Page 111 of Of Flame and Fate

All at once, he’s surrounded by his people, a brand-new set of sharks dying to get a piece of him. They don’t yet realize that it’s those with real fangs who get to keep him.

Theweresassigned to him follow, close enough to guard all the while trying to shield themselves from the loud obnoxious intro Johnny’s new band delivers.

When we’re almost to the stage they disperse, rushing to guard the entrances and spare their sensitive hearing.

A woman with a headset approaches, like the rest of the human staff, they seemed to want to keep their distance from theweres. “Johnny wants to talk to you before he takes the stage,” she tells me.

“Sure.”

She clutches my arm when I start forward, gripping me hard and meeting me with a nasty glower. “You need to hurry,” she insists. “We have a schedule to keep and thirty-thousand people to please.”

I shrug her off. “And you need to keep your hands off me.”

“You obviously don’t know who I am,” she informs me.

“No, sweetheart, you don’t know who I am.” I motion to where theweresvanished. “You might be afraid of them, but trust me when I say they’re a lot nicer than me.”

I push past her, maybe a little too harshly seeing how she staggers back. If this is the kind of people Johnny surrounds himself with, is it a wonder he was ready for a break? The thought makes me sad, so does his future. I worry what will happen to him, and hope he’s strong enough to face what’s coming.

Unlike Destiny.

Shayna, Emme, and I stopped in to see her before we left Tahoe. If I thought she looked bad before, nothing compared to how we found her. She looked dead. I thought she was by how Tye openly wept at her side. But then she opened her eyes and thanked us for being her friends.

I swallow back the memory, and every speck of sadness I felt when we said our goodbyes. I don’t want that same future for Johnny. I want him to live the long life he deserves.

The crew hurries past me as I wipe my eyes and hop up the stairs leading backstage. Each worker speaks fast and moves faster, distracted by their tasks and the last-minute details to make Johnny shine.

From the other side of the stage, Shayna waves. Koda nods, releasing her cautiously and disappearing into the shadows. Like Gemini, Emme, and Bren, he’ll be guarding the perimeter. I hope we don’t need them, but if we do, they’re the team I want to have our backs.

Johnny peeks out to the arena from his spot behind the curtain. I smile, hoping he’ll return it. As he lets the curtain fall back in place, he does. It’s not much of a grin, but it’s there and I’m happy to see it.

He walks to me slowly, pulling me into a tight embrace. “Thanks, Taran,” he says, speaking slowly. “For everything.”

I’m not what anyone would call a “hugger”. I make the exception for my family and my lover. That’s it. Even when Celia and Aric went through what they went through—and I saw how broken Aric seemed, how lost he was without her, I couldn’t bring myself to hug him. For the most part, I wanted to punch him in the nose.

Johnny is different. He’s not family, but I’ll be damned if I want to let him go. He straightens as he carefully releases me, chuckling when he sees my face.

His gaze softens when I stroke the long blond strands away from his eyes. “I’m going to be all right, mama bear,” he tells me. He looks in the direction of the stage. “No matter what comes, I’m ready for it.”

“I know you are,” I tell him.

The guitar soloist currently blasting away reaches a crescendo, his rapid movements across the strings slowing as he scales down the melody. The crowd goes wild, their collective screaming deafening.

They know who’s ready to take the stage.

At once, the lights go out, taking the shrieks and hollers for Johnny up another notch. With a deep breath he squares his shoulders, leaving me and stepping into the darkness.

Thousands of feet stomp at once, rumbling the floor and adding to the cacophony of noise. But the moment the spotlight flashes on, and Johnny lights up like a burst of lava from a dormant volcano, the noise is too much and my hands slam over my ears.

The screams pain me, threatening to burst my eardrums. It’s only temporary, the agony receding as Johnny drags out the note from the first word he sings.

“Angels.

Angels walk among us.

Holding us when we fall.

Protecting against those who maul our bleeding souls.”

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