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“You can hide out at my studio,” Jin offered. “I have plenty ofroom.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. She’s put down a spell around the estate—it’ll stop me from leaving. And even if I could break through that, as soon as she comes for me and sees I’m gone, she has ways of tracking medown.”
“So what do you need from us?” Ky said, swift and solemn. “Just say the word. We’rehere.”
They were. Like always. My throat choked up again. It took me a second before I couldspeak.
“I don’t want to ask this,” I said. “Not when I promised you we’d have time—not when there’s still so much I don’t know about how we’d get by, afterward. But the only way I can think of that I’d be able to challenge her and win… is if I’m already consorted. My spark fully kindled. I don’t even know if just one—but maybe, with all ofyou—”
I stumbled over my words. The guys were staring at me. I made myself barrel on. “You don’t have to. I wouldn’t blame you for feeling it’s too fast, too much. It doesn’t have to bepermanent—the standard consort partnership can be severed—but only after at least a few years have passed. It’s still a huge commitment. I know that. If I could see any otheroption—”
“Rose,” Damon broke in, his voice raw. He stepped up beside me. His jaw clenched and then released. “I’m in. You’ve gotme.”
My heart flipped over. I hadn’t known if any of the guys would agree, but Damon was the last one I’d have expected to offerfirst.
“And me,” Kyler said without hesitation. “No way am I sitting this out. We can worry about the fine printlater.”
Jin chuckled breathlessly, raking his hand through his blue-streaked hair. “Oh, to hell with it. Yes. I’m ready. You’re the best adventure I’ve ever been a part of, Briar Rose. I’m in until theend.”
My heart swelled with so much joy and affection I didn’t know what to do with it. But Seth was still standing silent beside his twin, his mouth tightlyslanted.
I grasped his hand. “You don’t have to. It’s allright.”
His eyes met mine with so much emotion it nearly rocked me on my heels. “It’s not that I don’t want to,” he said roughly. “You have no idea how much I want you, Rose. All I’m trying to figure out is what’s right for you.” He squeezed my hand back. “I love you. Don’t you doubt that for a second. We all loveyou.”
He shot a pointed look around our littlecircle.
“Yes,” Ky said with a giddy laugh. “So much,Rose.”
Jin’s expression turned unusually serious. “I do. More than I wanted to admit tomyself.”
Damon scuffed his sneaker against the ground and glowered at Seth. But when his gaze slid to me, it softened. His voice came out with a rasp. “Sometimes I feel like I’ve loved you my whole life,angel.”
My eyes had welled up. Our group still didn’t feel quite complete, but it was whole enough and already bound together by more trust and emotion than I could imagine sharing with anyone else. I wished I could somehow hold them all atonce.
“I love you too,” I said. “All of you. I alwayshave.”
They closed in around me, embracing me like they had this morning in Jin’s apartment. I breathed in their mingled scents: Ky’s musky mint, Seth’s warmed bronze, Jin’s paint-tinged sweet smoke, Damon’s leather and bitterchocolate.
“Let’s do this,” Seth said. “Don’t wait on my decision. I’ll watch out for you eitherway.”
“All right,” I said. “Come withme.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Seth
Rose took the lead, and the four of us fell into step behind her. Her pale gold dress made her look like a wraith, but a lovely one. She crossed the uneven ground with steady, determined strides, one hand clenched tight around the strap of her bag, fallen leaves crunching under her feet. The cooling breeze flicked her black hair across her pale shoulders. I couldn’t lookaway.
What was I doing? Part of me was hollering at me to throw myself at her feet and pledge my eternal loyalty to her already, and another part was full of the gnawing sensation that I shouldn’t be here atall.
I hadn’t lied when I said I loved her. Oh, God, how I loved this girl, sweet as lilac and fierce as flame. And I’d fallen so quickly back into seeing her as the center of myworld.
It’d been one thing to live for the next time we’d gather around her on her estate when we were kids. For a guy who was almost twenty-six years old—couldthislevel of devotion really behealthy?
But the fact was I’d never felt the same sense of purpose as in those old days when we’d roamed through these woods by Rose’s side. Nothing in my life since had felt that sure or right until the moment she’d walked back into it. What was fixing a sink or building a fucking backyard shed when I could be holding up this woman and hermagic?
If it had been just about me, I’d have thrown in my lot with her in an instant tonight. It wasn’t, though. What Rose needed mattered more than what I wanted. Would I really be supporting her when I needed her so badly myself? What if the weight of that need just dragged herdown?
