Page 80 of Bloom in Darkness

Bryn’s arms tighten around me the second I say it, his love hitting me so openly through the bond that another tear slips free. Caelan is there too, quieter but just as present where he’s pressed against my side. “I can feel both of you.”

Caelan kisses me before I can say anything else. Bryn stays knotted inside me while Caelan settles along my other side, his thumb brushing the untouched side of my neck as his mouth hovers close.

I tilt my head farther, pulling him in by the nape. “Come here.” Caelan kisses the spot first, lingering there for one breath before his teeth sink into my skin.

Caelan’s bond doesn’t hit me all at once the way Bryn’s did. It spreads slower, warmth settling through me before the rest starts coming with it—fear he kept buried through the gala, relief now that we’re home, and so much love my throat closes around my next breath.

I pull him down and kiss him because I don’t have words for that yet.

We stay tangled together after Bryn’s knot goes down, Caelan eventually finding a warm cloth while Bryn brings water and I end up wedged between them wearing nothing except two fresh bites and a stupid smile I can’t get rid of. We stay that way until my phone starts vibrating somewhere on the floor beside the bed.

A growl starts in Bryn’s chest when it keeps going. “Leave it.”

It stops for a few seconds before starting again. Caelan leans over the edge of the bed, finds it beneath my discarded trousers, and checks the screen. “Sabine.”

I hold out my hand, and he gives it to me. Sabine calls three times before leaving a voicemail. I don’t listen to it. A text from Rourke appears while I’m still looking at the missed calls.

Rourke: You made a mistake tonight.

Another message appears before I can lock the screen.

Rourke: Those two won’t protect you forever. You embarrassed people who don’t forget it.

Bryn reaches for the phone the second he reads it, my hand closing around his wrist before he can take it.

“No. I need the evidence more than I need you breaking my phone.”

Caelan takes it carefully, screenshotting both messages before a third one arrives.

Rourke: You think mating them changes what you owe? Sabine still owns the paper. You’re going to learn that eventually.

My stomach turns. Bryn’s hand closes around my thigh while Caelan puts the phone facedown on the floor.

Bryn pulls me against his chest, Caelan settling behind me with one arm around my waist. Bryn’s anger hums hot through one bond while Caelan’s worry sits quieter through the other. I stay between them until the tension finally leaves my body.

Rourke can threaten me tomorrow, Sabine can keep calling, and the debt will still be there when we wake up. None of it changes the fact that I’m between Bryn and Caelan now with both of their marks on my neck, exactly where I chose to be.

Bryn

Astra checks the front window four times before breakfast. I keep making eggs through the first one and check outside myself after the second, but by the third Caelan’s foot catches my ankle beneath the table. “Stop,” he says over the rim of his coffee, like he hasn’t been watching me watch Astra all morning.

Astra comes back into the kitchen wearing one of my shirts and socks, catching me looking toward the front room again. “You’re doing it too.”

I put another egg on his plate. “Eat.”

“I am eating.” He steals the extra one anyway while Caelan hides a smile behind his coffee, then catches me glancing toward the hall again before I can pretend I wasn’t. “You looked at security systems, didn’t you?”

Every time Astra looks toward the window, the same unease flickers through the bond before he manages to hide it from his face. Yesterday I would’ve had to watch his shoulders or check his scent to know he was nervous; now I feel it before he says a word.

My hesitation answers for me, Caelan lowering his coffee with absolutely no intention of helping. “He did.”

The doorbell rings, and Astra turns toward the hall at the same time I do. I’m already moving when he starts after me, so I catch his wrist before he gets past the kitchen doorway. “Let me check first. Please.” The nerves in the bond spike, but after a second he nods and stays where he is.

The camera shows Silas standing on the front step. I open the door only far enough to put myself in the gap, his attention immediately trying to go past me toward the house.

Silas barely waits for the door to open. “I’m here to see Astra.”

I start closing it again. “No.”