3. Eli

3

ELI

" F uck," I shook my hand, appeased slightly by the fact that Levi's face was probably in more pain. But any appeasement dispersed the moment I turned towards Max, my stomach bottoming out at the look of hurt etched in plain text across her face. "Max, no—it's not like that."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, her glare darting back and forth between me and Levi, like she couldn't quite decide who deserved her ire more.

I could. I fucking wanted to kill him.

"What's not like that? What's Levi talking about?" Her voice cracked, the sound like a shovel digging into my chest and ripping my heart out. "Why are you still keeping shit from me? I thought we were over this."

"Max, we are." I reached for her, but she took a step back.

"So, it's true then? You channeled my powers and didn't think to fucking tell me about it?" A glaze of tears coated her eyes, and I could practically feel the tightness in her throat from holding them back.

"No—" I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to collect my thoughts. "I mean yes. We are over this. We were going to tell you. We just wanted to wait until things calmed down. And this just took a natural backseat—after everything. You have so much on your plate right now and you're not sleeping—" my eyes darted to Levi. I didn't trust him—the less he knew about her powers, about her dream-walking, the better. He grinned, reading my hesitation with ease, then spit a dark spray of blood on the ground before wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. His teeth were lined with red, eyes glistening as they watched me until he looked more feral wolf than my dad. I took a deep breath, gesturing with my hands in a silent sign of "you know."

She took another step back, her eyes widening like I'd slapped her. "We?"

Fuck .

Fuck.

Fuck.

My heart hammered an angry beat against my ribs.

I was handling this with about as much grace as a goddamn intoxicated donkey. Where the fuck was Declan? She was so much better at this shit than I was.

I shot a scathing look at Levi. "Can you give us a minute please."

"By all means," he leaned against the wall, catching a bottle of wine he'd bumped into before another one met its demise on the ground "take all the minutes you need."

Clearly, he wasn't leaving.

Smug fuck.

I swallowed back the growing desire to punch him again, knowing full well it would just upset Max more.

I had enough working against me at the moment.

My jaw clenched so tight I could barely speak. But I managed a low, "without you," anyway.

Obviously without him. Fucking dick .

Levi grunted, a shadow of mirth flaring briefly across his expression. "I know what you meant, but I want to hear this too. Perfect little bonded team isn't as perfect as it seems, apparently. You can't pay for this kind of entertainment. And as amusing as Seamus is, this takes top billing."

That tic in my jaw was back with a vengeance, but instead of pushing the argument further, I turned back to Max.

I hated Levi, but that was personal, me-problem shit. Max didn't need to deal with it, and if we were going to stay here for a while, I needed to find a way to interact with him without exploding every time we shared air space.

Of course, it would be a lot easier if he wasn't constantly watching her, staring at her with a familiarity and interest that made my stomach crawl with boiling, unfamiliar rage.

I took a deep breath, focused my attention on Max.

I wasn't going to fuck this up.

Not again.

I was done fucking shit up with her.

"When you left in the middle of the night, when you went to Headquarters, I was fucking terrified that I was going to lose you. Like the forever kind of lose you. I needed to get to you, to save you, but—" I shot a look at Levi, remembering all over again that he'd made my life more difficult in that trying moment as well, "I didn't know how. And I got angry," I shook my head, trying to dispel the lingering memory of that acute fear, "like really angry."

"Eli angry? Shocking." Levi snorted, but he shut up when I cut him another warning look.

He raised his hands in mock surrender, but he didn't say anything else.

"And then I caught on fire." I grabbed her hand, the feel of her skin against mine calming the anxiety rushing through me, like my body needed to know at a cellular level that she was okay, that she was here, that I was hers. "Like your fire." I shook my head before clarifying, "not just like your fire—we're pretty sure that I actually conjured your fire. Somehow."

The soft wrinkle between her brows unfurled as her face settled into surprise. I took a step closer to her, cradling her face between my hands and blocking her from Levi's view.

If he insisted on staying for this, then the least I could do was obliterate his presence as much as possible. This wasn't about the smug asshole.

This was about me and Max. Protecting the bond that had grown more important to me than anything else in the entire world—more important, even, than my own life.

Her dark, beautiful brown eyes met mine, and I hated that there was a glassy film obscuring their usual warmth. Hated even more that I was, in part, the cause.

