Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(131)

“What if I don’t want to go to the Earth plane and look up your old flame?” Arawn asked.

“I didn’t ask you, Arawn,” Nim said sadly. “I’m leaving you. I need some me time.”

The death god shook his head. “But I love you, Nim.”

She walked to him and went up on tiptoes to kiss him softly. “Then understand that I need a little time. I love you, Arawn, but I don’t like me much anymore.”

Roarke’s dark eyes looked down at her and he smiled. “We’ll still be here, Nim. Go do whatever you need to do and I’ll work on him. Love you, Nim.”

Dev helped Daniel stand up. They both looked weak, as if they had halved their energy between them.

“Let’s get you dressed, Dan,” Dev said. “Unless you intend to stop a war in Superman boxers.”

Daniel grinned. “They were a present from our wife.”

“Yeah, you would never buy those on your own,” Dev teased. He was suddenly serious, his mouth turning down. “Zoey, do you really think he’s still here?”

Daniel reached out and Dev put his hand in his. There was no self-consciousness about it. Their hands melded together in a union I wouldn’t have thought possible a year before.

And then my nipples went hard. Warmth enveloped me like a hug and a… “Yep, it’s Bris. I think he just felt me up.”

“That’s him,” Danny and Dev said at the same time. I watched as their hands squeezed together. There was heat and longing between them. Daniel understood his sacrifice. He pulled Dev close, though they didn’t embrace. Still, there was no distance between them. They were so close, their heads together in peace, in stillness, in prayer.

“Thank you,” Daniel let his cheek rest against Dev’s. “Please let him know. Let him know we want him back. We need him.”

I reached out to them. “Bris, don’t leave us.”

It didn’t matter how long it took. We wanted him back. We needed him. He completed our little family.

A warm wind surrounded me again. It played on my skin. He was here. He would follow until he could join us again. He had no intention of leaving us.

“Help me.”

I turned and was startled to see the Hunter standing in the hallway. Sean was asleep on his shoulder, his little mouth wide open and drooling all over the ascended god. The Hunter looked at me pleadingly.

“I do not know what to do with it,” the Hunter said. “Its parents are still yelling at each other. They’re circling each other and questioning each other’s parentage. I tried to point out that both King Angus and Queen Miria were married at the time of their births but it didn’t help.”

I shook my head and took the child from him. Dev and Danny started up the stairs to get Daniel dressed. I sat back in the chair and let Sean sleep on as his parents proved they knew some dirty words.

“Don’t get comfy, boys,” I told the wolves. I still felt Bris close by. He gave me great comfort. “We have to head out ASAP. We need to get to the palace and stop Angus from meeting my mother-in-law.”

Lee put a hand on his belly. “I’ll skip lunch then. If we’re riding that wind again, I don’t want anything on my stomach.”

I sighed. If Lee was willing to give up lunch, I was in for one wild ride.





Chapter Thirty-Two





I held on to Daniel, my arms wrapped around him and not simply because of the way the eddy wind banged through the sky, tossing us all around. I held on to him because I could still see him lying there. The cloud moved violently, but Daniel’s hands were gentle as he twisted this way and that way to take the brunt of the other bodies hitting us as Dev made wild turns.

“This is the spot.” Dev had to scream over the winds and I could still barely hear him.

Daniel had no such trouble. He simply nodded and then kissed my forehead before stepping out of the mist that surrounded us and disappearing.

“You’re next, Zoey.” Dev gave me a little push. “Let Daniel catch you.”

I fell from the wind, the outer edges roaring past my ears like a hurricane. I sped ruthlessly toward the ground and scrambled to get into a good position to hit the dirt because the way Dev had pushed me, I was going to land flat on my ass. I kind of screamed as I hit free-fall speed, and then I landed on Daniel with a resounding thud. He didn’t catch me exactly but his body did stop my fall.

“He drives like crap,” Daniel said, turning over and forcing me upright.

“It wasn’t so bad.” The actual ride had been fine. It was the takeoff and the landing that could use some work. Dev had to first find one of the winds that whipped through the Unseelie sithein, and then he had to time it just right to call the wind to sweep the party up. Being pulled into the wind was like being an ant sucked up into a vacuum cleaner. It had made me nauseous, and I had held onto to Daniel for dear life, practically strangling him in the process.

“God, Z, it made me want to puke and I don’t do that anymore,” Danny admitted, getting off the ground. He looked up, watching for the next person to fall. “Careful, baby. I don’t want you to get hit.”

The outline of the wind was barely visible, so we couldn’t be sure just where the body would hit. Lee was kind enough to announce his position as he screamed when he fell. Lee hit the ground hard and came up growling.