The video ends before his rotation finishes. I wonder if it’s payback for cutting the end of mine.

When he asked to see me the other night, I couldn’t with my eye swelling. But I think I would have told him the same thing regardless. I need him to be my escape for a while longer, the place I can run.

Then he can be real.

I set the LED lights so my room glows red and then reply to him.

What do I deserve then?

I’m ready to shed my wings. The whole costume, really. But then my mouth kicks up, and I open my messages again.

Since I plan to leave Ashfield and never look back, I haven’t exactly prioritized meaningful relationships with anyone here. Which means I don’t have to scroll too far to find the ones with R even though our last texts were over two weeks ago. I send Roman a fairy emoji, and then I add a black heart. He answers with one and a jack-o’-lantern as I’m slipping off the wings.

Another text pops up as I take off my boots.

Foster

Where are you?

I toss my wings on the bed and snap a picture of them on my comforter with a corner of pillow. He calls a few seconds later, and I grab my earbuds off the nightstand. I answer with the camera low before I flip it around, showing him the flimsy wings again.

His camera stays unmoved, the view spiking my pulse. The top of his black shirt hangs open, the video focused on a defined tan chest underneath. Laces are undone below that, and part of a tattoo peeks through on one side.

“The world,” Foster tells me, his low voice coating my skin. “You deserve the fucking world, Remi.”

I smile and touch the edge of a wing. “Straight to the flirting, I see. Or was that meant to seduce me?”

The bass beat from his video is absent now, and he has far better lighting. “Nah, baby. It’s a truth. Flirting is saying I want to give you the world.”

“And if you were seducing me?” I shouldn’t ask, but I do, all fluttery even before he answers.

“I tell you that every goddamn second since I heard your voice, you’ve been becoming mine.”

Yeah, it’s starting to feel like Foster West is going to be very real when I let him be.

The guy isn’t even fighting fairly at this point. He’s using hard pecs, tattoos, a sexy voice, and even better words as weapons. All I have for defense is pretending that not seeing his face would make me miss it all less if he disappeared.