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I wanted to be his way home.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“Grace, wait. I’m scared this will hurt you somehow,” Bullet whispered, sounding more truly terrified than I’d ever heard him sound before. “But I’m too selfish to let you go, and I’m cowardly enough to ask you to do it for me. I’ll never be ready to say goodbye, even though I know it’s inevitable. I need you to do it for me. To let me go. Don’t drown yourself to save me.”
“There’s nothing inevitable about losing you,” I shot back fiercely, gripping the silvery bond closer to me, tugging it into me. “I’m not drowning. We’re swimmingtogether.”
I gave the bond another fierce yank. It didn’t feel as though it was pulling and coiling like a length of string, but rathershrinking, lessening the distance between us until our bond was an immediate, tight, tangible tie, rather than a long expanse of rope.
The silvery threads that connected me to Wild and Riot looked thinner than I expected them to, and I forced down the rising panic, latching onto them and dragging the weight of Bullet’s soul along with me.
It was frightening, but a wise Oneiroi had once told me to do what scared me, and I’d never regretted following his advice. If I hadn’t, I’d still be lonely and unhappy in Milton, watching the world slowly fall apart around me and having no idea why.
“We’re going home,” I rasped, somehow aching with exertion despite not having a physical form. The missing bond with Dare felt like a hole in my heart, and maybe it was selfish, but I was going to get back to the real world and heal it. I finally had all four of my soul bonds with me, and I wouldn’t let any of them go.
Dark red eyes rimmed with purple stared down at me as I blinked awake, my head throbbing and throat painfully dry. Terrified eyes.
“Don’t youever,” Riot rasped, his arms tightening around me where I was cradled in his lap. “Everfucking do that again.”
“Bullet—”
“Is waking up,” Dare said quietly, kneeling at the edge of the mattress, staring at me in alarm, angling the flashlight to illuminate the cabin.
Riot moved me gently so I could see the opposite side of the bed. Bullet was in a similar position to me, Wild’s large form hunched over him to avoid banging his head on the ceiling.
The fear coming from both Riot and Wild was overwhelming, but I could just make out the stirring of Bullet’s bond flaring awake, filled with a mixture of confusion and relief.
He was back. He was okay. Everything was going to be okay.
“It’s okay,” I told Riot tentatively, reaching up to stroke his cheek. Was that a bruise forming over his cheekbone or just a trick of the light? “We’re okay. Everyone is okay.”
“Nothing is okay,” Riot gritted out while Wild nodded, a slightly shellshocked look on his face. “You were… fading, somehow. Like the bond was fraying, and then somehow it wasn’t.” He shook his head, swallowing thickly. “We threw the humans trying to board into the water, but by the time I got down here, you were unconscious.”
Okay, I could see how that would have looked. How it would havefelt. I snuggled into Riot’s arms, sending as much apology as I could through the bond.
“Wait, what humans?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about that,” Riot replied instantly, which didn’t ease my mind whatsoever. “What happened?”
Bullet groaned loudly, shifting in Wild’s arms. “Grace saved my life, that’s what happened. I don’t know how, I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be possible. She used the bond like a bungee cord and swooped in to my rescue.”
Wild gathered Bullet up carefully, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead that had my throat growing tight with emotion. I knew Wild cared for us, but showing it was hard for him, harder still with Bullet than it was with me.
I was so glad they had each other, too. Their lives had been so lonely before, they deserved all the love in the world. I wanted that for them, wanted them toknowthey deserved that. To believe it.
Bullet tipped his head back, surprising Wild by brushing a faint kiss over his lips. I couldn’t quite suppress my dreamy sigh as Wild captured Bullet’s jaw, stopping him from moving away and deepening the kiss into something far less sweet. Something more raw, desperate, and possessive. There was a roughness they had with each other that they didn’t have with me, and Ilovedit, loved seeing the hidden sides we all brought out in one another.
“I’m trying to be angry that you put yourself in danger and you keep feeling all mushy and loved up. It’s very distracting,” Riot grumbled into my hair, pressing grumpy kisses all over my head.
“I should go check on Arsène,” Dare said with a brittle smile, leaning forward to place the sweetest, most tender kiss on the tip of my nose. He clearly wasn’t sure where he fit in among our little group, but not for long. Dare was mine, and I was going to claim him. “We, uh, sort of left him with cleanup duty—”
Riot cleared his throat loudly, a thread of panic coming through the bond.
“—I mean, just, you know. General tidying up,” Dare amended lamely. “So, I’ll just go… Help. With that. Glad you’re okay, B,” he added, backing out of the cabin and leaving the four of us alone.
Bullet and Wild broke apart, both of them turning to me, but Riot clung on tighter, not ready to let me go just yet.
“I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong,” Bullet began, frowning slightly to himself. “But Riot is right. Don’t you ever do that again, Amazing Grace. You probably defied some kind of natural law of the universe. Defied theFates. Those kinds of actions tend to have consequences.”
