He opened his mouth to speak—and paused when he saw Zachary, on Alex’s other side, glancing between them with idle interest.
Zachary smiled crookedly. “Don’t stop on my account. I hear all kinds of things at the Rink. I’m sure nothing you say will surprise me. I mean, unless it’s something private between you two. I don’t want to pry. I just mean if it’s scary stuff about demons, you’re probably not going to horrify me.”
“It’s—notscarystuff about demons, no,” Nathan hedged.
Zachary giggled. “Oh. That. I mean, they feel each other up all the time. They think Angie and I don’t notice, but we do.”
“What?” Alex squeaked.
Zachary threw his head back with a laugh. “Yeah, man! Your demon guys aren’t subtle at all. Most of the time they watch you guys like they want to eat you.” He shrugged. “It’s fine. My, uh, my dad’s been alone since my mom died. It’s kind of nice seeing some examples of happy relationships.Healthyis a little debatable, but you guys make it work.”
Nathan didn’t quite know what to make of that. In truth, it spoke volumes that Zachary and Angela, kids who’d never been exposed to the supernatural until they met the Rink crew, felt comfortable enough around them all to stick around and even allowed the ex-paladins to train them. Before he’d met them himself, Nathan never would’ve guessed that demons would be any sort of worthwhile role models to children. It sounded ridiculous on paper, and yet the demons and humans alike often made sure the kids had dinner and gave them rides home when needed.
Alex cast Nathan an overwhelmed look. “Right. Okay. So, Nate, care to share now?”
Nathan snorted. “I was going to ask if it was weird for you when you met Talon. Did you feel the same pull toward him that they all claim they felt toward us?”
Alex bobbed his head sagely. “I did. It totally consumed me. I started having dreams about him—which I learned later was because he can dreamwalk.”
“No, really? I didn’t know they could do that.”
“Leviathans can, yeah. I thought I was losing my mind for a while.” He grimaced. “Talon didn’t handle it the best, to be honest. He didn’t want to give me a chance to push him away. I tried for a while, but I was drawn right back in. It was like no matter how much I tried to stop thinking about him, it only made me want him more.”
Invasive dreams aside, Nathan felt similar for Storm. Like staying away from him would be agony. Hell, ithad beenagony, and he’d only made it a day.
“Why is it like that?” he asked, although he knew Alex couldn’t answer.
“Malachi said once that he thinks it might be something about their physiology. Well, he said that would be his guess if it was only halflings. He thought maybe there was some part of the halflings that recognized something in the humans they chose. But since Talon was never human, it’s hard to say. Maybe it’s still true. Maybe something about us just calls to them. Maybe it’s all a part of some grand design, like Ira says. He says we’re meant to be a bridge between demons and humans. That we’ll protect both.”
Nathan’s head swirled. “Does he say how that comes to be?”
Alex smiled ruefully. “No. He’s fuzzy on the details. But he’s adamant that all of this is supposed to happen.”
“Am I meant…” Nathan stopped, uncertain whether he wanted to say the words aloud.
Alex stopped, and Zachary stopped a beat later, watching them patiently. Alex’s calm blue eyes were far too knowing, piercing into the depths of everything Nathan couldn’t say.
“Are you meant… to leave the guild?” Alex guessed. “Like we did?”
Nathan swallowed hard. Nodded.
Alex smiled, a small, pursed thing filled with sympathy. “I think you already know the answer to that, brother. That’s why you’re asking, isn’t it?”
Nathan’s eyes burned. He ducked his head. “Yeah. You’re right. And—” he sniffed hard, angry with himself for doing this here, when they had a job to do, “I’m sorry for my part in what happened to you, Alex.”
He shook his head kindly. “I would’ve chosen to leave on my own,” Alex said. “The truth is, I’d already been considering it. You guys just beat me to it.”
“Still. It was wrong of me. I should’ve done things differently.”
Alextsked. “I’m pretty sure Ira would say you’re doing things exactly as you’re supposed to.”
That held far too many implications for Nathan to parse right now. He wasmeantto kill that boy? He wasmeantto be torn between the guild and his demon? He was meant to betray everything he’d been raised to believe about demons and Hell? Truthfully, he didn’t even feel guilty about his changing belief system. An overwhelming part of himwantedto leave the guild, because it meant being with Storm.
“I don’t even know how to do what comes next,” he admitted. “I know I’ll have to leave it all behind. I can’t have both. That’s been made clear.”
Alex inclined his head. “Yeah. With the guild, you’ll have to scorch the earth behind you. Pick up and move. They know where you live. They pay your salary. They own your car. Your laptop and cell phone are all guild-issued. It’s all got to go.”
Yes, he’d assumed as much. “Storm already told me I could move in with him.”
