His gaze swung back to me, and he shook his head. “No, but can I borrow your phone? I need to check on Indigo.”
Indigo!I had completely forgotten my Shade friend. I hadn’t even checked to see how she was handling Gage’s death-disappearance. I’d been a real self-centered jerk. Never again.
I scrambled to hand him my cracked screen cell phone. He took it with a nod.
Giving him a wobbly smile, I cleared my throat and then left the sanctuary, jogging down the stairs to join the rest of the Angel Gang on the lawn.
“Is he coming?” Drea asked.
“Yeah. He just needs a minute. He’s talking to Indigo.”
She nodded and hugged her arms to her chest.
“So is he… a Lumen?” Marlow asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
Frankly, at this particular moment I wouldn’t care if he was a giraffe. The only thing I cared about was that he was back and alive. The rest could be sorted later.
“He’s still a Watcher, and definitely not a Shade,” Jacob offered.
I chewed my lip, preparing to announce that if he wasn’t allowed to stay here I was gone, when Drea said: “Either way, he can stay. I’ll talk to my mom. He’s been through enough, so let’s not mention the whole ‘What is he?’ thing in front of him.”
Good idea. Put it in Pandora’s box and pretend everything was okay. I loved it. Solid plan.
The door creaked open behind us, and we all spun with overenthusiastic smiles on our faces as Gage descended the steps and joined us.
“You can bunk with me,” Dash offered as Gage handed me back my cell phone.
I caught Jacob’s frown. I didn’t think he wanted Gage dead, but I wondered how he felt about him being back and at the Lumen Compound. I hoped he wasn’t going to cause any issues. The two of them weren’t exactly buddy-buddy.
“Yeah, totally cool, you can stay here at Lumen Academy from now on,” Drea added with an overeager thumbs-up.
Gage just scowled, clearly seeing through the façade.
“Skye died,” I blurted, feeling a change of subject was in order.
That made Gage’s eyebrows shoot up. “Damn… I’m sorry. I thought I saw her in Avalon when I was healing.”
“Well, technically she’s dead, but I can still see her because I can talk to ghosts now. Welcome back.” I grinned.
That made Gage chuckle, and a bubble of warmth bloomed in my chest.
I did that. I made him smile.
A commotion drew my gaze to the doors of the community center and the academy. Hunters were filtering out onto the lawn; they must have seen the lightning. When their gazes fell on Gage, they glared. One even reached for a weapon.
“Crap.” Drea rushed toward the armed hunter and waved her arms, yelling something I couldn’t decipher.
Two senior hunters dropped from the sky where they must have been scouting the buildings above and landed on the grass. Their wings were outstretched, and swords drawn as they pointed at Gage, who stiffened next to me.
A growl sounded in Gage’s chest and he stepped one foot forward, crouching as if to take flight, when he realized he was defenseless. I could see the moment he thought his wings would snap out but didn’t, and it broke my heart in two.
I jumped in front of Gage, making it clear to any Lumens in the area that I was protecting him. “He’s with us! He’s a Lumen!” I yelled, but then wondered if that were true.
Well, he wasn’t a Shade, and that was all that mattered.
The senior hunters looked at me, and then glanced at Gage standing behind me and frowned. “I know who that is, and Alstons are definitelynotLumens.”
