"Excellent. That’s very good news," he says, slipping back into the usual formal tone as he turns toward the table, but before he can walk away I grab his hand and stop him.
He turns back to me, those bright sapphire eyes fixed on my face through his glasses.
"Blue, I mean, Mr. Lowen… you are amazing. You saved them. You. No one else would have gone out there to look for them. Everyone else gave up."
"And it cost a fortune… hiring a military-grade vessel isn’t exactly cheap," Simon adds, sounding amused.
Blue shrugs.
"If I can’t use it for family, then what’s the point of having it? Money is only useful when it actually does something that matters."
Silence falls, because neither Simon nor I even tries to comment on it, it’s such an abstract act of generosity for people who don’t have that kind of money and never have to face choices like that, but it only makes me fall for Blue even harder.
That night the energy comes back to our bed, the passion with it, and we spend hours lost in each other, one ecstatic wave after another, until everything else fades out.
Yeah, I could even live like this forever, being his secret. BeingHISis the key emphasis here.
???
The reunion happens less than a day later at the airport.
Both the Lowen family and the Nolans are there, gathered, emotional, waiting.
I stand a bit farther away, playing my role as his bodyguard without a slip-up, keeping a respectful distance.
There’s only one brief moment when I manage to step away and head over to Snow, who came to greet his brother too.
"Hey, man, thanks for that warning text. You saved my life, obviously!" I say, fully aware how awkward it sounds.
Socasuallythanking someone forsaving your lifeis almost funny, but well, the opportunity came up, so I’m taking it.
Snow’s strange pale-violet eyes narrow slightly.
"No problem, Gabriel. Just stay sharp, because that’s not the only thing waiting for you."
"Really?" My smile instantly drops. "More attempts?"
Snow nods, then gives me a light pat on the back.
"I’ve got one piece of advice. Break the one rule you don't want to break, even when everything in you resists. That’s what’s going to solve the puzzle."
I give him a crooked smile.
"That sounds very enigmatic."
A faint smirk touches his mouth in response.
"Then maybe this way of putting it will work for you better: Sometimes you need to break something to come back stronger."
I don’t comment, because that still sounds cryptic as hell, and I can’t stand around chatting anyway, I’m here for work, after all.
So I nod once, feeling a bit confused, and mutter, "Thanks, Snow."
Then I head back toward Blue, biting my lip. Now, after how accurate Snow's last prophecy was, I feel an unpleasant shiver run down my spine, but at that exact moment, the doors leading out of the arrivals area open, and the survivors arrive.
It turns into chaos in the best possible way, people rushing forward, and Uncle Lake actually jumps the barrier and runs straight to Winter, pulling him into his arms, and I’ll admit my vision blurs a little watching it.
Sariel and Winter look… surprisingly okay, considering they spent more than two weeks on an uninhabited island. And it was volcanic indeed, which only makes me wonder why my dream about them was so precise.
