It was my turn to be there for him, like I’d promised when we’d been on the run.
I wrapped my fingers around the three digits closest to me: his pinkie, ring, and middle fingers. I squeezed them tight too.
Was he that worried?
Alana and Robert moved toward the balcony doors, and Alex followed. When I tried to let go, he turned his palm and caught all of mine in his. My hand was a ball inside his as he tugged me along.
I kept my fucking mouth shut as we went through the doors.
I stopped so suddenly, he did too.
Alex glanced at me.
“You’ve said that I saved your life, but you saved mine. You did it without being able to fly. Okay?” I told him, knowing it wasn’t much, but it was something. It was everything to me. “You can be my number 9 best friend regardless of what happens, all right?”
His lips pressed tight.
I smiled, or at least I tried to. Then I took a step forward, wrapped my arms around his ribs, and gave them a quick squeeze before stepping away just as quickly.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as his gaze moved over my face. A muscle in his cheek might have even moved too. Then he said it, sounding almost disappointed, “You make it really, really hard to not like you.”
Oh boy.
I smiled and thought about that vision his grandmother had shown me. “I know exactly what you mean,” I replied, hearing just how high and squeaky I’d sounded but not able to control it.
Because I mean…
What life was this? How was this moment even possible in the first place? It broke my heart and mended it together at the same time.
There wasn’t one thing in any life that defined a single person. We were all a mixture of a lot of different things. Alex wasn’t just The Defender. He was a brother, he was a friend, and he was sweet when he wanted to be, just like he could be such a fucking turd when he did too.
And maybe he would rarely ever need me for anything, but I could be there for him regardless. I’d be on call for him. I promised myself that right then one more time. To always be there for him if he needed me.
The sound of his sister or brother clearing their throats reminded us both what was happening. They were on the balcony, both of them looking up toward the moon. With the beam of white hitting their features perfectly, they really did look like gods.
“Why didn’t we go downstairs to do this?” Robert asked.
“We’re already here,” Alana explained. “Whenever you’re ready, Lex.”
“When was the last time you tried?” Robert asked.
“Couple nights ago.”
He had?
The blond man frowned. “Everything else is almost back to normal?”
Alex nodded again, this time tipping his own head back to the moon. His chest rose and fell, and his jaw went tight. I wanted to give him another hug.
“When she did it to Achilles, it took him six months to recuperate. Dad told everyone that he’d been in a car accident,” she said in a way that sounded like she was telling me about it.
That’s what had happened to Achilles when he’d hurt his classmate? When their grandmother had to “get involved”？ She’d done to her teenage grandson what she did to full-grown Alex? What? She’d broken his back?
Alana wasn’t done. “Do you remember how long it took Leon to figure out how to do it? It was all in his head. He fell out of a tree when he’d been little, and he hadn’t been able to get out of that fear, even though nothing happened to him. He wasn’t able to do it until he was seven. You were three the first time. You were adorable, Lexi,” Alana said carefully, a concerned expression on her perfect face.
Could it all be in his head?
I looked at Alex who stood there, still soaking in the moon as he closed his eyes.
I took in the solid frame of his body. The strength that radiated so deeply from within him. The pure energy of his soul.
He was incredible.
Dammit.
And he was concerned.
Did he really think he couldn’t fly anymore period?
Moving toward the edge of the balcony, I peeked down. The snow had melted so fast, you couldn’t even tell it had ever been there. My heart started beating a little faster as I measured the distance to the ground and made a plan in my head.
There were two super-fast superbeings here who weren’t injured.
This wasn’t my place by any means, but…
I’d lived so safely for most of my life that I had never actually done a lot of dumb shit before. The dumbest thing I’d ever done was lie to my grandparents about who I was with and what I was doing a few times. I’d avoided putting myself into situations that would end up with me going to the hospital or possibly getting into trouble. That had never been me.
Yet this was a man who liked to protect. It was what he’d been born to do. Maybe he’d been second-guessing continuing to do this, but some part of me understood now that it was more out of a concern of failure than anything else.
I knew what I had to do.
I did the sign of the cross before I glanced back to see that the three of them hadn’t moved, but I wasn’t a fool enough to believe they didn’t know exactly where I was. They wouldn’t be expecting it though, not unless their ESP was a lot better than mine. I tested the guardrail around the balcony to make sure it was sturdy as inconspicuously as possible.
“You know what to do,” Robert started talking.
I peeked over to see that Alex still had his eyes closed, and the other two weren’t physically paying me any attention. Perfect. I pushed up onto my arms, using my foot on part of the railing to get up onto the top of it, channeling my inner cat. I had to be fast and hoped they didn’t stop me too soon.
I crouched on the guardrail and didn’t let myself peek down. What I did do was glance back again and instantly meet Alana’s gaze, and I smiled at her. Then I stood up, balancing as best as I could, and said, “Hey, Hercules?”
Alex grunted, and when I didn’t say anything again, he opened his eyes.
Time to shine. Holding my breath, I said in a rush, “Bye!”
And I jumped off the edge.
I was pretty sure I heard him curse. I think he might have even spiced it up by saying, “Dammit, Gracie,” just as I started to fall.
And in the split millisecond that my body fell—and I prayed that he either caught me or one of his siblings did, and I tried to reassure myself that I wouldn’t die if they didn’t, I might just break an arm or leg, maybe both, maybe all of them—I knew that regardless of what happened, it would be worth it.
I hoped.
He was going to be so mad if he tried to fly and couldn’t, but it was my choice.
I still wasn’t 100 percent anyway.
Somehow those thoughts managed to enter my head and leave again before I stopped falling.
I stopped falling?
Sure enough, I was about two feet off the ground. If I stretched my arm out, I could touch the mud.
I looked up and realized that I’d been grabbed by the back of my pants again.
And it wasn’t Alana or Robert holding on to me. It wasn’t The Primordial or The Centurion who had saved me.
It wasn’t The Defender either.
It was crabby-ass Alex there. Grumpy Goose Alex who muttered in midair, “I’m going to go get some pigs now just so I can feed you to them.”