“YOU’RE AWAKE,” CAME a voice.
It cut through the haze of dreams like a knife. Tenn opened his eyes. Jarrett looked down at him.
“You’re alive,” Tenn whispered. His voice cracked. It hadn’t been a dream. It hadn’t been a delusion.
Tomás hadn’t lied.
Jarrett smiled. “Thanks to you.”
Tenn tried to sit up, but he was tired, so tired, and so damned cold. Blankets piled atop his body, and fires flickered magically in the air, but he still shivered.
“What happened?” he asked, remembering Tomás’s embrace. “Where are we?”
“A guild,” Dreya said. She stepped out from the shadows. “East of Leanna’s compound. We brought you here, after you killed her.”
Clearly time had passed. Dreya didn’t look tired anymore. Neither did Devon, who was leaning against the wall, Fire smoldering in his chest as he fueled the flames dancing around the ceiling. But Tenn’s gaze kept going back to Jarrett.
Jarrett, whose skin no longer looked bruised and sallow. Whose smile looked as natural as sunrise. Jarrett, whose eyes looked at Tenn the same way they had in Outer Chicago, when their shared history had knit itself into the present.
Jarrett, who felt like a part of him.
Who would always be a part of him.
“You did it,” Jarrett said. “You saved me.”
“Of course,” Tenn replied. He smiled. “You still owe me a milk shake.”
Jarrett laughed. Then he leaned over and kissed him.
It was warmth and light, gentle and strong, and it filled Tenn’s chest with a sensation he hadn’t felt in ages: love. He thought he would never use the word again, but there it was, gossamer and shining as Jarrett kissed him, deep and powerful, and the rest of the world melted away. For a while, he floated there, in Jarrett’s kiss, in the embrace his whole body had ached for.
When Jarrett pulled back, reality inked in with a dreadful rush.
He had killed Leanna. He had saved Jarrett. He should have been floating. So why was his heart hammering? Why did it feel like a terrible setup?
Then he remembered Tomás’s parting words.
Now, to take care of your other half.
He looked at Jarrett, who stood there, smiling, safe. He looked to the twins, who watched him with silent eyes.
His other half was here.
Tenn’s heart pounded. He fully expected Tomás to appear then, and murder them all. Right before his eyes. Just to prove a point. But the seconds ticked by, and the moment didn’t shatter. It made everything worse. Jarrett ran a hand through Tenn’s hair.
“You’ve been out for a while,” Jarrett whispered. “But we’ll let you rest. I’ll be right outside. Always.”
Tenn nodded. He wanted so badly to be happy right then. He wanted to feel like he had done something good. But Tomás’s words were a curse: How could he celebrate when the incubus was still out there, pulling the threads of Tenn’s life? Playing them all in a game he didn’t understand? He wanted to tell Jarrett, but he knew Tomás would deliver on his threat. The Kin had just killed his own sister. He would have no problem killing Jarrett and the twins.
Tenn closed his eyes. Jarrett kissed him again, and although Tenn’s heart fluttered, it wasn’t enough to cut through the fear he prayed the others couldn’t see.
They left.
The door closed behind them.
Tenn waited for the shadows to shift into Tomás.
They never did.
He thought of the tracking rune on Tomás’s heart, felt the incubus’s presence in the corners of his mind, but Tomás was far away. Very far away. So why did he feel like Tomás was a part of him? Inside of him? The Howl had somehow enchanted Tenn into killing Leanna. Tenn remembered so vividly how it felt to be manipulated like that. How easy it had been to give in.
He may have saved Jarrett. But who would save them from him if Tomás ever came back, if he ever took over Tenn so easily again?
Tenn shuddered. Pulled the blankets tighter. This wasn’t the happy ending he’d wanted. There was still a monster out there.
There was still a monster in here.
Sleep sidled in on him. He felt heavy, though his thoughts raced and drifted in half-slumber. Light flashed across his closed eyes. Silver flickers. Like stars. Like tiny silver fish.
And he was back in the cave. Back in the swirl of constellations. Back in the vision.
The stars coalesced. Became the face of the guy with rings in his lip and anger in his eyes. Became a voice. A feeling.
A fear.
The boy was in trouble.
The boy needed him.
Then the image shifted, and Tomás was there, his hands on the boy’s shoulders, as around them the white stars burst into crimson flame. As the shadows laughed with the Dark Lady’s voice.
Tenn snapped awake. His heart raced and the lamps flickered and all he could sense was the fire, the fire. The knowledge that the boy would burn the world to the ground.
Tenn visualized Tomás’s tracking rune once more.
It was distant.
It was getting farther away.
He pushed himself from the bed and went to the door, stumbling in his weakness. The door opened before his hand was on the knob.
“What is it?” Jarrett asked.
“Tomás,” Tenn said. “The incubus. He’s after someone. And if we don’t get there first...the end...it’s just beginning.”
The twins shared a look. Jarrett stared straight at Tenn, his eyes filled with questions Tenn knew he could never answer. Not if he wanted to keep his friends alive.
Dread settled in Tenn’s gut. Water sloshed with regret and fear. Of what he’d done. Of what he’d do again.
He wanted so badly to have a future, one that wasn’t filled with bloodshed and monsters and magic.
He knew, in that moment, that it wasn’t the future he’d created.
* * * * *