Heart pounding, I let my feet take me closer. His eyes are closed, his face still and calm. I reach out, fingertips brushing the linens on the bed, courage failing me for a long moment.
“If you are trying to watch me sleep,” comes a familiar voice in the quiet, “then we’re going to have to have a long talk about what constitutes appropriate behavior.”
In spite of myself, I laugh, the tension and fear falling away like the rain falling outside. “Your dad made me promise I’d do as little to disturb you as possible,” I protest. “Like seeing me might make you relapse or something.”
Jules opens his eyes, finding my face as his lips curve in a hint of a smile. “He’s being rather overprotective.” Carefully, he plantshis hands on the bed’s surface and pulls himself upright a few more degrees, propped against his pillows. As I start to protest, he throws me a sharp look. “Not you too.”
I eye him sidelong. “Both of us had to watch you lie there bleeding in that cavern.” I meant the words to be light, joking, in keeping with the tone he chose. But my voice wobbles, and betrays me. “You don’t get to complain if we’re overprotective.”
Jules lifts one hand in an eloquent gesture of helplessness, and props himself up a little more. The bandages hide some of his chest and one shoulder, but he’s not wearing a shirt, and the rest of him is bare. He notices the little grin on my face before I do, and has both eyebrows lifted by the time my eyes go back to his face.
“Appropriate behavior,” he reminds me primly.
“Mm-hmm,” I reply absently, still grinning.
“Come here,” he suggests, with the air of someone who knows he’s pushing his luck.
I glance at the door, which is still closed.
Jules lets out a sigh. “The cat’s out of the bag, Mia,” he points out. “I think my dad knows about us.”
“Yeah, well,” I retort, defensive, “I was given strict instructions not to upset you when I came. I’m pretty sure that extends to other forms of excitement.”
Jules makes a sulky face, and settles for claiming my hand instead. I let him take it, ignoring the faint stab of regret that he doesn’t keep trying to get me to kiss him.
“So that’s why my dad won’t tell me anything about what’s been going on.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Really? You’d think he’d know you well enough to know thatnotknowing would make you far crazier than anything the truth could do.”
“Never underestimate the power of denial for an Addison,” Jules replies airily.
I squeeze his hand. “I’ll sneak you a few articles if you promise not to tell him I gave them to you.”
Jules laughs. “Deal. How’s Evie?”
“In absolute heaven.” I grin at him. “Our hotel room’s got streaming movies and chicken wings—I don’t think she’s ever going to leave. De Luca pulled some strings and got the club shut down—she’s free.”
I’ve never said those words aloud. Now, I find my throat closing, eyes burning. Jules is watching my face, and leans his head back against the headboard with a warm smile.
“You kept your promise to her,” he says softly.
I clear my throat, focusing on the thread pattern of his comforter rather than his face. “What else … well, you know your dad’s on the reintegration committees, finding placement for the Undying who want to return to Earth. There’s way fewer of them than you’d think, though. Dex definitely wasn’t the only one who, deep down, felt that his home was a spaceship.”
“I haven’t seen Neal—I got the impression from Dad that he and Dex …”
I’m grinning again. “And then some. I guess the Addisons can be pretty charming when they want to be.” I wink at him, just to see him smile. “Though to be honest, I think part of why they’ve gotten so close so fast is because Dex misses having a partner. Neal’s never going to be what Atlanta was, and he isn’t trying to be. But having someone with him, I think, makes Dex feel a little less lonely.”
“So there’s still no sign of her?” Jules’s voice is quiet.
“None. Technically, the IA people know where she is, they know where all the Undying agents are. All the ones who turned themselves in, I mean. But her reintegration destination is secret, like all of them. Dex hasn’t heard from her.”
Jules inspects my hand in his, idly stroking his thumb across my finger. “I don’t blame her, you know,” he says with a sigh. “She was doing what she was trained to do. She was a foot soldier.”
“Yeah,” I say. Because I don’t blame her either. And I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life that Evie’s voice reminded me who I was, stopped me following Atlanta down that path.
“Poor Dex,” Jules murmurs.
“Well, he and Neal are keeping busy, anyway. It’s going to take a long time to unravel the intricacies of Undying technology even with their help, and even longer to reproduce it and implement it in all the cities and towns that need that power, but in a couple of years the world is going to look completely different. Clean power, clean water, all across the globe … it’s hard to imagine.”
