Page 54

“Fuck. Yes. Give me your phone,” she demands, but I’m already handing it over.

I should have thought to ask Margot to get me Hale’s number, but it doesn’t matter.

As Gwyn dials a number she clearly has memorized, I take a moment to look her over.

Her bare feet are blood-speckled, and there are dark spots on her leggings that I suspect are blood.

She turns, and the backs of them are torn the fuck up, revealing bloodstained skin in some places. But she’s intact. Whole. Here.

“Yeah, come back,” she says. “To Roman’s. Hale, stop. No, I couldn’t—what do you mean I should have—you know what, just get here. I’ll explain.”

She hangs up and hands me the phone with one hand and begins gesturing with the other.

While holding her goddamn gun.

She’s pacing around my small living room, Zuul following behind her, and she’s clearly fucking irritated.

“He said I should have just come back into the compound to find him. And lead Agnarr to someone I love? Jesus Christ.” She came here instead.

I try not to read into it because I just told her I loved her and she hasn’t said anything about it.

She shakes her head in aggravation before closing her eyes and continuing her story.

“Okay, so he showed up somehow. Through the elevator, but the elevator didn’t come up?

I don’t know. Then Nico came up to get a charger, and I didn’t want him or Zuul to die, and Agnarr let me—well, and then, I went out onto the balcony, you know, because there would be a mess? And then?—”

“Give it to me,” I demand as she starts playing with the safety of her gun. She stops, staring at me for a moment.

“Promise not to shoot me?” she finally asks, fighting a smile.

I hold out my hand, and she doesn’t hesitate like she might have before. Gently, she places it in my palm. I don’t break eye contact as I drop the magazine out and pocket it before setting the gun down on the coffee table beside us. She huffs a laugh before shaking her head.

“Sorry. It’s a bad habit. I’m nervous.”

“I know.”

“Anyway, I landed in some guy’s pickup truck. I don’t want to hear you complain about me shooting you ever again,” she says, giving me a sheepish smile. She’s different. Exuberant but twitchy. Almost radiant, which makes no fucking sense at all.

“Hurt like a bitch, didn’t it?”

“Yeah,” she says, grimacing. “I think Agnarr followed the truck—or at least I hope so. I drove here, as soon as I was able. To you.”

“To me.”

“Where else?” she asks.

Looking up at me through her lashes, blood staining her body and hair a tangled mess, she’s gorgeous.

She might appear innocent, with her soft jaw and rounded cheeks, but her sharp-toothed smile and that cunning ability to deceive tell another story.

Her vengeance and her rage and her sadness haven’t undone the goodness inside of her.

The parts of her that made me think I was capable of more aren’t gone just because the rest of her has been revealed. I want all of her, no matter the cost.

Gwyn takes one step toward me, and I match her.

Then, she’s closing the distance in a heartbeat, and throwing her arms around my neck.

I close my eyes, grateful for her warmth and her soft curves and her living, breathing presence.

When she presses a warm, messy kiss to my mouth, I can’t control the satisfied growl that escapes me.

I haul her closer, wrapping my arms around her waist and lifting her to the tips of her toes.

She tugs at my lower lip, sucking on it, before pressing her mouth against mine once more.

“I thought you jumped because?—”

“I know,” she whispers. Her forehead rests against mine, and her eyes are closed. “I expected it to be weightless. Peaceful.”

“It’s not?”

“It’s fucking terrifying.” She laughs, then grows silent for a moment. “ This is fucking terrifying.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it is.”

“I think I loved you before I even met you, Roman. The bits and pieces I got to know.”

I don’t want to talk anymore. We’ll have to figure out the Agnarr shit sooner rather than later, but I need a minute.

I lift her, wrapping her legs around my waist, before bringing her into the kitchen.

Setting her down on the countertop, I kiss her—hard.

Ravenous and anticipatory, she nips and bites, and I can’t get enough.

This is it. This is everything I’ve been holding myself back from.

Just like her, I think I fell in love with Gwyn little by little—starting before I ever spoke to her.

Ever since her betrayal, I’ve held onto this idea that I never knew her and that she can’t be forgiven, but the only thing she took from me was my pride.

I’ve finally learned I don’t need it as much as I need her.

“The fuck is going on?” Margot asks, as she slams through my back door. I pull away from Gwyn, but don’t step back. My friend has been angry at Gwyn on my behalf, but it’s true relief in her eyes when she sees her unharmed. I lean in, giving Gwyn an unhurried kiss—because I want to and I can.

“Well, alright. Now that that crisis is solved, I have to show you something,” Margot says, and I only let my kiss linger for another moment before pulling away from Gwyn. My friend widens her eyes and gives me a look. “Outside.”

She turns around and walks out, leaving the door open behind her. I follow, stopping after a moment when I realize Gwyn isn’t behind me. She’s sitting there, hands gripping the counter as she bites her lip.

“Come on, sweetheart,” I say, aware of exactly what it means for me to include her in whatever new bullshit Margot is about to bring to my attention.

Gwyn only hesitates for a second, large eyes blinking in surprise, before hopping off the counter and grasping my hand in hers.

“Close the door,” Margot directs as we join her on my back deck. Zuul followed, and he runs into the middle of the yard to piss. Quietly, Margot continues. “I don’t want to get his hopes up, but I’ve been doing some digging. Now, I’m not sure, but I think I might have found her.”

“Who?” I ask, but she hands me the phone.

There’s a blurred image from a gas station surveillance camera.

A demon stands at the counter,easy to spot with his all-black eyes, and there’s a girl standing beside him.

The angle isn’t great, but her heart shaped face and blonde hair looks familiar. “Is that Kayla?”

“I think it might be,” Margot says. “This was from three days ago, so I’ll have to find them again. But if it’s her…” she trails off.

“We can’t tell him. Not until we’re?—”

A gunshot cuts me off.

I turn toward the house, confused. Through the back window, I can see all the way to the front door. My stomach drops out and the edge of my vision grows dark. I blink, willing the horrifying image to be a false one.

Because he’s my little brother, and he can’t be...

“Oh no,” Gwyn cries out as she sees what I do.

“No,” I breathe. “No. No no no no no.”

I reach for the door. I have to help him. I have to hold him. I have to fix this like I’ve fixed everything else.

“No, you can’t,” Gwyn says, grabbing my wrist to stop me. I don’t shrug her off even though I want to. Margot’s arms wrap around me from behind and hold me tight. I could throw her off me, but I think part of me knows they’re both right.

“Maybe I can…maybe he can heal,” Gwyn says.

“You can’t see this, Roman,” my friend says as I lurch forward. “Let her do it. Let her try.”

I collapse to my knees as Gwyn goes inside. I can’t even cry as she walks the length of the house, prepared to puzzle the pieces of my little brother’s skull back together.