I stared out at him openmouthed.
“Yes! That’s absolutely it!” Nyx cried excitedly.
“Agreed. Mmm… leather onyou…motherfucker,” Vorzyr said. “But, seriously, it balances your down to earth edgier look with some respectful refinement.”
“That’s… thank you, my boys.”
“My boys.Absolutely loving that, Halo.”
I chuckled. “I’m loving it, too.”
“We all are,” Vorzyr said.
I saw Kai smiling contentedly as he typed rapidly on his tablet, working to crunch numbers and add financial elements and facts to Nyx’s upcoming presentation.
“You know, there is something missing from the ensemble, though,” Vorzyr proclaimed, pushing off the bed and crossingthe room to me over by my closet. He scanned the space as he went, eyeing my nightstands, my dresser, the shelves. “Where do you keep it?” he asked, when he clearly didn’t find whatever he was searching for.
“What’s that?”
“The special necklace,” Nyx told me, putting his papers down and coming over as well.
Vorzyr explained, “Kai told us about it. A special piece that your mom gave to you during your party, something that was meant to represent who and what you are and celebrate it to its fullest.”
Oh my God.
I looked out at Kai. “You were still there when she came into my room?”
He tensed and put the tablet down, looking out at me from the chair. “I was, yes.”
“Not in a stalkerish way,” Nyx cut in quickly, sweetly defending him as was his dynamic with him.
“Notin a stalkerish way?” I questioned, eyeing Kai.
He shoved his hand through his thick hair and revealed, “I lingered for a while after you’d thought I’d left.”
“And itwasn’tstalker behavior?” Vorzyr questioned, amusement shining forth. “I mean, it’s okay now, Kai. Those were the early days when you were being a shit. We’ve all moved past that.”
“If you must know, I was a little concerned.”
“Concerned?” I pressed.
He blew out a breath. “Yes. After what happened in that bathroom, I was worried I’d taken it too far, and I thought you might need aftercare, something I’d planned on providing, but you’d screamed at me to get out of your face.” He fiddled with his hair again. “But then I heard you talking to your mom—yes, as Iwas cloaked nearby—and she gave you comfort in another way, comfort she didn’t realize you’d needed.”
Before I could even begin to absorb it, and as Vorzyr and Nyx stared at him thunderstruck, Kai rose from the chair, his right hand sparking with his magic. “And it’s here. Itwasin the top drawer of her nightstand, but I just conjured it forth,” he told the boys.
In the next moment, he was levitating it over to me.
I took it out of the air. “Thank you.”
“Of course.” He came over and settled between Nyx and Vorzyr, laying a hand on each of their shoulders. “They’re absolutely right. This is the perfect final touch.”
I stared down at the necklace in my hand.
The beautiful gold chain with a heart pendant hanging from it that had my name etched into it, the heart surrounded by gold angel wings that were identical to mine, even possessing the silver edges and markings.
But despite how striking it was, the beauty wasn’t in the design or the jewelry itself. It was what it represented, what my mom had wanted it to represent.
And my men knew it.