Chapter 38
Sean
Now that Louhi’s eyeballs have returned to the front of her head, I scoop her into my arms and carry her down the hallway toward the largest bedroom.
Toeing the door open with my boot, I find that Jace has placed the mattress on top of the assembled bed frame.
The sheets are on the bed, so I probably have him to thank for that, considering they were in the dryer last I checked, not that I plan to sleep beneath them.
Her eyelids are heavy when I set her on the bare mattress.
“The house is so clean,” Lou purrs contentedly, stretching out like a cat. “You and Honey Eyes should moonlight as maids. I would pay to see that, especially if you got costumes.”
I huff. “There’s zero chance of that happening.”
She whines. “In that case, go get my pillow and lie down with me.”
“What am I? Your errand boy?”
She hums with her eyelids shut and a smile on her beautiful face. “You talk back too much to be a decent errand boy.”
I’ve started for the door because I’m whipped harder than a horse owned by an outlaw in the Wild West, when she adds, “I could solve that by cutting your tongue out, though.”
I chuckle. “You’d be sorry you removed one of your favorite toys when I had nothing to lick you with.”
“I suppose you’re right.” The curl of her lips deepens. “But that’s why vibrators were invented.”
In the doorway, I call over my shoulder, “I doubt a hitwoman created the vibrator just so she could remove her boyfriend’s tongue.”
Shit. Why did I say that? Boyfriend? Really?
I twist fully, my gaze finding Lou’s with laser precision. She’s got one eye open now, the matching eyebrow arched. A beat that I can feel through my entire body passes as we blink at one another. Eventually, she states simply, “I don’t have boyfriends, Sean.”
“Got a better term for me, Lou?” I swear on my fucking life that if she calls me some bullshit like beau, I will wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze.
She opens her other eyelid and props up her torso with her forearms. “Minun aurinkoni,” she says, her expression soft. “L?mponi.”
“What does that mean?” I let her get away with speaking to me in Finnish earlier because something in her expression told me that what she was saying was for her as much as it was for me.
While my brain doesn’t know what the hell she said, my heart shifted like it translated the words into a language it understood.
You can always trust your heart, even when you can’t trust your head. My mom’s advice seems to be more relevant than I could’ve imagined.
“My sun,” she translates. “My warmth.”
My chest seems to glow with more heat than a meteor hurtling toward the Earth’s surface. “I guess that makes you my moon?”
“Can you imagine having the power to control the tides? I could get off on that.”
“You could get off on anything, baby.”
Her giggles follow me as I retrieve her pillow from Jace’s room, where it got piled with several of the other items we brought.
When I reenter the bedroom, I toss the pillow at Louhi, and it nails her in the chest. She snickers and shoves it under her head.
I’m hungry as fuck, but I don’t say anything as I drop onto the mattress. I’ll eat in the morning. Lou tucks her head into the crevice of my neck.
As soon as my ass hits the pillowtop, a crash echoes through the room like an IED exploding. From the pile of wooden rubble, uncontrollable laughter bubbles from Louhi, and I fight my own as I bellow, “Jace.”
Sunlight streams through the windows, and I stretch my arm out to pull Lou into my side. My shoulder aches a bit with the effort, but it’s not my chief concern when I find the mattress cold and empty. Sitting up, I’m entirely alone.
I drag both hands down my face, then climb off the mattress, careful to step over the splintered wood of the broken bedframe and snigger to myself. Tugging on some sweats, I pad down the hallway.
The silence of the house is a nice change from the constant noise of Ex-I. Jace sleeps like the dead, so if I had to guess, he’s still unconscious. I’m still trying to tell myself that Mercer’s whereabouts are Louhi’s concern.
In the kitchen, I find a pot of coffee already made and pour myself a cup. I’m about to go to the basement to see if I can find Lou there when I catch movement through the large window in the dining area that looks into the screened-in terrace.
Upon closer inspection, it’s Lou’s slender, muscular arm that’s the source of the movement. She has a blanket draped over her lap and a mug in her hand, her black fingernails drumming absently against the ceramic. She must be on the couch that’s pushed up against the wall that separates us.
I’m about to tap on the window to get her attention when a deeper, somewhat muffled voice that certainly doesn’t belong to my best friend speaks. I shouldn’t snoop. Not when Louhi’s having a private moment with her brother, but I set down my mug and quietly pull out a chair at the table.
I can’t make out everything being said, but at least it’s in English. There’s a long beat of silence, and I wonder if they realize that they have a ghost listening through the wall. But how would they?
“I meant to come get you, Lou. I wasn’t going to abandon you.”
There’s a beat of quietude, and I imagine she’s reaching out to touch him. “I know.”
“What the meaty one said—”
“Digs,” she corrects, but I can hear the smile in her tone. I like that she’s been giving out my nickname, leaving the more personal aspect up to me to share. She did it with Viktor, too. After all, this is her world. These are her friends.
“Right, Digs,” he goes on. “Did he hurt you?”
“Yes.”
I close my eyes. Will the truth of that statement always hurt? I lean forward, rest my elbows on my spread knees, and stare down at the floor.
“But he also saved me. He’s…mine.” There’s a warm tingling sensation that spreads through my chest as I fight a smile.
“You love him.”
My head snaps up. I stare through the wall like I’ve somehow developed X-ray vision. Mercer didn’t phrase it as a question, but as an unequivocal statement.
Louhi doesn’t reply, at least not that I can hear.
“Is? would like him,” Mercer says. I think that word is Finnish. Isn’t that Mom? Shit, maybe it’s Dad? I really need to take some lessons.
A short, feminine giggle rings through the wall. “He really would. So would ?iti. She told me once that loving Is? was like the sun shining on the coldest day of the year. That he made the world feel warm and light. I didn’t understand that feeling until I met him.”
My grin cracks my face in half like a glacial crevasse. She fucking loves me.
“What are you smiling at?” Jace’s sleepy voice sounds as he steps into the dining room. “It’s weirding me out to see you like that.”
He rubs at his eyes, and I snort. I raise my finger to my lips and jerk my chin in the direction of the wall. He doesn’t ask, just shrugs, then walks into the kitchen.
“…you just…try to be friendly with him?” It’s probably my own guilt talking, but that softly spoken request seems like it’s meant for me as much as her brother. I should make an effort with Mercer. I owe Louhi that much. He’s obviously going to be in our lives for years to come.
“Anything for you, Lou.”
On that, Mercer, we agree.