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“I know. But we’ll find a place one way or another,” I said. “I’m not letting that house back home stay empty after all the work I put into it.”
She looked up at me, her mouth twisting. “It is a beautiful house. It’s perfect. Even if that one day is the only day we’ll have gotten to use it.”
The sadness in her voice wrenched at me. I bent my head to kiss her. She slid her hands behind my neck, kissing me back, and I didn’t care that Gabriel was still in the room, leaning against the doorframe while he studied the layout of the hall, or that some new text might come in at any moment telling us we had to run again. Everything was Rose, and that was enough for me.
My cock hardened as her body pressed closer against mine. She kissed me harder, my hands started to ease up under her shirt—and a splinter of pain shot up my spine.
I eased back, resting my head against hers. My breath was coming a little ragged, and not just from the heat of that moment. I’d felt pressure and prickles of discomfort before, in the many times we’d come together in the last week, but I’d been able to ignore them. That splinter had been a little too sharp.
“Maybe not the best time to get too distracted,” Rose said in a playful tone. She didn’t know why I’d pulled back. Good.
“Probably not,” I agreed.
She gave me one more quick kiss, a brush of her lips against mine. “I suppose I’d better see what Damon’s up to before all my consorts are armed and dangerous.”
I chuckled. “Left to his own devices, you never know what he’ll do.”
Rose touched Gabriel’s arm on her way past him, and he smiled and grasped her hand briefly in return. But he stayed there with me as she hurried down the hall. After a moment, he looked at me.
“You’ve been going to her a lot,” he said. “More than anyone else.”
It didn’t sound like an accusation, just an observation, but some part of me bristled anyway. I willed down the impulse to make a hasty defense.
“It’s the best thing I can do for her,” I said. “Physical comfort, helping her magic. And, I mean, we both enjoy it, so…”
Gabriel’s lips quirked up, but his gaze stayed serious. “She’s used a lot of magic since the Assembly caught us. We can all help stop her from exhausting herself. The last few days I’ve just noticed that afterward you’ve looked more exhausted than usual. A little worn down. And when you stopped just now—it wasn’t just because you’re worried about them coming back right away, was it?”
Shit. I hadn’t thought the effects had been strong enough that anyone had noticed. Maybe they’d been stronger thanI’dnoticed. I had been feeling sluggish in the last few days, but I’d put that down to all the stress of being on the run.
“I don’t mind,” I said. “I’ll give her as much as I can.”
“I’m just saying, you don’t need to push yourself to the point where it’s hurting you,” Gabriel said mildly. “She had three other consorts and now she has four. Does she know it’s been affecting you?”
I gave him a look. “Do you think she’d even be kissing me if I’d let on?”
“Seth…” Gabriel glanced away for a second and then met my eyes again. “I know I came into this later on than the rest of you. I’m not going to try to tell you I know better. It just seems to me that between the six of us, Rose is the expert on magic. She knows so much more than the rest of us do. So if something to do with the magic or the consorting is a problem… isn’t it better if she knows soshecan decide the best way to deal with that?”
A weight sank into my stomach. “She’s already dealing with so much.”
“I know.” Gabriel rubbed a hand over his face. “Believe me, I know that debate way too well. Do you think I wanted to ask her to take the risk of doing that consort ceremony? It brought the Assembly right back here. But the risks of not telling her what was going on were worse. And I trust her to know what she can and can’t handle.”
Don’t you?He didn’t need to say the question or even hint at it. I wet my lips. “I do too. I just…”
I wanted to protect her. I wanted to be the strong one, the rock she could rely on. But I wouldn’t really be that if one day I suddenly cracked under a strain I hadn’t fully understood.
I sighed. “Okay. Point taken. Thanks.”
Gabriel shrugged, pushing himself off the doorframe. “I figure we all have to look out for each other. We’re all looking out for Rose. And we’ve got to let her look out for us—and to look out for each other. I felt that, last night, during the ceremony. The caring, the connection, doesn’t just go from us to her. It’s all of us, joined together. Or maybe it only seemed that way in the moment.” He gave me a wry smile.
I had to smile back. “No, I’ve felt that too.” I paused. “You know, I’m glad you did come back. I’m glad you’re here. We work better when it’s all six of us, don’t we?”
Gabriel’s smile softened. “Yeah,” he said. “I think we do. Should we see what the others are up to?”
I followed him out of the room, my spirits a little lighter but that weight still in my gut. I didn’t think it was going to shift until I found a way to talk to Rose. And even if I trusted her, I already knew it wasn’t going to be a fun conversation.
If I’d been smart, I’d have told her in the first place. Too late for that now.
Chapter Twenty-Two
