Page 6 of Eternal Light (Fated in the Stars #5)

Boy does Gideon know, and he’s also fucking glad.

“I’m never living that down.” He sighs and opens his arms.

Leo shakes his head again, even though he takes a step closer. He wants Gideon to come to him, and he has zero problem with that.

“So that’s how it is? You’re not going to hit me in the face with the other glove?”

Nix giggles and steps back out of the line of fire—his offer of moral support is no longer necessary, but always appreciated. “You got what you deserved.”

Feeling like maybe he can get a hug without getting a smack upside the head, he pulls his mate into his arms. “It’ll be okay. We have the best reasons to be extra careful, and to come home in one piece.”

“Alive. I want you alive and in one piece,” he says, uncrossing his arms so he can hold Gideon close. “Can you do that?”

“We can,” Gideon whispers into the cinnamon-scented hair behind Leo’s ear.

He hopes.

Leo’s whispered good is accompanied by the second, still-wet glove getting rammed into the waistband of Gideon’s sweat shorts, but Gideon just grunts stoically and holds his mate tighter.

“Hey, Nimue has time for Grayson at the Guild. The Master of Novices can see him tomorrow at 2:00 PM,” Finn announces from his spot on the couch.

There’s quiet commotion from the hallway, and Grayson arrives with a still-naked, beanie-clad Luca on his back. Jay and Rowan bring up the rear, two large garbage bags each in hand.

“At the Guild? I’ll need a guardian and a ride,” Grayson says, and offloads Luca onto the couch.

“My radio interview and meet-and-greet are at 1:00,” Jay says from his perch on the corner of the dining table, a new, dry black t-shirt in place.

It was a charity meet-and-greet with the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and a short interview afterward.

Margot had expressed her condolences for Jay’s loss, and promised that everyone, everywhere, was going to know Jay was back in Clearwater.

Jay had been quiet about the events immediately following the car bomb explosion, but Leo had said their hired car had exploded in the valet parking lot.

There had been two bodies in the car, and several other injuries to passersby.

The police had all kinds of questions about Jay being at the golf club that day.

No, they didn’t know why his parents were in their car, but there had been an argument, they’d canceled their golf game, and were walking off the hard feelings.

They’d been returning to the car for a trip home when they felt the explosion.

Yes, they were heartbroken. No, they didn’t know of anyone who would want to hurt them. Thank you for your condolences.

Jay refused to let his parents’ deaths interfere with “the plan.” He said he couldn’t care less what the public thought, and if he could make the day of the sick kids who loved their music, then he was going to do that, too.

With Jay and Gideon fielding the court of public opinion and anticipating Carnell’s next move, there’s a logistical problem with getting Grayson to The Guild.

With four drivers currently in the pack, and two of them at WRBY 88.

1 Indie Rock Radio, no one thinks Rowan is the right choice for the uber-conservative Guild visit.

“That leaves me with Gray and Finn,” Leo says.

“Then I’ll stay with Nix and Luca,” Rowan offers. It might have been a sacrifice if Gideon didn’t know what the three of them get up to with sexual carte blanche , the highest sex drives in the pack, and unlimited time to themselves. “I don’t mind.”

“Sure you don’t,” Finn mutters. “Such a sacrifice.”

Jay smiles. “Okay, Leo with Gray and Finn at the Guild, Gideon and I at the station, and the three of you at the new safe house. Any word from Lauren?”

Sure enough, there’s a text with an address about twenty minutes from the radio station, and five minutes from the Coachman Park address of the Florida Magic Guild.

“The address is down near Coachman Park. Looks like it might be a bit more defensible than anything else we’ve stayed at to date. At least physically. She said it’s the best she could do.”

“Wish Lauren was here,” Nix says, leaning into Finn’s side on the couch.

Gideon does too, actually. Lauren has proven a solid ally, but one who can’t touch Florida soil without a certain protocol, given her previous role. Her words, not his, when he’d subtly implied this morning that he could use the backup.

What? Don’t judge.

She had not even made him grovel. Much.

Gideon hadn’t told anyone, but the plan was essentially hers. He’d led Jay to it as gently as he could, and Gideon’s guilt made itself known in a crawling sense of doubt and a smidge of fear.

If Gideon had any choice at all, he’d have done the whole damn thing by himself.

“What has you smelling so guilty, sugar?” Luca asks as he moves in for a hug.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he retorts, with a smack to Luca’s butt.

“Shit. Did not think that through.”

“Apparently not. Let’s get this shit loaded up.” Gideon rallies the troops, sidestepping Luca’s question.

