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“Not for them, for my book!” I say, aghast that he’s already forgotten. “My beautiful book suffered an unfair fate. His life was too short!”
“I’ll get you a new book,” August assures me.
“Okay… My head hurts.”
Suddenly there’s a piece of paper being shoved into my hand by an invisible force. I look down at it a moment before Asmodeus’s car heads off, appearing to be driving itself.
I glower at the paper as I realize it’s an invoice. Fifteen thousand for the “protection of Chronobender” and $102.69 “for the other one.”
My jaw clenches as I tear the paper in half and hand it to August. “I’m going to bed.”
“Hey, we can’t. This is serious. Someone clearly wants us both dead,” he says.
“One of us more than the other,” I mutter, not jealousat all.
Valerie puts a hand on each of our backs and ushers us into Superheroes United headquarters. We get to forgo the security check and are escorted into an elevator that leads downstairs.
“Get cleaned up and meet me in conference room two,” she says before hurrying off.
I follow August into the bedroom that’s reserved for us when it’s unsafe for us to be out in public, a bedroom I hate since it’s underground and run by Valerie. I pull open the drawer and find the beautifully black clothes I’d stashed there have been replaced by pinks, baby blues, and even a yellow.
I slam the drawer shut and open August’s dresser until I find a single dark-colored hoodie, which I pull on, and a pair of sweats. Then I flop down on the bed and decide that I will stay here for eternity.
August comes to the bed and leans over it before drawing a finger through my hair to push it off my forehead. “Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yeah. You?”
He’s quiet as his finger trails a bit before he catches my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“I just… don’t like that I put you in danger. I should have been able to protect you, but I just… got too wrapped up in my mind about needing to keep you safe, and then you had to save us anyway… as well as some guy we don’t even know.”
“Well… I think he was just shooting at invisible stuff, you know? We never actually saw who he was shooting at. He was probably just trying to look cool.” I’m pretending like we don’t remember the bad guys falling from the trees.
August grins. “That’s true.”
“August, you are phenomenal at what you do. You have kept so many people in this city safe, but you’re onlyoneperson. You can’t honestly expect that you can do everything by yourself.”
He sighs and drops his head on the bed. “I know. I just… hate the idea that I’ve put you in danger. It was supposed to be a fun trip where I spent time with you, and instead, this is what we get. More danger. More threats. More… bullshit.”
I roll onto my side to face the man who is half on the floor, half on the bed, a pure definition of a wallow. He’s cute even with his wallowing going on. “August, we’ve had this talk. So how else can I get it engrained in your head?”
He tilts his head a little so he can catch my eyes. “I know, I know.”
“Trust me. Please. You kept me perfectly safe. Honestly… if it wasn’t for you, I’d probably still be floating in that water for eternity.”
“I don’t believe that. Your desire to read would have outweighed it. You’d have started having withdrawals and found your way out.”
“True…” I realize. “RIP my beloved book.”
“I’ll buy you a new one the moment we’re done here,” he assures me.
“Okay,” I say as I lean in and kiss him. “Please remember that we are a team now. I don’t need a hero, August. I never did. I need you.”
His smile is genuine as he leans forward and kisses me again. “I think I can handle that.”
* * *
