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I prop myself up on my elbow and look down at him. His eyes—only two—are closed, and his lips are parted, revealing his fangs. There are dark circles under his eyes and the remains of the bony frill poke through his skin in angry red welts. But he’s human. While he’s sleeping, he looks too delicate for this world.
Do I look as tired and fragile?
Or am I just comparing him to how he looked when he was changed? That anger and power and size are missing now, though he is taller than me.
He cracks his eyes open. “What are you looking at?”
“You.” I lean over and press a kiss to his cheek. “I’m going to get up.”
“Is it morning?”
I glance at the sky. It’s getting lighter, though without sun to rise it’s hard to call it morning. “Yes.”
Joe forces himself up and pauses. Confusion and realization flicker over his face as though he’d forgotten, then he lifts the purple robe that had been covering him as though checking on his legs. “I’ll join you in a bit.”
“Are you sure?”
He glances up, a flash of annoyance in his amber eyes, before he smiles. “I can manage.”
I bite my lip and nod before getting up. I straighten my skirt, but there’s not much I can do about the state of my clothes, or myself. Theo is to the side and, as far as I can see, alone. Did he eat Michael while I slept?
My heartbeat quickens as I approach. “I didn’t mean to sleep so long.”
“You needed it,” he says like it doesn’t matter, but there’s something about him that suggests it does matter. “How is Joe?”
“Human.”
I sense him turn toward me. “What?”
“We were talking, and he had a massive change.” I’m still not sure what happened except that he unlocked whatever was keeping him stuck.
“No…no sex?”
I shake my head. The sex was after the change. How much had Theo and Michael heard? They wanted me to help Joe, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem quite fair. I’ve never dated more than one person at a time, so I don’t know how to juggle the three of them. And now Joe is human, how will Theo and Michael feel?
I glance around. “Where is Michael?”
One of Theo’s claws extends out of the shadow, and he points to a mass about ten yards away.
My hand presses to my heart. “Is he dead? What happened?”
“He is alive, but he had a change. Sitting guard wasn’t easy for either of us.”
“I’m sorry. I should’ve…” What could I have done? I was exhausted, and they had told me they would sit guard.
“There was nothing for you to do. We can’t always all be with you. I can’t…” he sighs. “What I want is impossible while I am like this, but if Joe can change without sex—”
“Then you might be able to.” I glance at the motionless form of Michael. “And so might he.”
“We will never make it to the center if we are all human. I need to stay—”
He doesn’t need to say anymore. I step into his shadow. He is sitting, so I put my arms around his arm in an attempt to hug him. He has wanted to be part of something for so long that even now he is willing to do whatever to remain. “You don’t need to. You can revert.”
He leans into me a little. “I don’t know if I can. Why haven’t I changed while living with Michael and Joe?”
“Because you were hiding, not living. You deserve a chance.”
“Which is why we need to reach the spire.” He lifts his hand as though to touch me, but stops before his massive claws come near me. “Check on Michael. We should get moving.”
