Tears choke his voice. I know him, and I can picture his crumpled face as he tries not to cry but fails. “Yes, I’m fine. Some fuckers shot me in the leg with a crossbow, but Helios and Griffin cleaned the wound. I’m already healing. Stellan… I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have left without you. I messed up. I’m so sorry… I thought I could save Vex and prove to you I could be a grown-up too, but she was taken because of me, and I—”
He’s freaking out. He must be really stressed out.
“Shhh,” I say. “Take a deep breath. Tell me what happened.”
And he does. His retelling of the last three days is enough to make my blood boil. He would have come back to me safely if not for the fuckers he met on the way back. They shot him in the leg and hung him up like a pig for slaughter.
“We’re going after them,” he says at last.
“Perri—”
“No. I’m not letting them keep Vex.” His voice is shaking. “She’s innocent and kind.”
“She’s an AI, Perri. She’s not real.”
“She’s real to me. And Beet likes her, too. So, we’re going after them. I’m sorry, I—”
“Where are you guys? We need a meeting point.”
“Stellan…”
“Nothing is going to change your mind, so I’m coming. The King’s with me. We’re coming for you,” I say.
Perri gasps. “Alastair’s with you?”
“He likes you more than I thought.”
“Oh, really?” I can hear the delight in his voice. Perri has always been a hopeless romantic.
My smile is genuine and relaxed now. “Really. He even put aside his grudge against Jude to be here. Like I said, he really likes you.”
“Or he likes you,” Jude provides, eyeing me.
I glare at him. “Stop talking nonsense.”
His eyes twinkle with mischief. I would punch him in the face if Oliver weren’t right behind me.
“I knew it!” Perri says over the channel. “He likes to play hard to get, but I could see the way he looked at you. He wants to—”
“For fuck’s sake,” I cut him off. “Can you please get us some coordinates where we can meet up? And thank your hosts for me.”
As it turns out, theBeetleis quite a long way up north. It’ll take us two entire days at break-neck speed to reach the meeting point—two days before Perri can be in my arms.
Considering the late hour, we decide to spend the night at camp and take time to see my mothers. They come back from their wood-gathering adventure an hour before nightfall, their trailer heavy with logs for the cabin. Their delight is genuineas they see me waiting for them under theGears and Gigglessign. Jess runs to me, arms open. She smells of home. She’s not my biological mother, as anyone with eyes can tell. She’s black, with graying curls and the kindest smile I know. My biological mother, Margaret, is right on her heels, and her embrace is strong enough to choke the life out of me. I became a man, and yet I’m still not taller than my beast of a mother. She’s the reason why I have blue eyes and blonde hair. Perri likes to call her ‘muscular mommy’.
They look over my shoulder, searching for Perri, and frown when their eyes land on Alastair standing near his truck.
“It’s a long story,” I say.
“Then we better get you a drink, and you can tell us all about it,” Jess says.
Were it not for Jude, Oliver, and Alastair, I would curl into my mother’s lap and let her soothe my fears.
At nightfall, Margaret lights a fire in the firepit. I help Jess cook over the embers as she tells me her plan for a garden and greenhouse. The redwood trees own the surrounding earth, so she’ll need to build garden beds and bring soil from outside the forest. I can’t wait to see what they’ll make of this place.
Jude and Oliver finish unloading the trailer—or, more accurately, Oliver unloads it, and Jude points out directions like a rotten prince. I’m still surprised these two work so well.
Alastair, to my surprise, is cutting more wood for the fire and stacks it up neatly under the makeshift shed near the RVs. I keep an eye on him, wondering if the proximity of his ex-lover brings him pain or anger, but he shows no signs of caring whatsoever.
