Page 186 of The Bonding Games: Part 2

When I look over my shoulder, they’re trembling in each other’s arms, and a sense of surreality hits me that isn’t too uncommon when I take in Ezla with any one of us. Her eyes are closed, the green glow of Avri in her face gently illuminating Tate’s sweat-damp skin as she rests her cheek on his shoulder, and she looks so damn blissed out and peaceful as they come down together.

I think it will always feel like a miracle that we now have her, that we have her love, and I will never take that for granted. I’m truly so fucking happy. The Bonding Games was awful, a living nightmare, and yet the event’s been the best time of my life because of her, and I’d repeat it a thousand times over just to meet her. She’s everything to me, and I can’t wait to live the rest of my life with her and my brothers, all of us loving her and taking care of her the way she should have been long before us.

EPILOGUE 5

TIGER

“I don’t know!” I wail, slapping my hands to my face and dragging them down my cheeks. “It has to be the perfect one!”

Cooper’s frowning so hard beside me, he’s definitely going to be the first of us to get wrinkles. And he’s too focused on his own internal debate to react to my outburst, but from my other side, my bestie says quietly, “I think she’ll care most about the Avri stones.”

“He’s right, Tiger,” Scotty says, but his eyes don’t stray from the platinum engagement ring with an elegant vine design on it in the glass case before him. There’s space for gems, but they’re not filled yet—many people over the years have liked to have their energy there instead to make it even more intimate, mostly and especially the Bonded. Obviously, we’ve chosen to do the same.

It’s been one month since the end of the eleventh Bonding Games now, and things have already changed drastically. For starters, there’s colour everywhere. I mean, the buildings are still that glossy black taalk, but the Avri is definitely not kept to green, white, and red anymore—there’s now the entire rainbow outside in those tastefully placed strips, and it looks so, so cool.

We’ve also got much more clothing options than before, and although it wasn’t ever exactly explicitly forbidden per se, it was definitely an unspoken rule with the severe lack of anything but black and our social classification’s colour in each Zone that we shouldn’t wear any other colours. There was the occasional grey, but unless you were wearing stay-at-home clothes like pyjamas, back, white—which was only ever possible for weddings and certain professions—or grey was expected to be worn with Avri matching the exact shade of our own, the energy embedded into the fabric for the necessary distinction from Neutrals.

That was easily enabled when every shop was massive enough to contain every single shade out there for different clothing items as well as the fact that we could also use our own energy, like how it is for Avri suits, but now those in stores have all been altered to allow for yellows, blues, purples . . . all the colours. Some don’t even have Avri on them at all, and it’s crazy to me how someone could walk into what was once known as Evot Zone right now and see someone with a bright pink T-shirt on. I mean . . . what?! Even here in Techtis with the vibe always having been less strict about it and colourful shops like Techtis Ballroom around, the daily fashion choices weren’t too dissimilar. Fancy dress was noticeably a slight exception with all the rich people everywhere, but still, it wasn’t very prominent.

What’s also changed is that the Zones no longer have names, and just a couple days ago, when she deemed the region ready enough, Ezla opened the doors of the Divides. Unsurprisingly, fights broke out between ex-Evots and previous Exots, but there were plenty of Neutral guards positioned deliberately to deal with these, and like Ezla expected, everyone appears too happy about the changes and reconnecting with loved ones to cause too many problems. Furthermore, with the majority of people no longer wearing a hint of their old social classification, it quickly became hard to know who used to belong to which one as everyone mixed, and so no one actually knows who they’re supposed to direct their uncalled-for anger at.

Point is, everything’s going so smoothly, even if we did need to wait an entire month longer for this day for things to really calm down. Also, I really hope I don’t jinx things by saying this, but I’m having an absolute blast. I mean, I’m wearing a purple suit right now.

Soon-to-be-my-true-wifey Ezzy is gonna be blown right off her feet, that’s for sure.

I do a mental hair flip because my nerves rudely won’t allow for an outward one.

“What about the one with tigers on it?” Scotty suggests, finally tearing his eyes away from the elegant ring to look at me. “I think she’ll find that adorable.”

My lips push out. “But I’m supposed to be super hot.”

“Thought you liked it when she called you cute and shit?” Cooper mutters distractedly.

I brighten. “Good point, Coops.” Decision made in an instant at the thought of Deadly Nightshade’s heart melting even more for me, I quickly say, “Okay, so what about the one from all of us?”

“Hang on,” Cooper huffs. “I’m not done yet.”

“Neither am I,” Alby says with a nervous expression on his face. “I know she likes to have pieces of us, but she also really likes the weapons . . .”

“I’m getting the joined-daggers one for her,” Tater Tot grunts. “Get the arrow one. She’ll love it.”

I blink over at him. Then I grin. “Awwww . . . look at you helping out your brother, Tater Tot.”

His side-eye is all grizzly bearish.

Snickering, my head zaps back into the right mode a blink later as my eyes zero in on all the rings in the glass case again. “Okay, which one?” I narrow my eyes on the targets.

“Something more simple,” Scotty reminds us all. “This is both because it will symbolise all of us together and so she doesn’t have to wear five rings at once if she doesn’t want to. They’re not all going to be comfortable on her ring finger in the first place.”

Humming in agreement, I mutter, “Can’t have Wifey uncomfortable.”

Eyes lingering on a white-gold braided ring before his brown eyes shift to look at the other ones as he joins us in our search, Cooper suggests, “We could do a simple ring with our initials engraved on it?”

“And a gem or not? It has to match her outfits,” I point out wisely with a nod of intelligence.

Scotty’s chin dips. “Maybe no gem, then.”

“Yeah, but Havoc loves red.”