Page 63 of Never Say Die
“A lot. Circumstances changing. You,” Kelly said, smugly. “Dyin’ out there in that desert. And you,” she nodded at Aiden, “leapin’ off a rooftop. Role reversal, if you will.”
Aiden tried to swallow and almost choked. “What?’
“I also saw your sister,” Kelly said, eyes still fixed on Aiden. “That call was to protecther, too.”
He heard the memory. Laura, hitting concrete. Cheekbone, diving inward. Elbow, snapping skyward. Then he saw his sister, tense and cold and beautiful and far,faraway from his bullshit. “Is Cami?—”
“Yes, you idiot. It’s theMetaphysical Assembly. Of course she’s coming. Didn’t she tell you?” Kelly asked, exasperated.
Aiden almost shook his head, be he remembered their Mama’s birthday, standing in Camila’s bedroom, kissing her hair, the wordconferenceuttered like an inconvenience.
“Well, we’re still alive, and doin’ just fine last I checked,” Shay said. He scratched behind the dog’s ear. Kelly flinched, breath halting as the elevator rocked to a stop. Carefully, Shay gripped her wrist between gold bangles. “So, you must be off your game.”
“The future is never certain. You might’ve changed your stars, but death imprinted on you. Don’t look at me like that, Shay. Go on, ask him,” she challenged. Her eyes welled and she tore her arm away. “You rejected your fate. You came back with a purpose. Unfinished business. But that. . . that poor girl? She’s hollow. Stripped to nothing and imbued with whatever future you two pushed off on her. One she was never meant to have. Now, if you’ll excuse me. . .” She side-stepped Shay and gave Aiden a callous once over. “You have my number. Make a fucking appointment next time,” she said, and walked away.
Aiden stood in the hall, blocking the elevator door from closing. Panic spread into his mouth, buzzed in his knuckles, cemented in his kneecaps. He wanted to rewind the day. Step backward in time and hitpause. Stitch themselves into Austinand relive those moments. Watching candlelight chase shadows across Shay’s face. Eating fancy, vegan comfort food with Georgia and Dylan on East 6thStreet. Breathing hard with Shay inside him—on the floor, in the shower, propped against the window. Getting paid. Falling asleep with Shay, waking up with Shay. Being at ease, for once.
Okay. He followed Shay to their suite.Say it all. Tell him everything.
Shay walked into the room, sent his suitcase skidding across the floor, and turned, shoving Aiden hard against the door. The lockclicked. Aiden made a winded, wounded noise, shielding his sore ribs.
“Talk,” Shay snapped, baring his fangs. “Now.”
The violence shocked him.Shay, he thought,you’re hurting me. But he stayed quiet, gripping Shay’s wrist, searching for familiarity on his handsome, chiseled face. “Te amo,” he whispered, and swallowed hard. “But if you don’t let me go, I’m going to kick you directly in the nuts.”
Shay stepped back and dropped his hand. His throat flexed, brows knitting with concern. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on, I’m leaving.”
Aiden had expectedI’m going to tear your throat outorI’m going to fucking eat you. But the idea of being left tore through him like a bullet. His chin dimpled, voice thick and strained. “Kelly called me while we were in Vegas. She told me not to go to Colorado. Said death follows me everywhere. I told you it was Camila on the phone, because I didn’t want you to freak out, and you’d just. . . You’d just bitten me, okay? Red Rocks was one of our biggest tour stops, I didn’t know what the fuck to believe, I. . . I had this naive, stupid hope that we could move on from everything. I know how it sounds, all right?I know.Those fuckin’ weird groupies weretrackingus, and Cassie happened, and the party happened, and. . . andwehappened. . .” He tipped hishead against the door, staring at the ceiling. “Everything went to shit real fast after that.”
Shay sighed. “You should’ve told me about Kelly.”
“I should’ve told you about the ritual, too, but we conveniently forgot about that in Austin.”
“Tell me now.”
“It’s not an easy thing to talk about,” Aiden admitted. Regret pinched the place behind his uvula. Envy burned everywhere else. “I don’t know why I did it, but I. . . I put your blood in my mouth that night. I think to keep you, maybe. Swallow you. It wasn’t part of the ritual, but I was a mess. I hate thinking about it, but I can neverstopthinking about it.” He thumped his head against the door and closed his eyes. “Anyway, the ritual had steps, and the second-to-last step, the binding—whatever that means—involved the blade meeting every ingredient. Your blood, dove feathers, pig’s blood. When I drove the knife into the ground, I felt something. I don’t know how to explain it, but everything went still. The trailhead felt watched, I guess. Anyway, Cit did the same ritual in a different order. I burned my intention last. Cit and her fucking minions burned theirs first. I. . . I. . .”
“It’s okay,” Shay murmured, standing just out of reach.
“It’s not.” Aiden cleared his watery throat. “I consumed my intention. They didn’t. I sealed my ritual with your blood. Cit’s ritual. . .” He inhaled a long, deep breath. “Was sealed with her bloodandmy blood.”
“You ate your intention?”
“Yeah, I ate the ashes. I know how it sounds, okay. I know. Just?—”
“And they didn’t,” Shay said, gently.
Aiden nodded. He fuckinghatedthis. Wanted to claw through his skin and hide in the walls, incorporeal and untraceable. But he had to look at Shay. Had to meet his eyes and blinkaway his selfish, shameful tears, and relive that night in the presence of its casualty. “I don’t know what we did, but I think Laura absorbed their intent. If she was the only person alive when we left, then she was the only vessel available for whatever Cit was trying to take from you. Since the ritual wasn’t sealed withyourblood, their combined intention didn’t have access to your power. My best guess is Cit used the same shit I did to build her ritual. When we interrupted whatever she had planned, we accidentally created another you. Just worse, probably.”
“Wait a second. Hold. . . hold on. You think Laura’s alive?” Shay asked, tilting his head. “Because we both watched her die.Reallydie, Aiden. Face-split-open, back-broken, coroner-on-sight—dead.”
“Yeah, well, I watched you die, too.” He chewed on his lip and pulled his phone from his pocket, passing it to Shay with the latest Roswell investigation update open on the screen. “Laura’s body went missing earlier today. You heard what Kelly said, we pushed our future off on her.”
Shay scanned the article. His mouth tightened and he made that soft, Shay noise, sighing wistfully through his nose. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I couldn’t,” Aiden bit out. He pushed away from the door and walked into the suite, throwing himself into the nearest chair. “We were on the road with everyone, and you were going over the new album with Georgia, and I just. . . I wanted to hold onto the. . . fuck, I don’t know—safety, I guess—we’d found in Austin. I was going to tell you, Shay. I just needed a minute.”
Quiet filled the room. People laughed in the hall. Music echoed along Bourbon Street, sneaking between the French doors that led to a private terrace. Shay licked his fangs, a newly formed habit, and kicked Aiden in the shin.
