“I notice you,” slips out.
“Yeah?”
He kisses me again, and I feel hot and strange all at the same time.
So, I pull back, breathing hard. “We should probably keep going, right?”
He sighs and releases me. “Damn your logic.” But he’s still smiling.
Continuing walking, we hold hands like a couple out for a midnight stroll. I have no idea where we’re going, I have no idea what we’re going to do, but I know we need to keep going. To find the others. If that’s even possible.
The hedge gets thinner, the path widens, and that smell of flowers grows stronger, mixed with a strange smokiness. Which, I hope, doesn’t mean more trouble. As we start round a corner, there’s a sudden glow ahead that’s orange, flickering, alive.
We slow, cautious.What now?
I give Ashton a look.
He puts his hand on his sword, and I do the same. We round the corner, and there it is, a fire, a real fire, blazing in the middle of a clearing. And around it… three figures.
I know it’s them before I see their faces.
Oberon is the first to stand. He’s filthy, bruised, and stiff. “Alette?”
Sylvian doesn’t waste time with words. He rushes over and picks me up in a bear hug, spinning me once, twice, then setting me down so hard my teeth clack together. “You’re alive,” he says, voice breaking on the second word. “You’re really?—”
I blush. “Yeah. We’re back.”
Cassius stands from the fire, walks over, and gives me a gentle hug that lasts a few seconds longer than I would’ve imagined. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Oberon comes over, takes my hand, and just stares at me. “Did he take care of you?”
“He did.”
He touches my face, pushing the hair back behind my ear. “I’m glad.
Sylvian pulls Ashton into a rough, one-armed hug, pounding his back so hard I worry he’ll break something. Cassius shakes his hand, and Oberon says, “Thanks for not getting her killed.”
The five of us stand there, breathing, blinking, getting used to the idea of being together again.
Sylvian pulls me in for another hug, this one gentler. He smells like moss and woodsmoke and something manly. He looks at my face, then my arms, then my hands. “Did he let you get hurt at all?” he asks, glancing at Ashton.
I shake my head. “He saved my life.”
Sylvian looks at Ashton, and for a second there’s a flash of something that could be a warning, a thank you, a challenge. I can’t tell.
“Well, I had to take care of my wife,” Ashton says, giving a crooked grin.
“Wife?” Oberon repeats with an edge of anger.
Cassius and Sylvian just glance from him to me, like they think Ashton’s words are a joke, and I feel my cheeks heat.Ashton, seemingly knowing what they’re thinking, takes my hand in his and lifts them both up to show our wedding rings.
Oberon’s mouth pulls into a thin line. “You want to fucking explain a little better?”
“It’s a long story,” I say, too exhausted for a fight. “Maybe a story for another time.”
Oberon breaks the tension by tossing a stick into the fire, then using his powers to turn the small fire into a blaze. “Sit down. Eat something. You both look like hell.”
I do as he says. Ashton collapses next to me. Sylvian sits on my other side, so close our knees touch.
