“He doesn’t have her.” Tod’s voice sounded calm, but I could see tension in every line of his body. In the way he sat perfectly still, as if he might lose control of his temper—just like Nash—if he moved at all. “If Avari really had her, he’d come right out and say it, so there could be no doubt. But he didn’t say it. He only implied it, because that’s as close to lying as a hellion can get. He hasn’t found her yet, Nash.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I said, and Tod nodded. “That’s probably why he hung up so fast—so we couldn’t start asking about her.”
“So, she’s okay?” Nash needed us to say yes. I could see that in the anxious twists of green ringing the edges of his irises. He wouldn’t sleep if we said no. In fact, he’d probably stay up all night plotting her rescue from scratch, not that I could blame him. But we owed him the truth.
“Maybe,” I finally said. “She’s more okay than she’d be if Avari had her, anyway.”
“Well, I guess that’s probably true.” My mattress creaked when he stood. “I’m going to look for her again. Will you guys come with me?”
Tod hesitated, but I nodded, trying to hide the dangerous idea and the grim certainty growing clearer in my mind with every passing second. “Yeah. Of course. But we should give it a little while. Avari’s going to be on alert for at least the next few hours, in case I actually lose my mind and decide to turn myself in.”
“That’s fine. I’m going out with Sabine anyway,” Nash said, his hand on the doorknob. Tod shot him a questioning look, which I suspect my expression echoed. “Not out, out. Just out to eat. She feeds at night, remember? And I don’t want her going alone after what happened last night.”
Sabine wasn’t going to feed in the Netherworld, which meant she should be safe on her own, but I saw no reason to point that out. Nash feeling protective of his recently poisoned girlfriend was good news for them both.
I was happy for them.
“Don’t forget your key,” Tod said.
“And this.” I held out his phone, and Nash took it, then shoved it in his back pocket. “Be careful.”
“We will.”
“Hey, baby brother, stay out of trouble,” Tod said before Nash could pull open the door.
Nash lifted both brows and grinned. “I’m a year and a half older than you now. I think that makes you the baby brother.”
“I may be physically younger, but—much like a sweet, golden apricot—I was plucked from life at the peak of perfection.” Tod’s smile grew and mischief swirled in his irises. “Someday decades from now, when you and Sabine are hobbling around in your old-people pants and orthopedic shoes, yelling at grandchildren and reminiscing about the days when you could still see your feet, unimpeded by the view of your gut, I will still be basking in the glow of eternal youth, forever young, forever golden, forever—”
“In love with the face in the mirror and the sound of your own voice,” I finished for him, and Nash laughed.
“I can’t take credit for my genetic blessings, but I can’t deny them, either.” Tod pulled me onto his lap again and his hand settled on my hip, and for a moment my whole world went still beneath the unexpected weight of his intense focus. “But the face and voice I most love to see and hear both belong to you. And they always will, Kaylee.”
My heart beat so hard my entire body trembled. I kissed him, and my fingers slid into his hair, and Tod’s hands splayed across my back, touching as much of me as possible.
Nash cleared his throat. “I’m going to refrain from acknowledging the awkwardness of this moment, as I quietly retreat....” His shoes whispered against the carpet.
I pulled away from Tod reluctantly and turned to his brother. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make things—”
“Don’t be.” Nash’s smile was small and more than a little melancholy, but he met my gaze and held it a second. Then he gave Tod a small, firm nod, like he’d come to some private decision. “Don’t be sorry. Either of you. This is the way it’s supposed to be. I’ve understood that for a few weeks, but I didn’t tell you because...well, because I was really mad at you both. But this is...right.” He made a gesture encompassing us both. “This is good. I hope you both get to stay golden for a long, long time.”
Tod was silent for a moment, and I felt his heart go as still as his eyes, which usually meant he was feeling something he didn’t know how to express. Then, finally, he grinned. “And I hope you get all those grandkids and that old-man gut.”
Nash laughed, and I frowned at Tod.
“What?” He gave me a wide-eyed, innocent look. “I just basically wished him a lifetime of good food and sex. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
I glanced from one brother to the other, confused. “Food and sex? How do you figure?”
Nash crossed his arms over his chest, still chuckling. “Where do you think the kids and the gut come from?”
On the bright side, the fraternal communication gap had obviously been bridged.
But on that other side...it turned out that nonsense was the official language of testosterone, and I was not a native speaker.
“But we’re talking extreme future tense, here. Like, hover cars and space colonies.” Nash lifted his shirt, showing off one of few physical traits he and his brother actually had in common. “These abs are gonna be around for a long, long time.” He disappeared into the hall, still chuckling, and Tod looked at me in astonishment.
“Did that really just happen?”
“I think it did.” I exhaled, long and slow, more relieved than I could ever have explained by this breakthrough in their relationship. In the landscape of betrayal and resentment they’d been mired in for months, that relaxed banter was like climbing the Mount Everest of emotions. Together.
When Nash and Sabine had left so she could hunt, Sophie, Luca, and Emma curled up on the couch to try to distract themselves with another movie. Though I could tell during the opening credits just how futile an effort that would be.
When I turned to relinquish the living room to those still actually living, I found Tod watching me from the hall. His eyes swirled with conflicting emotions, in complementing shades of blue, and I watched as rage at Avari and worry for his mother competed with desire for...me.
He smiled when he saw me looking, and I wanted to kiss each of his dimples. I wanted to kiss him until he forgot about everything else. Until all of the fear and anger and horror we’d been living with for so long had faded into the background and—for a few minutes, anyway—there was nothing but us and the comfort we found in each other.
I needed some time alone with Tod, and it had to be soon, because Avari’s clock was ticking and what I’d learned from our phone call with the hellion—what I’d finally been forced to admit to myself—was that I was the only one who could stop his macabre countdown.
But first...
I slipped into the hall and tried on a smile of my own. “Hey.” I looked up at Tod, and he stared into my eyes like he could see right through me. Into me.
“Hey.” His smile faded a little, infused with a more intense, more intimate emotion that couldn’t be described with any one word in my vocabulary. “Your irises are spinning like crazy. Whatever could be on your mind, bean sidhe?”
I stepped closer and put my hands on his chest for balance while I went up on my toes and whispered, though no one else could hear me anyway. “Well, reaper, I was thinking that we should get out of here for a little while.”