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My eyes widened. Wait, I was hugging Ram. Ram? That bastard?
I jerked away from him, and he met my gaze with sorrow in his dark eyes.
Jag stepped between us, throwing his arms around me. Moe and Elliot did the same from either side.
“I knew you could do it!” Moe said.
At least someone did. I tried to free my arm to hug him back, but the three men had pinned my arms to my sides.
“That world didn’t fall apart,” Elliot said. “It was full of ceramic cats sleeping on ledges, each with its own little sun.”
“Oh, right, cats!” Moe said. He let go of me and turned to Tanner. “Welcome home!”
Tanner shook his head as he pushed off from the bookshelf and walked away. I guess he was too shaken up to deal with us.
“Bye,” Moe called.
Jag kissed my forehead and then whispered, “Did you try to leave us behind?”
“Of course,” I said. I hadn’t planned to tell them, but since he had figured it out, I might as well own it. “I didn’t know if the portal would work or murder you in a horrible, bone-crushing way.”
“As opposed to a relaxing murder,” Jag said.
“Not everything is chainsaw arms and flamethrowers.”
As Jag chuckled, Elliot hugged me tighter. “I would have gone through first to see if it was safe for you.”
My heart went soft as that apple jam Moe had contaminated. “I’d hug you, but my arms are trapped.”
Elliot let go and stepped back from me. “Oh! Sorry!”
The door to the rest of the library slammed, and I realized my mistake in letting Tanner leave. I gently shoved Jag off me. “We have to leave. Sooner or later, the cat man will call the cops to report that he’s not missing, and he’ll tell them he saw us.”
Moe blinked his big blue eyes. “But we saved him.”
I sighed. Sweet, naïve Moe. “That doesn’t mean he’ll protect us.”
Ram busied himself with tidying the papers on the table and refused to look our way even when he spoke. “He might not know we’re wanted before he talks to the police.”
Moe suddenly ran around the table and hugged Ram from behind. “I forgot to say: you’re so smart for figuring out the portal too!”
Ram’s eyes went so wide that I thought they were going to pop out and roll away. “Umm… thank you.” He patted Moe’s arm.
Moe, oblivious to the emotional turmoil he had just unleashed on Ram, grinned and squeezed him tighter before letting go.
Ram stared wide-eyed into the distance for a moment before returning to piling the notes into our basket.
Something in my chest twisted painfully as I realized he didn’t have real friends. His cronies in our gang and the prison had always been demanding things from him, kissing his ass, and harming others on his behalf. He was so accustomed to using people as shields against the world, he didn’t know what simple, sincere friendship was like.
And Moe was too sweet to know anything except friendship.
I had been the same way as Ram. Following his orders had been a way to lash out at other supes and blame him for it instead of myself. I had used him as a shield against my own desire to burn the world.
I could have groaned at the realization. But I didn’t want to talk about it, and if Jag, Elliot, and Moe knew I was upset, they would not let it go.
So I let my insides twist as I packed up our stuff and picked up the basket, though I had no idea where we were going to hide out.
“The police will never find us in a bubble dimension,” Elliot said.
