”
“I know you’re leaving in the morning.” Arze’s lip trembled on that last word, and my entire soul hurt at having to witness it. He doubled his efforts to steel himself, clearing his throat to fortify what he was about to say without feeling a tremor of emotion. “But regardless of whether we go no contact or we find some way to see each other, I’ve been making some calls to Wallace Watson.”
I barely had enough time to register that he’d called the person that was fighting so hard for Orbs in the House of Representatives. I’d seen talk of him online a lot, but that’s not where my focus went. I was still a sentence behind, hanging on the words about whether we’d find ways to see each other after I left Phoebe.
“You still want to find out how we can see each other? Even after I leave?”
Arze’s sloppy smirk warmed my heart just as much as it made my dick leap toward the zipper of my jeans. “Of course, I do. If that’s what you want too.” He careened his neck, listening for other tythwig, and then he grabbed my hands and squeezed them in earnest.
I tightened my hands around him in response. “I want that too.”
“Great,” He nodded, excited to get to his actual point now that that had been settled. “So, with Wallace Watson.”
“He started that board that’s full of every species of Orb, right?”
“That’s right.” Arze used our conjoined hands to pull us closer. Now our hands out in front of us were the only things keeping our chests from touching. Andfuckdid I want us to be that close, the crowd just beyond the view of this tree be damned. “Well, I brought up the tythwig decrees, specifically the one about humans and tythwig not being able to pursue each other romantically, and he told me the tythwig on the board had brought it up before. Long story short, he’s going to look into it and see what he can do on the human side about speaking with the Triads.”
“That’s awesome, Arze.” I shook our hands, but the smile on my face was a cautious one. “But what does that have to do with us, exactly?”
“Well, I requested a direct meeting with the Triad here in Phoebe, and I just heard back when we got off work that my request was accepted.”
My eyes lit up at the prospect of Arze being able to speak directly with the Triad about the human and tythwig decree. “Holy shit, I could come and help you make a case! When is your meeting?”
Arze titled his head, losing his smirk. “Not until the day after tomorrow.”
A somber expression clawed its way over my features. “And I’ll be gone by then.”
He nodded, saving me the trouble of hearing the truth spoken. “But regardless, I’m going to be meeting with the Triad and pleading with them to at the very least make an exception.” He unfurled our hands, pushing himself against me, finally feeling his body against me as he pressed us against the bark of the tree. Thank god it wasn’t a secret tythwig we were pushing up against. “I’m crazy about you, Krueger. We’ll find a way to see each other, even with me here in Phoebe and you in Virginia.We’ll find a way.” He pressed his forehead on mine, a sigh heaving out of his mouth.
“We’ll find a way.” I mirrored, nodding lightly as I wrapped my arms around him. Unable to take the heaviness of the subject, at the thought that if I was staying, I could fight for what I wanted just as much as Arze was poised to, I pushed him back so that I could claim his lips with my own.
As we kissed, his tongue teasing the bottom of my lip until I parted and melted into the passionate kiss from the tythwig I never wanted to let go of, I couldn’t shake the welling emotions from rattling my core. I willed the tears to stay where they belonged as we continued to kiss, fireworks going off in the background behind us, lighting up the sky in juxtaposition to the darkness that waited for us when I left tomorrow.
Chapter 30
“I can’t believeyou guys are leaving.”
Colette pulled away from our hug, a sad twist of a frown turning her lips downward. As the embrace ended, I regarded the group before me. Myers and I hadn’t had much time with our first friends here at the RV park, mainly because we’d both been too obsessed with our guys to join them for more bonfire nights. Despite that fact, they were all still here to bid us farewell.
Halloween was over, and that meant we needed to get on the road back to Virginia. After the fireworks display, Arze and I had rejoined the group and ended up tearing up the dance floor together, every last one of us dancing until we were all drunk off our asses and in complete hysterics. It was the perfect blowout goodbye, more than my sister and I could have ever asked for.
