Chapter Sixteen

Riot

F or some reason that I can’t explain, I feel an immense wave of relief pass over me as soon as my eyes land on Ever. It’s like for all the time that she has been gone, I have been on edge, and now that she is home, somehow, on an intuitive level, I know that everything is going to be okay now, and I can finally breathe properly.

It scares the fuck out of me.

Trick

E ver. It’s really her.

I always know what to say and do. But I am lost.

She is finally Home.

Luc

I can tell the moment that I see her that it’s Ever; she always had this air about her; she looked all innocent until you said the wrong thing to one of us, and then she would go off like a firecracker. It was absolutely stunning to watch then, and I bet it would be fucking breathtaking to watch now.

I find myself hoping that she still defends us like she used to; even if she doesn’t, my heart feels like it’s going to burst with happiness.

My Firecracker.

Jensen

“W e should probably go and talk to her rather than just staring at her like a bunch of weirdos,” Cash points out.

We don’t need to be told again, and we all move down the hallway toward her; I have to constantly remind myself not to run; that would probably freak her out.

Somehow, I am the lucky fucker that manages to get to her first. She is just bending down to grab her backpack, her back still to us, and I momentarily get distracted by her perfect ass.

What do I say? This is a monumental moment. Keeping it simple will probably work best. Otherwise, I’m going to spew a load of shit that she just doesn’t need to know, and then we are back to freaking her out again.

Reaching out, I touch her shoulder and say, “Hey . . .”

Trick

M y eyes widen in shock as my feet stay glued to the spot, and I watch Ever grab Jensen’s hand on her shoulder, and with very little effort at all, she flips him over. He lands with a hard thump on the floor, Ever follows him down, her knee landing on his sternum and pinning him in place as she holds two knives at his throat in such a way that she could easily slit it. If I’m not mistaken and I force myself to take a step back and look at this from someone who is not emotionally involved, then I would almost be tempted to say that she had done that before. The neck slicing, not the flipping, she has obviously done that before. That was clearly muscle memory.

That would be crazy, though.

Jensen

B efore I can say anything else, like tell her who I am and why I’m talking to her, I am flying.

At least that is what it feels like, and I don’t mean I’m so happy I feel like I’m flying, no, I am actually flying through the air.

What the fuck is happening?

I land with a hard thump on the hallway floor, and it takes me a moment to realize what the fuck just happened.

She flipped me; this tiny, delicate-looking woman just flipped me like I weighed nothing. I have to stop myself from kissing the shit out of her; that was the hottest thing I have ever seen. Just as that thought crosses my mind, I have to take it back because I realize that she is holding knives to my throat, knives that I didn’t even see her pull out.

Knives! I’m in love. She’s like an avenging angel.

I can’t help it; I just stare at her. If there was any doubt before that this is our Ever, there is none now. I would recognize those eyes anywhere. It’s because I am staring at them, at her, that I see the panic flash through them. I want to reassure her, to tell her there is nothing to panic about, I’m not going to freak out, and that actually I think it was fucking amazing, but I can’t. The words are just stuck in my throat.

I can’t get over the fact that she is here and real.

She jumps up, immediately sheathing her knives. She handles them with such ease and is clearly very, very comfortable with them. As hot as I think that is, I’m not sure I like what that may mean about her life.

Her eyes move from me to the guys, and she starts mumbling, and I fight my smile, clearly some things haven’t changed at all.

"I'm so fucking sorry, I thought," she appears to think twice about what she is saying and instead says, "it doesn't matter what I thought, fuck."

I just stare at her in what I am sure she is correctly perceiving as love-struck awe. She glances up at the others, and I don’t know what they do but she immediately takes a step back, dropping down into a fighting stance.

Whoa, I was not expecting that. What the fuck has she been through?

"Look, I thought you were someone else. I am so sorry it won't happen again," she says, trying to diffuse a situation that doesn’t exist as she straightens out of her stance.

"What the flying fuck are you guys thinking? Since when do you give a shit about new kids enough to introduce yourselves? If that is even what you were fucking trying to do!" I hear Rylie before I see her and she walks around me, looking down at me and giving me a smirk.

She grabs Ever, and her bag gives us a warning look that seems to hold more than I am capable of understanding right now and storms off in the other direction.

I stay where I am. I don’t think I could move if I wanted to, and I just watch her walk away. None of us are stupid enough to go after her after a reaction like that, and especially not since Rylie gave us that warning look. We kind of need to regroup anyway.

“She doesn’t recognize us,” I say.

“She was in fight mode; I doubt she would have recognized anyone in that situation.” Trick replies to me.

“She’s fucking magnificent, isn’t she?” Cash adds.

“She is damn skilled, that’s for sure,” Riot replies, “I’m just not sure that I like the reason why she is that skilled.”

All of us make some sort of sound of agreement, we have all thought the same thing.

Cash’s face comes into my eyeline, and he smirks down at me as the others move so that I can see them, too.

“Do you want a hand up?” he asks.

I shake my head, “Nope, I want to stay in the moment.”

“Come on, the sooner you get up, the sooner we can work out how to approach Ever in a way that isn’t going to make her flip one of us,” Riot suggests.

“I don’t know, it looked kind of fun. I don’t think I would mind being flipped by Ever,” Trick chuckles.

“Dude, she actually sliced you!” Luc suddenly exclaims, his eyes on my neck.

My hand searches until I feel a sting of pain, and I grin, “I didn’t even feel it; she keeps her blades fucking sharp.”

Cash reaches down and pulls me up, and my hand immediately goes back to my neck.

He frowns slightly, “Which means, they aren’t just for show.”

“Fuck,” Trick curses as he realizes he is right. “Come on, let’s go to lunch; she should be in there, and we can figure out a game plan.”

“Do you think this will scar?” I ask, “Please say it’s going to scar?”

The guys don’t answer me, and instead, all shake their heads.