Page 188 of Bound By Song

Xar leans close, voice low and warm. “We’re going to walk in there like the gods we are, perform one song, drink overpriced whiskey, and come back home. You get a helicopter ride, I get to show you off, and Dane gets to say ‘told you so’.”

“I am looking forward to the ‘told you so’,” Dane murmurs, lips brushing the back of my neck.

“And we’ll fuck you in the back of the limo the whole way home, honeybee,” Blaise adds with a wink and promise that sets my heart beating for an entirely different reason now.

And that’s how they get me through the door. With love. With steady hands. With the bond pulsing between us like a golden net that holds me up when I start to fall.

Well, that, and Dane physically carries me so that my heels don’t sink into the mud.

When the helicopter appears, sleek and humming and waiting on the large field near the edge of the property, I stop breathing entirely.

“It’s beautiful,” I whisper, the blades whirring above us like dragon’s wings.

Blaise grins, ushering me inside. “Wait till you’re in the air.”

The moment we lift off, everything changes. I’d expected to be terrified but I’m not.

The world falls away beneath us – trees shrinking, cliffs retreating, the curve of the sea turning silver and wild. The farmhouse becomes a dollhouse. The hills roll out like a painting. The sky turns to fire as the sun begins to set, and the coast glows gold under it.

I press my hand to the window, wide-eyed.

“I didn’t know it would be like this,” I say into my headset.

“What’d I tell you?” Xar’s voice comes from the front, warm with pride. “You’re a natural.”

Blaise laughs, sprawled beside me in the back with his arm around my waist. “That’s it. I’m buying a damn chopper. I don’t care what Dane says.”

“You absolutely are not,” Dane says from the co-pilot seat, half amused, half horrified.

I laugh – and for a moment, I forget I’m scared about what comes next. For a moment, I feel like I’m flying, too.

Xar just grins from the front. “Let her fly next time. She’ll fall even harder.”

I’m already in love – with the view, the rush, the freedom. With them.

By the time we touch down in London, I feel like I could take on the world.

But then the city hits me like a punch to the chest.

It sprawls beneath us as the sun dips lower – glass and steel and ancient brick, the river cutting through like a dull blade. It’salive. Pulsing. Glittering. Terrifying.

By the time we land, I’m trembling again. Everything is sohuge.So tightly packed and imposing. So busy and bustling. I hate it.

Is this what their world was like before me? Will they expect me to join them once it’s time for them to leave? They made plans for a forever with me in the farmhouse, but how can that work when they’re literal rockstars? And why the hell didn’t we discuss this before…

“Breathe, Eviana. You’re spiralling,” Dane murmurs. “Everything will be okay.”

He means now, at the event, because he doesn’t know that I’m freaking out about how our two polar opposite lifestyles are meant to work, but I take a deep breath, following his instructions, and push my panic to the side. I owe them that. Tonight is about them, not me. Not us. Just them.

My rockstar mates.

The venue is tucked away on a quiet street near the Thames. An old theatre turned into a private event space, all velvet and shadow and gold trim. I step inside and immediately feel the walls closing in.

There are people everywhere.

Notcrowds– not in the packed, concert way. Butpeople. Elegant. Powerful. Polished. Probably famous if I cared enough to look closely. Swirls of expensive perfume and low laughter, crystal glasses clinking. I cling to the shadows as the guys greet a few familiar faces.

Blaise finds me a flute of something fizzy and non-alcoholic. Dane squeezes my hand. Xar brushes a kiss to my temple.

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