Page 208 of Chaos

A butter-soft smile curving his mouth, Jackson nods. “We just found out.”

“Who else knows?”

“No one.”

“Lux?”

“Just you, kid.”

God, does that settle beneath my skin and create the loveliest burn. “So a near-death experience is all it takes to become the favorite, huh?”

“Will you shut up with that shit?”

“Yeah.” Our heads both snap towards Lux as she approaches, adding another armful of debris to the rapidly growing pile. “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you.”

“Everything looks good on me.”

“Is cockiness a symptom of withdrawal?”

I snort, pinching Eliza semi-gently as she ducks beneath my other arm, earning a hissed warning to be careful that she rolls her eyes at. As Lux settles on Jackson’s other side, I dip into her back pocket to steal her phone, ignoring her huff when I thumb in her passcode before pulling up Grace’s contact.

The moment I hit call, a ringtone cuts through the air.

A roughgoddammitfollows.

Before I can turn around, someone plasters themselves to my back, a head squeezing its way between mine and Eliza’s. “I literally got the taxi to drop me a half mile up the road so I could surprise you andyouruinedit.”

My face caught somewhere between a smile and a frown, I twist to gape at Grace. “What’re you doing here?”

“You almost got burnt to a crisp, dummy,” she huffs as she wraps her arms around my middle and squeezes hard. “Of course I’m here.”

Of course.

My chest aches.

Grace hugs me harder, smacking a great, big dramatic kiss on my cheek before facing forward. A hissed breath whistles through her teeth. “Shit. It’s really gone.”

Something akin to a whimper leaves Eliza, and four hands pat her comfortingly.

Peering around me, Grace asks Lux, “What’re you gonna do?”

A long, unsure breath leaves her. “I don’t know.”

I glance over my shoulder at the horses grazing nearby—more than we have room for now. We’re lucky it was mild last night so leaving them in the paddock was a reasonable option, but in no way a feasible permanent one. “Are you getting rid of them?”

Her face creases with confliction, something softly defensive in her tone. “I don’t really have a choice. I’ve already made some calls about rehoming them.”

“Which ones?”

Lux doesn’t respond. She doesn’t know. Which ones to choose nor how to choose them.

With the arm I have wrapped around Jackson, I reach for her, fisting the soft wool of her sweater. “We’ll figure it out.”

Fingers curling around mine and squeezing, she shoots me a grateful look.

Patting Eliza’s shoulder soothingly, Grace suggests, “We can get them back once we rebuild.”

Again, Lux’s expression wrinkles.

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