Page 180 of My Undead Love Life

Everything inside me exploded with happiness.

They had made it back!

A door flew open high above us. Tori appeared at the railing of her treehouse. Her brown hair was loose around her shoulders. A blanket was wrapped around her body, and for a second, she only gripped the railing and searched the clearing. Her bright blue eyes found mine. Everything in her expression lit up. She made a sound I couldn’t hear from the ground.

Then, she moved.

“Tori, careful!” Micah shouted.

She didn’t listen. My sister bolted down the pegged ladder so fast my stomach lurched. She missed the last two and jumped, boots hitting the ground hard enough to make her stumble.

Micah reached for her, but she tore past him. “Spencer.”

“Tori!” Big, ugly tears poured down my face as I ran toward her.

We collided hard enough to knock the breath from both of us. Her arms wrapped around me. Mine locked around her. I thought the force would send us both into the snow, but Micah caught us from the side and kept us upright.

Tori sobbed against my shoulder. Full, broken cries that shook her entire body. “You’re alive,” she gasped. “You’re alive. Oh my God. You’re alive!”

“I’m here.” I gripped her harder. “I’m here, and so are you. You made it!”

She pulled back far enough to grab my face between both hands. Her eyes searched mine frantically. “Are you hurt? Were you bitten? Why is there blood on you? Where have you been?”

“I’m okay.”

“You disappeared for almost three months!”

“I know.”

“I tried to go back.” Her voice broke again. “We all tried. The horde wouldn’t leave. It was everywhere, Spencer. We couldn’t get through.”

“I know.” A weak laugh tore out of me through the sobs. “I know. I didn’t think⁠—”

I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t tell her how many nights I had pictured the horde catching them or how often I had imagined coming back to an empty Oasis.

“You thought we didn’t make it,” she whispered.

I cried harder.

“I thought you didn’t,” she admitted and dragged me against her again. “I thought you were dead. I thought both of you were dead.”

“No, we made it.” I turned.

Keith stood just beyond the tree line with Mad, Oxi, and Luck. All four of them had stopped. Keith stared at the Oasis as if he had forgotten what it looked like. Micah followed my gaze. His eyes landed on Keith, and relief softened his features. Tori pulled back and turned. Keith’s rifle hung at his chest. Snow clung to his dark hair and shoulders. The red cloth tied around the weapon shifted lightly in the wind.

He lifted one hand. “Hi.”

Tori smiled back. “Thank God you both made it back…with friends?”

Doors opened above before footsteps pounded across platforms and ladders.

Keith and the guys came over, and Micah pulled both Keith and I into a hug. “You two took years off our lives,” he said roughly.

Keith laughed, but it broke halfway through.

More footsteps approached from behind me.

“Spencer?”