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Johnny pursed his lips as she took a step back.
“Your flight leaves at one-fifty PM. I’ll text you the details.”
Then she was gone.
Sariel hoisted his brother onto his shoulder. “I fucking hate this,” he said. “I hate the lengths we have to go through just to exist in peace in this goddamn world.”
I could offer no words of comfort. I agreed wholeheartedly with him.
The airport was busier than we expected.
We arrived as “humans” and checked in, all just in time for Jae to meet us as we were boarding.
The thing I disliked most about airports so far—and this was despite never having actually been to one before now—was the number of different scents. The scents of the past and present merged in one big open area, making it difficult to distinguish whether you were sitting next to your sworn enemy or your unknowing ally.
Since things were as unpredictable at airports as they were just unpredictable in general, I should not have been surprised to walk onto a flight and learn that there were only supernaturals on the flight. I should also not have been surprised to learn the pilot and crew were also supernaturals.
Nor that they were fae. That should have surprised me the least, at this point.
It was a struggle not to balk at the air hostess’s pointed ears and otherworldly beauty as she offered us drinks and snacks. Apparently, this particular airline was owned by a fae. Even more information that should not have been so surprising, considering what we’d just undergone.
Maybe we were just on edge from how easy it’d been to get on this damn plane. We hadn’t even been searched by human authorities. It was clear that the others had traveled before, to the point where I hadn’t detected an ounce of the anxiety I was feeling in any of them as we’d passed through metal detectors.
Sariel had stuck close to me once he sensed that I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He’d bought me a bag of snacks and rubbed soothing circles into the back of my neck until we’d been asked to board. Even now, his fingers rubbed small circles on the exposed skin of my thigh.
It was a great soothing tactic, as it redirected my nervousness from the possibility of being caught, accosted, or recognized to the heat that seared up my thigh and settled in my core at his touch. Memories of our make-shift date at the compound and the way his fingers had felt made me squirm in my seat.
“Everything okay?” he asked, hazel eyes bright as he looked at me.
I wanted to tell him no, he was making my wolf crazy with lust and I wasn’t too far behind her. I opted to keep my mouth shut and simply nod.
“Sleep, Aria,” he suggested. “It’s gonna be a long flight.”
His hand moved from my thigh to my back as he cuddled me into his side, his chin resting on my forehead. With the gentle motion of his hand running the length of my back in warm strokes, I did exactly as he asked, falling asleep.
* * *
For my first time out of the country—back before all of this had started, of course—I had planned to land in Greece to explore Oia, which was a small coastal town exactly like the ones seen from typing “Greece” into a search engine, all pretty white houses carved into the side of a cliff facing the cerulean waters of the Aegean sea. Oia was a popular tourist town, but I’d wanted to write a piece on the history of the coastal haven.
Second on my pre-crisis travel list was Italy, which was why I gaped when Sariel guided me out of Marco Polo International Airport, a hand at my back.
Iwasin Italy. I had known going in that we’d be going to Europe, I just hadn’t fathomed that we’d be going to Italy specifically.
“Close your mouth,” Johnny teased as he passed me. “You’ll catch flies.”
I watched as he and Marilyn passed us, fingers intertwined and hands swinging between their bodies. Reese was next; her expression mirrored mine as she spun in a slow circle, taking in everything as far as the eyes could see.
“I’m in Italy,” she whispered, clutching her carry-on to her chest. “Hot damn.”
Sariel chuckled as we watched Neo approach her, point something out, and then lead her down the sidewalk to where Jae stood with a companion. Michaelson was last, and it took me a moment to realize he’d clearly never been to Italy, either.
“Nice, isn’t it?” Sariel asked, eyeing his brother.
“Yeah,” Michaelson answered, one hand grasping the strap of his backpack tightly. “I wanna tell the old man to go fuck himself for depriving me of this.”
I felt the hot surge of rage as it bubbled in the pit of Sariel’s stomach. Watching his little brother discover the world after being under his father’s thumb for so long seemed to be equally liberating and stressful for him.
I squeezed his arm, then motioned with my head to where the others were standing. He gave a subtle nod, and I left him with his brother.
