“You’re going to watch us sleep?” I mumble.
He unbuttons his sleeves and rolls them up. “You. I’m going to watch over you.”
I wake up with my bond feeling far more content in my chest about the proximity to Atlas. I try to convince North to let him out of his room for the day so we can go watch something in the giant home theater. When he doesn’t budge, we lie around in bed and watch the normal-sized TV instead. It’s less showy, but Atlas calls the kitchens and orders up a feast for us, telling them it’s for me so that no one dares to question him about it, and we eat fish tacos and chicken quesadillas in bed like the best of heathens.
It’s a little bit magical.
Gabe comes looking for me sometime after lunch to drag me away, and Atlas makes a big show of kissing me senseless at the door. Gabe barely bats an eyelid at the display, just waits until I pull away from him, red-faced and breathing a little too hard, before he slings an arm over my shoulders and directs me back down the hallway to head up to my own room.
I send Sage a text message and we agree to meet up at dinner, then I climb into the shower in an attempt to straighten myself out a bit.
I feel like I’m stuck in a time loop.
Like the days are stretching on and I’m just… lying around in a fucking bed all day with one of my Bonds, being absolutely useless while people like Davies are out there hurting, torturing, and murdering innocent people.
I’m a monster.
I try not to sound shrill and a bit psycho when I step out of the bathroom and say to Gabe, “I’m going to go crazy in this house if I’m not allowed out of it soon. I’m not trying to be a pain but seriously, Gabe, I can’t stay in here like this forever.”
I leave out the part where I have, indeed, already gone a little crazy.
He nods and takes my hand, threading our fingers together as he tugs me towards the door. “There’s a plan for that. North is working pretty much nonstop on it, but I’ll leave it to him to tell you. I’m not going to steal his thunder there. You just focus on getting better—”
I cut him off. “I am better! I’m all healed up and ready to use my gift and my terrifying bond on whoever I need to. Let’s get out of here for the night. Go hunt something.”
His eyebrows shoot all the way up his forehead and he blinks at me. “Go… hunt something? I thought you didn’t want to use your gift? You change your mind too much for me to keep up with, Bond.”
I huff and roll my shoulders back, the jitters taking over with how stir crazy I feel. “I don’t want to go around killing people but… I guess it felt good to get a lot of people out of that camp. I’d just sort of run away from it all and tried to forget about it, but being back there and seeing what’s happening to people there… I can’t keep my head in the sand over it. I need to get off my spoiled ass and go help out.”
He tugs me into his chest and reaches down with one hand to give said ass a firm squeeze. “It doesn’t feel spoiled to me. It feels fucking perfect, and maybe you should just slow your roll a little. You have no real Tac training, only the few classes that you were giftless for, mostly anyway, and Gryph will knock you back the second you attempt to bring it up. Don’t even think about running off. North has extra security on you, and there’s no chance that Black will take you anywhere again. He will be killed if he tries, and that’s not an exaggeration. North has made it clear that he’ll face the shadow creatures if he ever transports you without one of them again.”
Huh.
That seems a bit extreme, and I groan dramatically until Gabe grins down at me again and says, “Let’s go down for dinner. That’ll keep your mind away from hunting and wiping out the Resistance.”
He’s not wrong.
Dinner is a lot louder with this many people sitting around the table. Sawyer and Grey both attempt to butter up the creatures by feeding them pieces of steak, and I’m shocked when it works. Brutus is sitting at their feet with big, round eyes while he waits for his next piece. August stays at my side but happily takes the pieces Sawyer throws over to him.
“They don’t really have taste buds or stomachs. You’re just wasting food,” drawls North, cutting his own steak up like an aristocrat.
I roll my eyes at him and snark, “You have a magic TV in your room that appears out of thin air. We can feed the babies steaks without worrying about the food bill.”
Gabe smothers back a laugh, choking a little on it, and Gryphon grins at me from across the table. August rests his head on my thigh and licks at my fingers, enjoying the lobster juices even if it’s not really doing anything nutritionally for him.