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Darien allowed for a stretch of silence, waiting to see if anyone else would step in, or if Ivy had anything more to say. When it appeared they’d reached the end of this topic, he gave one sharp nod. “That answers that.”

Travis slid the knife away and pushed out from the table, the legs of his chair groaning across the floor. “Might as well pack your bags, everyone. We’re going to be getting real familiar with the walls of the twin shit-water prisons soon.” He stood and walked away.

Max shook his head. “Jeez, Trav.”

“What?” Trav turned around, throwing his arms out in question. “I only speak the truth.” Even though Travis was acting like he was joking, Darien knew his cousin well enough to tell that he was being serious about this. And he was afraid that Travis was right, and soon they would all be staring at the inside walls of one of the hardest prisons in Terra.

6

Her hair was blue.

Loren knew better than to stare, but her hair was blue. And not the kind of blue you could get from a box of dye. No—she swore this girl’s hair grew out of her head that color.

Why did she think that? Well, for one it looked like it was growing blue from the root, not a hint of brown, red, black, or blonde to show that it had been colored in a salon or someone’s bathroom. And two, the girl’s name was also Blue—or so Dominic thought. They’d already been through their introductions a million times, as Dom, too, thought the name was strange, and wondered if there was a chance the girl was misunderstanding their questions. But by the fifth time he’d tried confirming it with her, the girl—Blue—had grown frustrated, so they’d settled on the argument. For now.

The girl with the blue hair was named Blue. Oh, and her nailbeds were also blue. So were her eyes… Her lips, too, though only slightly, as if she’d eaten a blue candy, the sugar staining her skin…

Where she sat cross-legged on the patterned rug in the library, Dominic and Blue sitting with her in a circle, Loren resisted the urge to pinch herself. She tried her best to focus on the questions the Angel was asking the stranger, but her mind was spinning in endless circles. By the sound of their conversation, Dominic was getting another answer that seemed just as absurd as Blue’s name.

A deep male voice floated through the room. “Anything?”

Loren turned to see Darien standing in the doorway. He was leaning against the side jamb, one hand in the pocket of his faded jeans. Loren tried not to drool over how good those jeans fit him. Same with his shirt—black and clinging to his body.

He must’ve sensed her staring, because his attention fell on her, his mouth tipping up on the left side.

For a long while, they looked at each other, the world and its troubles melting away. Even though she was wearing pajamas that weren’t the most flattering things in the world, Darien’s gaze drifted over her body, lingering the longest on her breasts, his heated stare causing her nipples to pebble under her shirt. Her teeth went to her bottom lip, and her heart sped up to a pace she knew all ears in this room would pick up on.

Indeed, Dominic was soon huffing a laugh. “Well, this just got all kinds of awkward. I feel like I walked in on something I shouldn’t be seeing.” A pause. “Or feeling.”

“Maybe you should leave, then,” Darien said without taking his eyes off Loren. The butterflies in her stomach turned into a riot of beating wings that threatened to spill out her mouth. Heat spread through her, pooling in the areas that had begged all evening for him to touch her.

Loren looked away before she could throw herself across the room and do something that would surely scar Dominic and…and Blue.

That name would take some getting used to.

Come to think of it, she probably couldn’t scar Dominic even if she tried. She would be willing to bet he’d seen enough in his lifetime that hardly anything could surprise him anymore.

Blue, on the other hand, was glancing between Loren and Darien. It became clear that she’d picked up on what was going on between the two of them when her face darkened with embarrassment, her cheeks flushing blue. She looked at the plush rug, her nearly dry hair falling in her face.

“You were saying, Dom?” Darien prompted.

Dominic scratched the back of his head. “Uh, to be honest, I’m a bit…rusty.”

Loren said, “But you were able to translate some of what she’s been saying. Don’t be shy, Dominic. Go on and tell him.” She waved her hand in Darien’s direction.

“Yeah, Dominic, don’t be shy,” Darien crooned.

Fighting a smile, Loren looked over her shoulder at Darien again, and he winked at her before giving his attention back to the Angel.

For once, Dominic didn’t have one of those witty comebacks he and Darien usually passed back and forth. He gave a nervous laugh—another rare occurrence. If Loren had her new camera with her, she would’ve snapped a picture to immortalize the moment and add it to her new photo album.

Dominic explained, “She said she came to the city with some people who were looking for…a colored bird.” He snorted and ran a hand through his hair, catching his fingers in the strands. Shaking his hand free, he leaned back and stretched out his wings, hands braced on the rug behind him. “I’m starting to feel like an idiot.”

“Yeah, you sound like one too.”

Dominic scowled. “Thanks, Dare.”

“A colored bird,” Loren mused, tapping her chin with a finger. “Do you think it has anything to do with…?” She turned to Darien again.