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My chest tightens, but not with pain—with a joy so bright it hurts. I’m so fucking happy I get to see him again.
Chase and Empty move more slowly than all the others, hand clutched to stomach. The other monsters leave space for him to sit down on the bed at my side. Once he’s settled, I realize that Empty’s in control, because his head dips a certain way, and his smile is a little wider than Chase’s. His right hand reaches out and cups my cheek, and I lean into the soft touch.
“Aliana. I’m glad you’re back. Even if it’s not as a ghost and I can’t have you all to myself.”
I chuckle.
“Not funny.” Chase wrests control from Empty and leans closer, green eyes glittering earnestly. “He doesn’t even mean that, you know. He just likes to get a rise out of the rest of us.”
I pull my free hand out from underneath the covers and put it on Chase’s knee, needing to reassure him. “I know.”
I squeeze his knee slightly, which makes his eyebrows rise.
“How are you feeling?” I glance meaningfully at his stomach. “Looks like you should be in bed here with me.”
His lip twitches.
Suddenly, the blankets on top of me wrench back of their own accord as if pulled by invisible hands. They float a foot above me, hovering in midair.
Shock momentarily renders me immobile. IsEmdoing that somehow? How? But I don’t dare look a gift horse in the mouth.If Em is able to utilize some of his powers while in Chase’s body, then that means they have an additional way to protect themselves. And all I want in this world is for my mates to be safe.
Chase blushes when he realizes that I’m only in a set of red panties underneath the covers.
I simply tease, “Well, are you getting in or not?”
He doesn’t hesitate after the invitation, lying on his side next to me, face toward me, one arm wrapping gently around my waist as the covers tuck back down around us and cocoon us in that soft warmth once more.
Reaching my hand to his stomach, I gently press a tiny bit of numbing ice magic into him where I can feel his bandages. “Better?”
He ends up curling into me, his head pressed against my shoulder, his legs curving over mine until he’s holding me like I’m a lifeline.
“Better than ever,” he whispers in a hushed but sibilant tone.
“Me too,” I murmur.
And it’s true. In this moment, no matter all the questions floating in the back of my mind, I know one solid truth—we all made it through the fight. We’re all together.
That fact alone means that we’re better than ever.
44
ALIANA
The human glancesin both directions anxiously.
She appears to be a few years older than myself, with scarlet hair that cascades down her back. I can’t quite see her eye color from this distance, but I do note that she’s petite.
She ducks inside an abandoned pharmacy—the building sun-kissed and crumbling with age—and then disappears from sight. Less than an hour later, she returns, standing at the entrance with a bulky backpack slung over her shoulder. She once again checks her surroundings and then races down the cracked asphalt dodging around the detritus left by the flood.
Not a single monster attacks her.
From my position on the balcony of the hotel we’ve taken over, I have a perfect view of the city, though I doubt anyone is capable of seeing me.
After all, most of the monsters in Ebony Kingdom were wiped out by Uni’s flood.
It’s only been in the last few weeks that the water has begun to recede, retreating back to the rivers and flowing out to the ocean. Most of the buildings have been damaged, but some—especially the ones on the outskirts of the city—remain.
Perfect for the humans to raid.
