Page 167 of Halfblood Deceived

“You want to go upstairs, you said?” Zeydan asked, trotting toward the grand staircase.

“Put me down, you brute!” Evan cried, but he was laughing and so was Zeydan.

Once they reached the top of the stairs, Zeydan gently placed Evan on the floor and all but collapsed next to him, stomach aching with residual chuckles.

“You do realize now you’ll have to help me downstairs, don’t you?” Evan asked, still breathless and grinning.

Zeydan took a deep breath. “It was worth it.”

Evan huffed. “Arse.”

“Pot, kettle,” Zeydan murmured.

They both laughed again.

“Who knew they could be so childish?” Sebastian teasingly asked.

“Males never grow up,” Kamilla advised.

“I am very mature, I’ll have you know,” Sebastian protested.

“The fuck you are,” Aylana huffed, then squealed, and Zeydan just knew Sebastian had bitten her ear in retaliation.

He shook his head and sat up, getting on his feet with a sigh. He helped a truly weak, and still unnaturally pale Evan stand, grinning at the blond’s mock scowl. Flooded with relief and love for his insane family.

Even as he felt a certain someone’s absence yanking at his heart.

CHAPTER 35

Aella was jumpier than usual.

She had dropped a tray full of glasses at the very start of her work night when she was on her way to the kitchen, something she’d never done before.

Not even two calming potions had quelled her nervousness completely.

She’d had a terrible day.

First, her sister had vanished in the middle of their work night, saying she needed to run an errand for Kamilla and leaving Aroth in charge of overseeing Hecate. Then Aroth had said he had an emergency and left Mac in charge, which was a complete oddity according to Lupita, and made Aella strangely suspicious.

Then the wolf hadn’t shown up at their usual spot at 3:50 am sharp, as he always did. Something uncanny after over a month of uninterrupted walks.

And, to make matters worse, Diana hadn’t returned home before dawn as usual.

Aella had known something was horribly wrong then.

She’d texted Diana, Kamilla, and Zeydan.

They replied hours after she sent the frantic messages.

Zeydan had texted back, saying everything was alright and that he would see her when she left work and tell her everything.

Diana called her and told her she was okay, and felt bad for disappearing so suddenly, but she’d explain what happened soon.

Kamilla had done the same.

Aella had met Diana and Kam in Hecate’s office an hour before the work night started, and they had both been true to their word.

They told Aella that the gargoyles had tried to invade Darkwood.

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