“I’m just glad everyone is okay.” Poppy had come by earlier to thank me for saving her and Bella.
The Carvers had said no one would die, but after everything that happened, it was unlikely that they had as much control over their creations as they’d hoped.
The Initiative was now under administrative investigation.
“And when you beat Tyler up,” Benedict punched the air, mimicking the shots I’d landed. “That was so satisfying to watch.”
I dropped out of my thoughts. “I’m sure that’ll come back to bite me in the ass at some point. Tyler will get revenge. Somehow.”
“Just let him try,” Dori said, mouth twisting in a sneer. “He’s a bully who doesn’t have much support here, despite what he might like you to believe. If he comes at you, we’ll deal with him.”
“I do have one question, though,” Clary said. “The salamander thing…they helped you, and they said something about an offering?”
I’d forgotten about the salamanders, but my mind had been working on the problem subconsciously. Now that Clary brought it up, I had a possible explanation. “I changed my bloody bandage and threw it into the hearth in Bramble Tower a few weeks ago. Solaris’s voice came through and said something about accepting my offering. At the time, I thought that maybe I imagined it, but I think… I think I accidentallydidgive him a blood offering. So, when I bled on the flame barrier in the woods, I must have summoned Solaris.”
“That would make sense,” Clary said, wide-eyed. “I’ve heard of students trying to form bonds with Solaris and his salamander brethren, but never of anyone succeeding.”
“I’m just glad you’re safe,” Dori said. “Everything else is icing.”
The warm, safe feeling these three evoked, the feeling I’d been trying to deny for weeks, bloomed sudden and insistent inside me, and my eyes heated.
“Whoa, Onyx, are you… Are you crying?” Dori reached for me, but I waved her off.
“No. I’m fucking not. I have something in my eye.”
“No, you don’t,” Clary said. “You’re all emotional.”
“Because you love us,” Benedict said. “Or…is it that time of month?”
“Shut up!” I wiped at my eyes.
“It’s all right,” Clary said. “It’s okay…” Her smile was filled with gentle understanding, and my heart ached—I wanted this. I wanted them as part of my life.
I wanted…friendship. With them. Real friendship. But how could I have that and complete my mission here?
Stealing from the vault was a crime punishable by death. If the three of them found out, I had no doubt that they’d agree to help me. But they’d be putting themselves in harm’s way.
This is what I’d wanted, though. Friendship that I could leverage. But now… Now everything was different, because I cared. I fucking cared, and I couldn’t let anything happen to them.
The only option was to keep silent and enjoy them while I could.
I deserved it.
After all this time, I bloody deserved it.
* * *
Drayven cameto visit when I was starting to think he wouldn’t, and my heart leapt at the sight of his large frame blocking the doorway.
“Hi…” I drank him in from the dark top knot on his head down to the kick-the-shit-out-of-you boots on his feet. “Are you coming inside, or are you going to stand there all day?”
“Can I, uh…open a window?”
“Does it smell bad in here?” I resisted the urge to sniff myself.
A blush stained his cheekbones. “Not bad, just… May I?”
What the… “Of course.”
