“Did they harm you?” he asks.
I breathe in his heat and sigh in relief. “No, I’m fine.”
Bastian’s arms tighten and his wings come around us as he backs away, growling. I look over my shoulder to see Amyrah striding through the open portal. When Apollo enters, Bastian’s body goes still. Even his heart seems to stop beating.
“Brother?” he whispers.
Apollo grins. “Indeed.”
Rhazan comes next, followed by the two women. The fiery red demon fluffs out his wings to create a barrier between us and Jade. The protective energy flows off him in droves and I realize, those aren’t just random Earth witches to ease my transition. They’re important to the demons they’re with. Like I am to Bastian.
“How did you find me?” Bastian asks.
“You’ve been in the system for ages, but it was the hunter after your blood that led the IBMA to you,” Amyrah answers. “And since we’re in contact with your two brothers, and your physical description closely matched theirs, we reached out.”
“You never told me you had brothers,” I say, looking up at him. “Justsiblings.”
He runs his claws through my hair and down my back. “I didn’t know if I’d ever see them again, so there was no point in telling you more.”
The moment drags on in quiet intensity. Bastian guarding me like the room is on fire while Rhazan guards the other women as if Bastian might attack them. Apollo seems to be the only one without any apprehensions. He smiles gently as he reaches out.
“Don’t you have a hug for us?”
Bastian’s lip curls back. “You know how I feel about physical contact…”
Apollo laughs. “It’s true then that we never change.”
“You change some,” Sylvia says.
“Yeah, Rhazan used to be a huge asshole, and look at him now,” Jade says with a cheeky grin. “He’s just a little asshole.”
“You are treading on thin ice, Firecracker,” Rhazan growls at her.
“Ohh, what are you going to do?” she asks, waving her hands in the air. “Punish me?”
Rhazan somehow turns a deeper shade of red, and the orange lava-like cracks on his skin glow like a furnace. There’s a tiny sliver of pink in his chest that pulses even brighter as Jade gives him a salacious wink.
She takes a few steps forward. “Cait, who’s this feral, brooding mess?”
I chuckle. “Bastian.”
His wings close around me further until I can barely see through them.
“Not another step,” he snarls.
“Bast, I’ve already been with them this whole time,” I say.
He scowls down at me. “No one is to be trusted.”
“Not even me?” I ask.
His fangs spear his lower lip as he grimaces. “You're twisting my words and spinning falsehoods.”
“The vagueness of your verbosity hasn’t gone unnoticed, and you didn’t answer my question,” I say. “Do you trust me?”
“It was the other way around,” he says, his expression softening. “And of course I trust you. With my life, which you’ve now saved thrice over.”
“Then trust me when I say these aren’t your enemies, and they’re not a trick or a trap.”
