The energy in the room changed. Percy’s hand stilled on the towel. Solomon’s posture didn’t shift but his gaze intensified.
“You told me I can ask about anything, right?”
Three nods. Synchronized, instinctive.
God. Puppies. Terrifyingly attractive puppies.
I took a breath. “Do all your eyes turn gold?”
The silence that followed could have swallowed the room whole.
Lucian’s gaze cut sideways. Solomon’s jaw tightened. Both of them turned, with deliberate slowness, toward Percy.
Percy rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry. I, uh, slipped. Last night.”
Lucian closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. Solomon huffed, which was the closest he ever got to exasperation.
“Yes,” Lucian said. Eyes on mine. No evasion or deflection.
I looked between them. The question fell out before my brain could approve it.
“Can I see?”
A glance passed between the three of them. Some silent negotiation I wasn’t part of, conducted entirely in raised eyebrows and micro-shifts. Then, one by one, the color changed.
Three pairs of golden eyes.Glowing.In a dim room with the curtains drawn and no trick of light to explain it.
My hand shot up. “Okay. Okay, please stop before I hyperventilate.”
The gold receded. Their normal eyes returned, and they were all watching me with varying degrees of concern, which would have been sweet if I wasn’t busy having a mild existential crisis.
I bit my thumbnail. Then my index finger before I closed my eyes, pressing my fists against my eyelids, and counted to three.
Just say it. Rip the band-aid.
“So you really are not ordinary humans.”
Lucian held my gaze. “No.”
“Are you scared?” Solomon asked. Soft. Not leading, not prompting.
I gnawed my thumbnail. “No. Which I think is worse.” I searched their faces for the lie, the trap, the moment this crumbled. “Is this a prank? A scam? Or do I need to get checked into an asylum?”
“We’re telling you the truth,” Solomon said.
I grabbed a fistful of my own hair, dropped the toast on the plate, and the words came out faster than I could organize them because my brain was a highway pileup and my mouth was the only exit.
“I mean, it’s one thing to say you want to share a relationship. That’s unusual, but people out there are probably doing that. I can force myself to believe that.” My hands were flying between sentences now. “But this? This is not just unusual. You’re telling me that you’re not quite human?”
They stared at me. Solomon nodded.
Sure, they were otherworldly handsome and attractive since the moment I met them, but I didn’t expect it to be literal.
My brain rewound through every moment since the fire. Solomon materializing behind me without a sound. Percy’s body burning too warm against mine in bed. Lucian’s grip bending the porch railing. Wolves carved into every surface of this cabin.
The way they walked through fire as if it couldn’t touch them.
Shit. The signs have been there all along.
