My body is lighter already, but my chest is still tight.
I look around the room and frown. There’s a generic landscape painting over the bed—a boring blue mountain range surrounded by dull green trees. Brass, practical lamps are bolted to the wall. There’s a TV, a small table flanked by two smaller chairs, and a luggage rack covered in wrinkled clothing. It’s everything I expected to find in this hotel room, minus one.
“Where’s Luca?”
“He went to grab food,” Ciprian says. “We didn’t know when you would make it.”
The door opens with a whine, and Luca comes in carrying multiple bags of takeout. He looks at me, and the pure relief that spreads across his face feels like taking my shoes off after a long day.
“Thank the gods.” He glances at Riven and frowns. “Where’s your face?”
“I thought we already established I didn’t have one.”
His tone isn’t unkind, but Luca winces, anyway. “No, I didn’t mean—look, I shouldn’t have...” He bites his lip ring. “I’m not ready for this conversation, okay?”
Riven nods slowly.
Luca forces a smile. “I prefer the amber, though,” he says. “I-I’m beginning to trust that face.”
For a moment, no one speaks.
Luca shifts his weight as Riven stares at him. The stranger’sface he wears is expressionless. I can’t read him at all. I’ve become more in tune with his emotions when he’s bound beneath the mask than I am when he’s not.When did that happen?
Warped black-and-white lines roll over the bridge of his nose. I sigh with relief as they erase the stranger’s features and return Riven to me.
I climb off Alistair, being careful not to knee he or Ciprian, and reach for Luca.
He doesn’t hesitate, swooping in to kiss me like he’s starving. His kiss is consuming, familiar, and hot at the same time. I surge forward. His back hits the table.
Paper rustles. Then his hands are on my ass.
A glance over my shoulder shows Riven walking away with the takeout bags he took from Luca to free up his hands.
“Nice save.” Ciprian claps him on the back.
“Is there enough?” Riven asks. “I know you weren’t expecting us.”
Ciprian nods. “We’ve been here for two days. Luca orders extra for every meal, just in case.”
Suddenly, my eyes are burning.Shit. I do not want to cry right now.
Except, I’m not sure I have a choice. I know I haven’t been handling things well. My emotions are all over the place, and I’m the one who made the decision to search for the gateway without them. They have every right to be pissed. It doesn’t change my decision, but leaving without explaining wasn’t okay. Especially not after everything we’ve been through.
“Please, don’t cry, baby,” Luca whispers. “I hate it when you cry.”
I smile through the tears. “I’m sorry for leaving like I did.”
“It’s okay. We know why you did it, and we’re listening now. We’ll do whatever it takes to get Malach back.”
I wipe my tears on the collar of Luca’s shirt. He’swearing a blue and black checkered flannel, and he looks good enough to eat. Unfortunately for me, my stomach growls for real food, and I’m immediately corralled into one of the chairs before I can take a bite of my basilisk.
Riven gets shoved into the other chair, and the three of them sprawl across the unmade beds, peppering us with questions while we eat.
I answer absentmindedly while tracking their movements. I can’t help myself. One wrong move is all it will take for the nice, clean, hotel sheets to be baptized with red onions or mayo-slathered lettuce. I can handle a realm full of monsters, but a grease-stained bed is my hard limit.
Riven finishes telling them about the car fire, and Ciprian clears his throat.
I stiffen as I catch his stare. I was so busy watching his hands, I forgot to monitor his eyes. They’re sparkling—a sure sign he’s up to something.
