Page 34 of Bloom in Darkness

Bryn is quiet for a moment. “You want him with us?”

“Yeah. I do.” Caelan’s hand settles more firmly at my back. “I want the man who draws on everything he can get his hands on, steals my pillows, hisses at my employees, and apparently thinks a bruised knee means I’m dying.”

Bryn’s thumb moves over my calf. “That’s Astra.”

A quiet laugh moves through Caelan’s chest beneath my cheek. “Then I want the rest too.”

Bryn shifts closer, his hand sliding from my calf to my back beside Caelan’s until both of their hands are resting against me.

“We find out what Sabine actually has over him,” Bryn says. “Then Astra decides what he wants to do.”

Caelan presses another small kiss to my forehead. “Exactly.”

I almost open my eyes and tell them I heard everything, part of me desperate to defend the Bloom and every choice I’ve made just to survive my life. I want to insist I know what I’m doing, even if I’m starting to suspect I don’t.

The rest of me wants to stay exactly where I am, with Caelan’s heartbeat under my cheek and Bryn’s hand warm against my back, without turning this into another problem I have to solve yet. So I keep my eyes closed and let myself have it a little longer. The bullshit will still be there when I wake up.

Bryn

Astra finally opens his eyes about twenty minutes later and mumbles that he needs a shower. While he’s in the bathroom, I get Caelan settled properly on the sofa with his bad leg elevated and hand him his coffee. The time off his feet helped, but he’s still favoring the left side every time he moves, so I take the chair beside him because if I sit any closer he’ll accuse me of hovering.

“You’re hovering,” Caelan says anyway, glancing at me over the rim of his mug as he reiterates. “You’re glaring from that chair which qualifies.”

I reach over and put my hand around the side of his neck, brushing my thumb once beneath his ear. “Because you fought on a bad leg. Drink your coffee and stay on the sofa.”

Caelan’s mouth curves, but whatever smart remark he’s about to make dies when the bathroom door opens.

Astra comes out wrapped in one of the spare robes from the recovery room, his hair damp and curling slightly around his face. He looks half asleep, cheeks warm from the steam, his hands steadier than they were before the shower as his eyes come straight to us instead of checking the room first.

He comes straight to me. I open my arm, and Astra slips into the space against my side with a tired little sigh, pressing his face into my chest. I lower my head to kiss his temple, and when he tilts his face up, the kiss he gives me is sleepy and slow. I keep one hand at the back of his neck and kiss him again before he settles against me.

Caelan watches us from the sofa. “You two are disgusting in the morning.”

Astra gives him a tired smile and stays tucked against me for another few seconds before blinking toward the chair near the door. “I need my bag. A shirt, maybe socks. Something dry.”

I let him go, though I’d rather keep him exactly where he is. Astra crosses the room and crouches beside the worn canvas bag he dropped earlier, digging through it until something slips loose. A small jar rolls across the floor before he can catch it, hits once, and spins toward the desk.

The jar hasn’t even stopped moving when a growl comes from Caelan, Astra freezing with one hand still buried in his bag. The look on Caelan’s face has me on my feet before I’ve figured out what the amber container actually is.

Caelan leans forward. “Is that Bloom?”

Astra’s hand stops completely as he looks at Caelan instead of the jar. “How do you know what Bloom is?”

Caelan gives him a look. “I help run an underground fight ring. Places like the Forge and clubs like Sabine’s overlap more than you’d think, and some drugs show up around both a lot more than others.”

The shaking and the crashes line up with everything Caelan noticed yesterday, Bloom suddenly explaining far more than I want it to.

Astra’s gaze drops to the jar. “It’s cream.”

“I can see that.” Caelan’s attention stays on him. “How long have you been using it?”

I get to the jar before Astra does and pick it up. There’s a handwritten sticker across the lid and nothing useful printed along the sides. I know enough about Bloom to dislike having it in my hand, but Caelan’s reaction tells me there’s plenty I don’t know.

Astra’s shoulders pull in. His fingers catch in the belt of the robe. “Months. Not every day at first.”

The plastic creaks in my hand before I realize how hard I’m squeezing it.

“Bryn.” Caelan’s voice stays quiet, but I hear the warning anyway.