“I didn’t want her to die,” I admitted, feeling small in a world full of monsters.
“People do that all the time down here, love. The trick is to find something worth dying for,” Wolfe smiled, lifting my chin.
“Like you,” Thay kissed me on the cheek.
I nuzzled into Thay, kissing around his lips in a shaky embrace, and part of me still couldn’t believe I was allowed to do this.
“Am I still in danger?” I asked, turning my head to Wolfe.
“Always,” he tossed a playful brow at me. “But we’ve kept you alive this far.”
“Is that why you put me on the plane?” I growled, nudging Thay in the chest.
“Yes,” he confirmed, his left hand moving high up my thigh. “I mean Wolfe drove me to the airport, but I was the one who had to let you go.”
“To keep me safe?”
“That and because I fucking love you,” he made clear. “I wish all this for you, Daphne. I just don’t know how to give it to you and be the one you kiss.”
I knew what he meant. It was a choice. You can’t hold on to something that you’re always letting go of.
“Yeah, well, I choose you,” I spoke quietly to his mouth, and he rolled his eyes.
“You’re insufferable, Daph. Did you know that?”
I pouted, and he bit my lower lip.
“Meet me in the shower after you say goodbye to Wolfe,” he dipped his head low before pulling himself out of me, making the room shiver. “Let me know how it goes,” Thay turned his attention to Wolfe, his bare, hard body sneering when he disappeared behind the bathroom door.
Wolfe shifted, and suddenly, I felt very naked.
He had seen me crying. Watched me claw at Thay’s soul for more… Heard the difference in how I broke for the other half of me, and yet he didn’t move to make sense of it. He only stared at me the way he always did, like I was the only one worth looking at.
“I am sorry about Lyla,” I mumbled, bringing my knees to my chest. “I didn’t mean to cause all this shit.”
“I’m not,” he lifted my chin to meet his eyes. “And you caused nothing. This is the effect of being in our world. I wish there were words to make that fact cleaner for you, but there aren’t.”
“I know. It’s just…”
“Real now?”
I took a breath and nodded.
“Are you in pain?” His attention dropped to the inky letters of Thay’s last name before rifling around to find the ointment and a clear sheet to protect it. There was something soft in the way he thumbed over the burn and set it to rights. Something so entirely Wolfe.
“I don’t know. This all feels like a lot!” I smiled, taking a breath.
“It is. Falling from heaven. Fucking your soulmate. Entering a relationship with two men and blowing up your chances at a normal life is objectively overwhelming, Daphne. But this is what you want, right?”
A double-edged question that felt like a grenade.
What Iwantedwas them. There was a difference, even if they would argue otherwise.
I eyed him suspiciously, and he smiled.
“You always know,” he confirmed, cocking his head to view his first aid skills.
I knew he brought Thay here to ensure his perfect world remained in working order. That, without him, his cold math ran too warm. And there was nothing that Wolfe despised more than uncontrolled chaos. That is why he didn’t push back when Thay told him to watch, content to remain in the shadows until all the pieces he was playing fell exactly into place. It was something I loved about him; he was a blue sky in a world full of explosions.