Page 51 of Deathless
“I thinkhe’sin love with Rori.”
My mouth fell open and nothing came out for a long beat of silence. “Oh.”
“And it’s like, I can’t even hate her for it.” Hudson ran a frustrated hand over his head.
“Wait, what makes you think he feels that way?” Now I was confused. “They’re either at each other’s throats or ignoring each other.”
“I dunno, it’s just a feeling I get. He’s…really, really good to me. But I’m a fucked-up mess, you know?”
“Who isn’t a fucked-up mess?” I countered. “Even if the three of us hadn’t been through the shit we had, we’d be a mess in some other way.”
Hudson shook his head. “Just sucks when you’re so fucked up that you’re not enough for someone.”
“Has Devin told you that?” I argued. “Or done anything that would make you believe such a thing?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Then it’s not fucking true. It’s your own brain telling you lies.” I put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “You deserve to be happy, dude. Is that so hard to believe?”
He let out a long sigh. “Sometimes, yeah.”
“I get that.” I said with a release of his shoulder. “But try to let yourself be happy with Devin, as long as he’s good to you. The longer you’re there, the more you’ll believe it.”
“But what if I’m right?” He looked at me with a hard expression. “What if he wants to be with meandRori?”
I thought on that for a moment. Devin in our dynamic wouldn’t be so bad. In the rare moments that he and Rori got along, they had some chemistry. But I couldn’t see him doing that if it was detrimental to Hudson. Devin had essentially appointed himself Hudson’s caretaker, and it was a role I knew he took seriously. He wouldn’t let anything interfere with Hudson’s emotional progress, especially not if romantic feelings were involved. It could get messy though, I had to admit.
“That’s a bridge we’ll cross if we come to it,” I said. “Rori will be the one who ultimately decides. And believe it or not, she wants you to be happy too.”
“I do believe it, actually,” Hudson said softly. “When we talked before you showed up last night, she was...nice. I might even like her.”
“Well, holy shit.” I crossed my arms, unable to suppress my grin. “If that isn’t progress, I don’t know what is.”
“Yeah, well.” He was blushing again, a small smile playing on his lips. It almost seemed as though he more than liked her. Hudson had a crush. On a woman.Mywoman.
No wonder he had all kinds of conflicting feelings.
I initiated this talk with him feeling skeptical, but now my fears were completely assuaged. He was far more likely to kiss Rori than kill her. And I wasn’t worried about him with other women either.
“You’ll be alright.” I gave him a slap on the shoulder. “Thanks for talking with me.”
“Yeah.” He smiled as we headed to where Torr and Devin were waiting. “Not to get all mushy or anything, but I’m glad we’re friends again.”
I grinned at him. “Me too.”
Torr and Devin were just outside the open warehouse door, next to the motorcycles we rode in on. Tezca sat off to the side while Astarte was perched on Torr’s handlebars.
“We doing this?” I asked Torr, then glanced at the animals.
“Now or never.” He looked at the dove, who cooed and stretched out her wings.
Likewise, I stared at the jaguar, unsure of what I was waiting for. “Uh, do we do this at the same time? Is there some kind of procedure?”
Just ask what you need to ask. Astarte sounded like she was sick of our shit.We can’t do anything until you ask.
“Okay, well, you’ve given us no direction or help, so thanks for that,” Torr grumbled.
You sound like Aurora,Astarte griped back.As I’ve told her before, we cannot interfere with your decision-making. You must make these decisions on your own, with no influence from us.
