Page 35 of Glitched Fates & Stolen Mates

December 2026

10

Felix

All five of us gathered on the mismatched sofas in the basement. I clutched the Philodendron Pink Princess against my chest like a shield, its glossy leaves trembling with my hands. I didn’t want to risk keeping the plant in the darkness of my bag any longer, and frankly, I needed something to hold.

Rory kept shooting me confused glances from the adjacent sofa, probably wondering why I’d brought horticultural backup to an emergency meeting. Flynn lounged in the armchair, looking thoroughly bewildered, whilst Priya perched on the edge of her seat like she was ready to spring into action.

“Right,” Seb said, positioning himself in front of the group with his hands clasped behind his back. “Felix has raised a code 909.”

A beat of silence.

Rory raised his hand as if we were in a school. “So… don’t shoot me, but what’s a code 909?”

“No bloody clue,” Flynn admitted.

“I was hoping one of you knew,” Priya said.

They all looked at each other expectantly.

“We just ask Kit when we don’t know the code,” Rory said, and my stomach twisted into knots.

“Yes, well, that’s rather the point,” Seb said dryly. “Kit isn’t here. Hence the emergency meeting. Felix believes something may have happened to him.”

All eyes swivelled to me. I sank lower into the sofa, using my tiny plant as camouflage.

“Something’s happened to Kit?” Alarm burst from Rory, his eyes widening. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I found out approximately one hundred and twenty-two seconds ago,” said Seb, “when Felix told me.”

“But why would Felix know if something happened to Kit?” Rory asked, and another bucketload of anxiety shot through my system. This was all too much already. “What’s happened?”

My face burned. “We… we were supposed to meet this morning. Before work.”

“Meet for what?” Rory asked.

“Training!” The word shot out of me like I was being interrogated. “Early morning training! Running and… and fitness stuff! You know he’s been training me!”

Rory’s eyebrows climbed towards his hairline, and he raised two hands. “Okay, okay! I just didn’t know you two had fitness sessions before work, okay?”

Fitness session. The thought was hilarious. Most of the time Kit had my back against the rough bark of the lime tree, his hands mapping every inch of my body like he was memorising my shape, his mouth hot against my throat. The only fitness involved was my heart rate spiking every time he touched me.

“Kit said I needed morning sessions because I was so unfit,” I said.

Priya had gone very quiet. Too quiet. She was studying my face with the sort of intensity usually reserved for suspicious supernatural phenomena, and I had the horrible sinking feeling that she could see straight through my pathetic cover story.

The plant’s leaves rustled as my hands shook.

“And you’re entirely sure the pair of you definitely had a… training session… scheduled for this morning?” Seb asked, and I got the sneaking suspicion that maybe he wasn’t completely buying it either.

“Yes, and I’ve got the texts to prove it,” I said, then immediately wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

Oh, God. What if they asked me to actually prove it? What if they wanted to see my phone?

My chat history with Kit was… compromising. For a start, he’d begun texting me goodnight almost every single night, complete with kissy face emojis that made my heart do ridiculous things. And if they scrolled back far enough, they’d find those messages from ages ago. From that night Kit had to leave, so he asked me to make that list…

My chest tightened to the point that a heart attack was a genuine possibility. Please, no.