Page 88 of Love Bites

Easing out of his arms just enough to pull my phone from my pocket, I slipped the device free and did what I always did when I was too overwhelmed to work through things by myself.

Me

Can you talk right now?

Avery

Yep

Izzy’s with me

Me

That’s fine

Where are you guys?

Avery was the person I talked to when I needed to figure out how to cope with whatever I was dealing with.

Izzy would keep everything I said a secret, so I didn’t mind her hearing too. I just couldn’t process it on my own.

Avery

On the roof

We found the door leading up to it a few weeks ago, and Izzy figured out how to pick the lock

Just take the stairs up past your bedroom door

I stared at the message for a minute before finally shaking my head and slipping out.

Following her instructions, I was on the roof two minutes later.

It was a monstrous, open space that made me stop and look around.

An idea occurred to me, and I pulled my phone out, sending a quick message to the assistants. They wouldn’t answer until the next day, but that was fine.

I walked across the massive space until I found Izzy and Avery sitting on a blanket, staring up at the stars. Despite the thin layer of fog that was always present in our city, the sky was beautifully clear.

Avery gave me a quick smile as I sat down next to her, and Izzy tossed out a quiet, “Hey.”

We all sat together in silence for a few minutes. My mind was still running through my worries on overdrive, but the fresh air eased my tension just a little.

“Are you sure it’s safe to be up here?” I asked them.

There were plenty of dragons who might want to take a siren, and they had wings. One in particular that I knew of.

Plenty of winged monsters who could come after us, too.

“Nope,” Izzy said, popping her lips on thep. “But some risks are worth taking. Getting out here to look at the stars seems like one of them. I miss being outside.”

We had a large patio at our house, and Izzy had decked it out with a ton of furniture. She’d always spent a lot of time out there, hating being cooped up.

“I get that,” I said. Though I didn’t feel it myself, I knew Izzy well enough that I did understand.

“So, what happened?” Avery asked me, her gaze on the sky.

She wasn’t going to judge me, no matter what I said. My sisters and I were on the same page about love being dangerous.

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