I nodded.
“Is what he said true?”
Again, I nodded.
He let out a slow breath before leaning in and brushing his lips to mine in a gentle kiss. When he pulled back, the tension broke, as if that was what it took for everything to relax, for everyone to take a step backward and breathe.
Brax released Thomas, who stumbled over to Bowen’s side. Bowen didn’t examine him the way Knox had with me—and I didn’t mean in that possessive, sexual way. Rather, it seemed it only took a glance from Bowen to recognize that Thomas had no injuries.
That was probably due to his being a brownie.
“Now that we’ve all almost killed each other,” Bowen said, “why don’t we sit and eat? Nothing like testosterone-fueled near-misses to spur the appetite.”
Wade turned his gaze from Bowen to me, then broke into a grin. “I think I like him.”
Which was the last thing we needed. One smart-ass wasmorethan enough for our little group.
* * * *
Wade
Sitting beside Soshi made my stomach tight in an altogether uncomfortable way.
It took me back to when I’d been a kid, to when I’d been uncertain and afraid and alone. Changing into a shade was scary no matter what, but it was far worse when a person had so much growing left to do. I never got the chance to learn who I was before finding out even that wasn’t solid.
I saw that same feeling of disconnect in the young girl who stitched a patch to the ripped knee of a pair of pants. They were too large for her, which told me she did the work for someone else.
“You keep looking at me,” Soshi said, not lifting her gaze from her work. “If you eventhinkanything weird, Bowen will kill you.”
I fought the urge to recoil from her suggestion, and worse, from the reality that a girl of her age would evenknowabout that sort of thing let alone seriously consider it.
Acting offended would only make the situation more awkward, though, so I went with what I knew best—humor. “Sorry, but young and scrawny isn’t my type. Besides, pretty sure she’d kill us both.” I gestured toward where Hera sat with Bowen and Brax.
Soshi furrowed her eyebrows, the look strangely adorable on her young face. “She saved me.”
“She does that. Want to know a secret?” I lowered my voice as if admitting something forbidden. “She saved me too.”
“Really?” Soshi’s eyes widened. Then again, people tended to see voids as boogeymen. Being able to steal power from others was an understandably terrifying skill.
I nodded, giving her my most solemn expression. “That’s right. It was when we were escaping. We ran into a bunch of people who wanted to stop us, and Hera had to make a path for us.”
“She doesn’t even know me, though. She had no reason to help me.”
“It sounds like Bowen didn’t know you at first either, but he helped you.”
“Yeah, but Bowen is a brownie. He’s made to want to protect people.”
I shrugged before taking the next piece of clothing from Soshi’s pile and going to work sewing the ripped seam. I wasn’t the best seamstress, but mending clothing was a useful skill in Larkwood, where getting replacements could prove challenging. “I think everyone wants to protect people.”
Soshi shook her head, the certainty there breaking my heart. “Trust me, they don’t.”
I focused on the needle as I spoke, letting our easy motions distract us both. “They do, it’s just that sometimes they’re wrong about what protect means, or what they want to protect. Think about animals. A wolf will kill a rabbit, but they’re doing it to protect their cubs by feeding them.”
She pressed her lips together as if considering my words. “So people target us because they want to protect their families? But I’m not going to hurt them.”
“We know that, but they don’t. They think we’re a threat to them, to their way of life, to their friends and family.”
“And that just makes it okay?” A tremble in her hands made her task more difficult, but she seemed determined to not let it stop her, to not even acknowledge it.