"I don't know how I did it and I don't know why it happened when it did. Maybe it was just a flare from when you were burning down The Guild, and I channeled it somehow through my own anger." My thumb grazed over the soft skin of her cheek, a steady rhythm to calm us both. "I haven't been able to conjure even a wisp of smoke since. Nothing happened. No one got hurt. I scorched some grass outside and that was it. After you brought Atlas and Sarah back, after you brought down Headquarters—Max, it honestly didn't seem that important. Not compared to everything else that we're dealing with right now, everything to come."

I stepped closer, inhaling the soft smell of her shampoo, using it to center me. "And the longer we went without saying anything, the more difficult it became to start—like in forgetting about the whole thing briefly, and then not saying anything, it had grown into a bigger deal than it was. Does that make sense?" I sighed, feeling the exhale low in my gut, fear over her reaction mingling with the easing tension now that this was out. There were no more secrets between us. She could reach into my thoughts and pull out anything that she wanted— they were all about her—all for her, anyway. "I'm sorry. Truly, extremely sorry."

Her jaw was tight, and I rubbed my thumb against the sharp line of it, trying to soothe away the tension.

She didn't lean into my touch like she often did, but she didn't shy away from it either. I'd count that as a win for now, though I knew this wouldn't be the end of the conversation.

But hopefully it would be enough to hold her over until the others could join in.

I could see her mind working overtime, her eyes asking a thousand questions at once, like she couldn't decide where to start. She shook her head and pushed my hands away from her. "It's been a week, Eli. There were plenty of opportunities for one of you to slip in a quick, "Hey, Max, I channeled your powers, isn't that weird? We should probably figure that out."

"Fair point," Levi said with the kind of casual interest someone might employ while observing a mildly entertaining tennis match.

"That includes you too, Levi," she snapped. "You knew about this too and didn't tell me either."

He withered slightly under her glare, then stood up and took a step towards her. She raised her hand stopping him.

I bit back my smirk, then swallowed it completely when she turned that anger in my direction. "It could be dangerous; you could have been hurt. Eli, what if I've been unintentionally putting you in danger? Opened up a link or something that I don't know how to close, how to control." She took a step back, her gaze dropping to her hands, like they might spontaneously combust. "What if I hurt you?"

Fuck.

Of course she'd find a way to feel guilty about this—to feel responsible.

For something I'd done.

Something I'd kept secret .

"Max, no, you're not endangering anyone." I reached for her again, slowly this time, then closed the distance when she didn't move further away. I pressed my lips softly to hers, then whispered against her lips, ignoring Levi entirely. "I promise. No more secrets between us. It won't happen again."

Her expression shifted, flattening out, then she dropped her eyes from mine, offering only a nod in response. "Yeah," there was something lingering there—something I couldn't put my finger on. When she opened her mouth like she was going to say something else, my stomach clenched with fear. But she just shook her head, gave me a weak smile, and said, "Okay, no more secrets."

"Well," Levi brushed some invisible dirt from his pants. "Now that the lovers' spat is through—and far less climactic and entertaining than I'd hoped—and since Seamus is likely going to be under for another couple of hours, I should probably take you both to the meeting."

Max's brows furrowed as she stepped around me to get a better look at him. "What meeting?"

Levi gave her a lazy half-grin, his eyes once again locked on hers like she was all he saw.

I didn't blame him, but it still fucking infuriated me.

I'd never hated-hated Levi, beyond my own jealousies and baggage about my mom. I was emotionally aware enough to understand that my dislike wasn't personal—he'd had about as much say in our familial circumstances as I'd had.

But then he went and set his sights on Max, and that dislike shaped into something sharper, more solid.

Then again, that was just a different kind of jealousy. One that resonated deeper.

"It's about time you and your team are let in on what we know." He shrugged. "Part of it, anyway."

A familiar spark of excitement lit her face and my stomach flipped at the smile she gave him .

But then she turned that smile on me, and any petty jealousies slipped away. Even with his flirtations and attempts to garner her attention, Max had never once looked at Levi the way she looked at me.

When she looked at me like that, I couldn't move, could hardly breathe.

It was equal parts intoxicating and terrifying.

I used to be suave, have game.

Now, I was a puddle of goo in the palms of a girl.

What the fuck had become of me?

"Let's get the others before we go." Her smile dimmed slightly. "Do you think we'll be able to convince Atlas to leave his room?"

My stomach tightened for an entirely different reason, one much less pleasant. "We can try."