Sel growls low in his throat and curses again, but changes course. He runs us down a short, empty hall, and suddenly we’re in a dark room that smells like leather and books, striped with amber light streaming in from the balcony windows. He deposits me on the floor, and pain shoots up an ankle when I land awkwardly on one heel, but I barely notice it. Adrenaline roars through my veins along with giddiness, pride.

In the light of the hallway, Sel peers out to see if we’ve been followed. He shoves a hand through his hair and turns back to me with electricity in his eyes. A surge of fierce triumph, a current of conflict. “Stay here. I’ll get him.” And then he’s gone in a whoosh of black.

I press both palms to my flushed cheeks and whirl around in a circle. Even though I’m still shaken from the mob, endorphin-fueled joy bubbles up in my chest, escaping from my mouth in breathless laughter. I can’t find the light switch, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t need to see. I need to feel. Fresh panic is still bouncing around my chest and against my ribs, but there’s anticipation, too.

A click behind me, then Sel and Nick appear together in the doorway, their hair equally tousled from Sel’s run.

For a moment, the three of us stare at one another in wordless comprehension. I look between the two of them—a fallen angel and a king, the dark and the light, and feel a deep, churning thrill at what I’ve done. What we’ve done. This is how it will be now. Oaths between us. Bound to each other. Forever.

Nick moves first. He reaches me in two steps and lifts me in his arms, laughing into my hair. He spins me until my shoes fall from my feet. On one rotation, I glance over his shoulder to see the door swinging shut, and Sel gone, but when Nick puts me down, all we can do is hold each other’s gaze and grin. Then, he covers my mouth with his, and this kiss… this kiss is nothing like our first one.

I can feel it in the hard heat of his lips and in the tight, firm way he holds my waist like a man drowning. He walks me backward until my spine hits the door, then his hands slide down to my thighs and I’m airborne, held up by the strength of his arms and press of his hips. I dig my fingers into his hair, and he sighs before his kiss presses my lips apart and overtakes all my senses. When he pulls away to drop his forehead to the flowers on my chest, he takes a long, soul-deep breath, inhaling me and us together.