I swallow back a sob and swipe my hands over my cheeks as he pushes to his feet, and while I know we don’t have a lot of time to waste, I drag him against my body and throw my arms around him.
“I love you,” I tell him fiercely. “I love you so much. And I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head and cups my chin before taking a small, tender, devastating kiss. “VySytheh.”
Another feeling sweeps through me, something deep and profound, something that shakes my core and makes me short of breath. I don’t understand the full meaning of the word, andI don’t have time to try to grasp it. I have to get to Eissa’s, and that poses my biggest problem.
Cielo reaches for the door, and I stop him.
“You can’t come.”
His eyes go wide and a little wild. He looks like he might try to fight the sky if I ask him to. “Yes. I go.”
“It’s at the Foundry,” I tell him.
His ears droop, and his eyes glance down at his feet before he nods. But it’s obvious he’s not giving in. “Hide.”
“Cielo…”
“Dante,” he fires back. He meets my gaze again and steps close. “You weeel not do thees alone.” His words are fierce and so clear. He presses his massive clawed hand to where my heart is hammering. “I weeel hide.”
I rack my brain for a second. I don’t think they’re going to do a full search in the car, so I run to the linen closet and grab the thick wool blanket my nonna gave me years back.
“In the back seat. It’s going to be really uncomfortable, but you can lie on the floor and cover up with this. It’s the middle of the night, and it’ll be dark. If there’s a guard, I doubt they’ll look.”
He nods and takes the blanket, but I stop him again before he can open the door.
“They still might find you. You know the risk and…and I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose you.”
He cups my cheek and kisses me again. “I weeel be fine. Promissss.”
I decide to take him at his word, trusting fate, which has never been kind to me. Still, my hands tuck him under the blanket in the back seat, all the while my anxiety ratchets higher. I hate that he has to hide, that he’s putting himself at risk for my sake.
He curls up tighter, his tail wrapped around his waist. This position isn’t comfortable, but luckily, the drive isn’t too far, and fate seems to be kinder to me today because when I get to the gate, there’s no guard. I punch in the code Eissa sent me, then drive around to the back of the building and park.
I can see a couple of security cameras, so I grab my phone and call Eissa, who answers immediately. “So, Cielo is with me.” I brace myself for him to get upset, but he does little more than sigh.
“I thought he might insist. Where are you parked?” I give him my location. “Alright. Do your best to keep his face obscured, and I will have one of my contacts adjust the footage before the sun is up.”
“You trust them?” I can’t help but ask.
He laughs softly. “Yes, Dante. I do. And it’s not live footage, so it will be hours before anyone reviews it. If they review it at all. My people count on blind obedience. I doubt any one of them would believe a banished Vyastil would be rebellious enough to ignore the full terms of their sentence.”
Ah. My brave and rebellious Cielo would do anything for me now, but when he first arrived, he was exactly as Eissa said.
Eissa’s word about the cameras is enough to settle me. It means I don’t have to face this alone. I can have Cielo beside me, which is the only way I’m going to survive it if Luca’s as bad as I think.
I get out of the car, then kneel down by the back door and pull the blanket off Cielo’s head. “You have to keep your face hidden, okay? Try not to look up at all. Let your hair cover most of your face.”
Cielo always keeps his hair in a tight braid down his back, but he reaches behind him and pulls the tie off, letting the multicolored strands flow around his shoulders. I ease back sohe can get out of the car, and he sets his hair to be a curtain over his face as I hurry us toward the door and punch in the code.
There’s another camera at the entrance, but none down the corridor and none near the elevators. This side of the building is nowhere near the front desk, so it makes sense why Eissa would take us this way.
He lives on the fourth floor, and I feel tendrils of fear wrapping around me as we rise. I’m about to find out what’s wrong with Luca, and there’s still a chance we could get caught.
Cielo senses this and reaches over, taking my hand in his. The weight of his fingers and the gentle prick of his claws are a strange but welcome comfort.
“Love you,” I whisper.
