They look at one another, then back at me. Emily goes first. “You remember what I told you about my grandma? You’re addicted to him. You promised you wouldn’t see him again, but you did. Just like my grandma tried to do.”
With a slow blink, I say, “I’m not seeing him again. This time, I promise. He is gone.”
“No more creepy things in the airshaft?” Manni says.
Clinging to my lies, I say, “No. I’m certain he isn’t in the airshaft.”
Manni leans over the edge of her bunk and says, “Are you okay? You look…sad.”
“Would you still be my friends if I changed?” I ask so suddenly that I probably give them whiplash. “If I became a nightwalker?”
Emily raises a hand and says, “I mean…as long as you don’t take a bite out of me, we can still be cool.”
Manni reaches down to palm Emily’s face and shove her back before saying to me, “You’re you, and we love you. But don’t let that nightwalker sway you into thinking you need to be like him. If the nightwalker wants you, he can accept you the way you are.”
“Okay…”
Manni’s dark eyes narrow as she says, “I blame Jax. If he weren’t such a dick about you seeing the nightwalker again, you wouldn’t be questioning this.”
Emily coughs, “If he were a better fucking situationship, Saya wouldn’t have entertained the nightwalker at all.”
Surprisingly, she is half right. If Jax didn’t freak outover my tattoo, I wouldn’t have let the nightwalker get in my head. Still…I was growing to like the shadows clouding my mind.
I press my hands to my stomach and start picking at the skin around my fingernail. “Jax…Do you think we are compatible as a couple?”
Manni and Emily look at each other for a beat before they start talking in a rush. “Whaaaat? Jax? Yeah,of course! You two aretotallyendgame—it’s not like he threatens your friends and wants you to ditch them or anything,” Emily says with a roll of her eyes.
“Sure. Oh,yeah. Your situationship is the least toxic one I haveeverseen. I am fully team”—Manni gags a little—“Jax. He isn’t manipulative at all.”
I smile at their antics. “When we are out of here, let’s stick together. I’m not sure I can do any of this alone.”
Manni’s eyes soften, and with a nod, she says, “I will always be by your side.”
Emily bobs her head and says, “Of course! And if you do fuck a nightwalker, I will not judge, but I will have questions. Like, is it cold? Does it feel like a popsicle in your?—”
Manni flings her pillow at Emily and hisses, “Stop!”
Laughter flutters to the surface, but I bite it down, letting my smile reach my eyes instead as I watch them bicker.
Perhaps they will accept me for who I truly am one day.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
UMBRA
If a nightwalker kills a Feeder, they will die by sunlight.
— Serun’s Law
Echoingshouts and screams grow louder as my body is yanked back and forth violently. I open my eyes to find Cole leaning against the bunk railing, shaking me. Sitting up, I struggle to comprehend what’s happening. The usually amber light above my bed now blinks red, casting Cole’s distraught face in and out of shadow.
His hazel eyes bulge as he says, “The doors have opened. Everyone is freaking out!”
I shuffle out of bed and find Emily watching people running past down the corridor. Manni is still sitting on her bed and hasn’t made any effort to leave it. Her eyes dart to my bed and then away.
“What’s going on?” I ask, glancing up at the vent and seeing no sign of tampering. “Why is everyone panicking? Are the slayers here?”
As soon as the words slip from my mouth, Jax appears in our doorway, followed by Dan. “An emergency override has opened all the doors. We didn’t know what was going on until someone from the third level raced past, screaming ‘monster,’ so we ran too.” Jax grabs my arm and pulls me towards the door. “You were right about the Hellsgate. Time to go.”
