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He pants for a while, too shocked to speak I sit on the edge of his bed and find his gaze "Hey, are you okay?"

He nods, staring at the wall "I think so… I aze connects with mine "Don’t you think it’s weird?"

"To be dead?" I check and he nods "Yeah, but that strange feeling you have will eventually vanish Trust me"

"I do trust you" He shawls his aruides me closer "But the question is do you trust ainst his shoulder just as Nicholas appears in the doorway

"Aer accusingly

"You ruin everyhere"

Nicholas cla "Don’t you tant to knohat’s wrong with Aislin?"

"Did you take her to the Foreseers’ holding cell?" I ask and he nods "Is she okay?"

He stuffs his hands into his pockets and rocks back on his heels "She will be when the ic spell wears off Apparently, when Aislin was captured by the sprites, she put a spell on herself which basically made her teot her to tell you that?" I rub a s evidence of my fall out of the

He nods "In a few hours she’ll be as good as new" He pauses "Until then, what do we do? Because there are a s you need to fix"

"Like what?" I put him on the spot

He’s speechless by etting youryour dad and your lover"

"Alex isn’t a prisoner," I say "He’s there on his own freewill"

"You’re awfully sure of that," he expresses "Yet, you haven’t even talked to him"

"I did, on the phone," I respond "He seemed pretty content with Stasha And pretty pissed that I called"

He a around at the clothes on Laylen’s floor "It looks like a tornado blew through here Are all vampires this messy?"

Laylen’s lip twitches "You better watch it faerie All vampires like to feed, especially on fey"

I eye Laylen, curious to know if he’s joking "Are you sure you’re okay? Did Helena do soaze sweeps his body, his torn shirt, the holes in his dark jeans, the fresh blood in his blonde hair

"I told you I’m fine" He s "How about I go get that crystal of yours fixed while you go check on Alex?"

"You want ainst his will?" I s I don’t want to see?"

"Like what?" Laylen wonders

"Like…" My eyes wander to Nicholas "Stuff"

"Don’t hold back onlike daisies, rain, and perfume "Is it because of what I showed you?"

I scowl at him "Why do you even care?"

Laylen slants forward, glancing back and forth between Nicholas and me "What did he show you?"

Nicholas waits expectantly "Do you want to explain or should I?"

I sigh and direct o free Alex or whatever, and you go fix the crystal ball"

We nod in agreement and depart for the door

"What aboutto take me to Stasha’s," I say "Does she still live on the east coast?"

Laylen heads into the bathrooot a place in town to be closer to us" He turns on the sink faucet and dunks his head in the water, rinsing the blood from his hair He shuts the water off and snatches a towel froer "She mentioned this when she was here the other day, but I didn’t want to tell you" He dries his hair and tosses the towel in the corner

"I’ainst the doorway and foldnow"

He co it into place He leans over the counter, adet over it, Gemma Alex is Alex"

"Since when have you been so into your looks?" I raise aze sweeps "

Taken aback, I stand up straight and inspect hing, he pulls irl, you just don’t try"

I stare at my reflection, mylimbs covered by an oversized black tee and some faded jeans