When Angel stands up, all hopes of a small physical connection vanish until he sits beside me again and wraps an arm around my shoulder to pull me into his side.My mate.
His fingers brush my hair behind my ear before softly running along the back of my neck. The feather-light touch is so hypnotic that I lean into his side and hold still so he won’t stop.
“You must have questions after yesterday. Ask away, sweetheart.” Angel’s warm breath fans my ear, and I forget my name, much less the million questions stashed in my head. When He notices how I’m dumbly staring at the side of his face, he pushes me forward and rubs my back, hoping to fix my mushy brain.
At least now I know why my brain short-circuits with his every touch.
“Okay… for starters, how the fuck are you both here together?” I point to Seiji and Angel, only to be met with the same confusion I’m feeling, so I elaborate, “Last I checked, Horsemen stick to their side of the human realm.”
The realization struck her face first, so Grace explains, “After they took you and Harvey, the Horsemen thought it was safer to combine kingdoms—”
“And now we live in a new realm with five bitching castles protected by ancient magic.The Tetrad kingdom,” Seiji finishes excitedly.
“So, we live together now, all four kingdoms?” Angel smiles at my excitement. “Harvey must love that, and where is he, anyway? He always wanted to unite the kingdoms and even had it all planned out. The day he took over, he was going to startnegotiations and—” I trail off when suddenly their faces turn grim.
Again, they look like someone died, which now I know is not true, so I don’t understand the crestfallen looks.
Eyes narrowed like he is trying to understand what I’m talking about, Angel carefully asks, “Sweetheart, why would you think Harvey is here? We couldn’t find him in the cells and he wasn’t with you. We were actually waiting foryouto tell us where he is.”
My heart falls to my feet. I look around the room urgently as if Harvey would pop out, but when he doesn’t, my head starts pounding, and it gets harder to take my next breath.I can’t lose him.
“He didn’t come home?”
Why didn’t Harvey go home? Despite his injuries, he was strong enough to heal and find his way home, so I don’t understand why didn’t he. What if something happened to him? His injuries were critical, after all. What if I made a mistake letting him escape alone?But you didn’t have another choice Nevaeh.
I didn’t know I was hyperventilating until Angel took my face in his hands, and the spark of his touch snapped me out of every horrible scenario running through my mind.
“We’ll find him.” His determination should soothe my worries, but it only reminds me of the time webothbelieved that. That someone would find us, someone would save us, someone would protect us,but no one did. Now he is out there alone.All alone.
“How? Tell me how? It took my own people adecadeto find me, and I escaped on my own! He could be dead. Oh Fates, what if he’s dead—”
“He’s not dead.” Grace stops my panicked rambling by thrusting a small box in my lap. She opens it for me when myshaky hands fail to do it. Inside the box is a ruby-red ring similar to Angels’.
“The ring still shines.”
I breathe out shakily. Her words help me see reason sooner than any promise could. Gripping the box in my hands, I nod to myself and repeat the words.
The ring still shines. As long as the ring shines, its successor is alive and capable. The bright gleam proves he’s alive. Out of my reach, butalive.
A minute of silent support passes, and no one other than Angel tries to touch me, which I’m thankful for. In the past decade, other than Harvey and my little boy, I hated anyone touching or being close to me. Where Angel is a surprising exception, I don’t want anyone else to trigger a response unknowingly.
I know I’ll eventually have to work on that, but I’m happy about being touchy with only my mate for now.
“Nevaeh?” with a quick shake of my head, I hum to let Seiji know I’m listening. “How did he get out?”
I knew the question was coming, so I’m not surprised.
“And why didn’t you go with him?” Angel stops his hand on my back, squeezing my waist to bring me so close I’m almost sitting on his lap before continuing the soothing motion.
“While we’re at it, I want to know how in sweet hell they took you both in the first place. From inside protected walls without a single witness. So, what the fuck happened, mini reaper?”
Grace gives Hazel a stern look when she adds more questions. The sweet woman assures me I don’t have to answer anything right now. I think about taking her suggestion since who wants to climb aboard the trauma train, but Papa always said Horsemen are our fate family, and family trusts and supports each other.
I want to give them a chance. I want to give myself a chance at all the good things in life because, after living with my nightmares for years, I deserve to have what they do. A friendship. A family.
I warn them my story might have some hole since it happened years ago, and my memories are either all gone or severely jumbled up.
A shit ton of head injuries will do that to you.