They take another hour to get the two vehicles loaded, and the house back to a semblance of order. Jay packs the immense pile of belongings into the backs of the Buick and CR-V, and then they’re on the road for the twenty-minute drive to their newest destination.

Their next stronghold is a fifteen-unit apartment building, and Jay parks in the lot to head inside for keys from the superintendent, while Gideon circles the block.

In the rearview mirror, he can see Luca and Nix cuddled up in the back seat, silent and uncharacteristically stoic. Luca is unsettled enough that he’s got Nix’s fingers in his mouth and his nose in Nix’s neck.

His angst must be palpable, because while Grayson is resting his eyes beside him in the passenger seat, he isn’t quiet for long.

“Stop thinking so hard. You’re freaking everyone out,” Grayson finally sighs.

“I am perfectly calm.” Liar, liar, pants on fire.

“Nice try, but your soulmate knows that’s a lie, and therefore my soulmate is getting both of your misgivings through the bond, so I know that’s a lie, too. Completely the wrong crowd to try to fake it.”

“Fine, but there’s too much at stake. I keep wondering how we ended up here, you know?” That’s not entirely true, either. Knowing full well how they got here is easy. It’s wondering how it all got fucked up that has Gideon confounded.

“Ha. Yeah, I really do. But I also know how we do whatever it is we need to, over and over and over again. It’s…destiny. I don’t really get why all the time, but we’ve been on this journey with each other for millennia. Together.”

“Does it always work out?” The question slips out against Gideon’s will.

Grayson’s quiet for a minute, and it’s probably because it’s his turn to fake it. But he must decide Gideon will know, for the same reason Grayson cited earlier.

“No, not every time. I haven’t seen much of that, and maybe it’s just the nature of what I do when I’m sleeping. The remembering? But they’re usually good. I could tell you about it sometime.”

Fuck. Usually good? Well, that’s not a reassurance in any way, shape, or form.

“Yeah, Pretty, I’d like that.”

Leo flags them down on their third pass, and they follow Jay’s Buick into the underground parking garage.

“Third floor. Apartment three-two-five. I’m going to do recon.” Jay lopes off with Rowan on his heels.

It’s odd—now that Nimue has said Rowan is the Wolf, he can’t unsee it.

He thinks about how Rowan and Tsuki seem so alike after she’d arrived.

How she’d been waiting for him to find her.

Rowan’s mannerisms since Nix’s pregnancy began last fall—it’s all instinctual, wolf-like behavior.

Gideon sincerely hopes it doesn’t extend to marking his territory in the traditional wolf-like ways.

It hasn’t before, despite all their jokes about it, so fingers crossed that maybe it won’t start now.

He gently pulls his kittens from their cuddle in the back seat and presses their bags into their arms, while Grayson and he take up the rear, suitcases in hand. Finn and Leo do the same with the big bags of nesting supplies that Nix won’t do without.

They pile into the empty elevator for the trip up. Only two doors open into the hallway, and the black one closest to the fire stairs swings open when they arrive.

The apartment is small. There’s a single bedroom, a living room, a bathroom, and a compact kitchen. There are glass doors to a balcony where tenants who weren’t being hunted by their psychopathic sire could enjoy the evening with a glass of wine.

“It’ll do, I think, once Nimue can stop by for protection spells. Hopefully, we’ll only be here for a short time,” Jay says. It’s small, sure, but Gideon used to live in a two-room cabin, so he’s not picky.

“I like it, Jamie—like a cozy hidey-hole. This entire room will be our nest room, but we should wait until after Nimue comes.” Nix grins, picking up the two bags like they weigh nothing and taking them into the bedroom, Luca already dragging a suitcase in behind him.

A few minutes later, there is some giggling, and then what sounds like them jumping on the bed.

“Don’t break anything!” he shouts, and the noise abruptly settles down to whispers, and then the wet sounds of kissing.

“It’s better than the ground floor,” Jay says, pulling Gideon into a hug. “There aren’t any trees tall enough to reach the balcony, and there are three floors above us. There is one other tenant on this floor—a human, newlywed couple. Met them on my way up.”

It is more defensible than previous locations; nevertheless, having people so close makes Gideon’s wolf pace.

“Fucking hate this.”

“Me too, love. But it’ll be over soon. We’ll be home by Valentine’s Day, and we can celebrate any way you want.”

“Fuck, that’s next week? Shit.”

It’s February already? Gideon briefly entertains all the ways he’d show his mates a very happy Valentine’s Day.