Chapter 22
Elira
Phoenix and I walked back to the room, hand in hand.
Slade was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. He gave me a look—one brow raised, the barest flicker of heat behind his calm. It was enough to make me blush.
But Leo—
He didn’t look at me.
He was by the door, posture rigid, gaze fixed on a point somewhere over my shoulder. When he saw Phoenix, he flinched—just slightly—but enough. Something in his face dimmed. Something that used to be brightness.
“Leo—” I started.
He turned before I could finish. “It’s fine.”
“Leo,” I said again, softer this time.
He finally looked at me. And it hurt—the way his smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“I get it,” he said lightly. Too lightly. “You made your choice.”
“That’s not—”
“It’s okay,” he said, cutting me off. “Really. You don’t owe me anything, Elle.”
Phoenix stood behind me, quiet. Still. Waiting for me.
Leo glanced at him, then back to me. His voice cracked a little.
“I just thought maybe… after everything—” He laughed, dry and broken. “Doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter,” I said. “You matter.”
“Not the way I wanted to,” he murmured, and this time, he didn’t smile at all. “But thanks.”
“Leo – “
He turned again—going to walk away.
“Will you stop!” I snapped. “Dammit Leo! Stop!”
He froze, half-turned, shoulders tense. I glanced at Phoenix, who gave me the faintest nod. I let go of his hand and stormed toward Leo, grabbing his wrist.
“Elle—”
“No. We’re doing this. Now.”
I spun to the others. “All of you—in.”
Slade arched a brow. Phoenix sighed. Leo looked like he might bolt. But they followed.
Inside, I pointed at the bed. “Sit.”
They did. Even Slade.
I looked at Leo.
“Look at me.”
He hesitated—then lifted his eyes. They were glassy.
“You said it was okay for me to love all of you. Do you remember?”
He opened his mouth—then closed it again. “I remember… I just didn’t know it would feel like this.”
“I didn’t know what it would be like either,” I said. “To care like this. About anyone. And, maybe you didn’t either. It’s new for me to feel these things I feel for all of you - to need each of you in different ways. But I do.”
I looked to Phoenix. “I love the way you steady me. The way you make sense of the chaos in my head. When I’m near you, the noise quiets. The world feels safe—I feel safe.”
Phoenix smiled, so warm I felt my heart my explode. He reached out, slow and reverent, and kissed the back of my hand.
I turned to Slade. “You protect me. Always. Not just from the world—but from myself. You stand with me, beside me… even when I push you away. Even when I break.”
My throat tightened. “I know I’m not easy. I know that. But you never leave—not even when part of me believes you should. When I don’t feel like I deserve you.” I drew a breath. “But you stay. You always stay. You are my constant. My foundation. My rock.”
“Always,” he murmured.
Then to Leo. To the lion who stole my heart before I even knew it was missing.
“And you, Leo. You’re my spark. My joy. My first yes. You made me want—more. More laughter. More touch. More light. More life. You reminded me that I could crave, that I could reach, that I was allowed to feel.”
Tears pooled in the corner of my eyes. “And maybe it’s not fair. It isn’t. Because I’m just me and I don’t know if I will ever be enough for any of you. But I want to try. I want to try - with all of you.”
Phoenix’s voice cut in, low and certain. “You’re more than enough, Elle.”
I swallowed. “I’m not asking any of you to make this easy…or to pretend it doesn’t hurt. But I’m asking you to remember that you said it was okay. Because I can’t help how I feel. Gods, I don’t want to. But I know this isn’t up to me, not entirely.”
Leo’s eyes shone with something close to hope—fragile, flickering.
“I’m standing here,” I said softly. “I didn’t run. I never want to run from you again. Doesn’t that count for something?”
“It counts,” Slade murmured.
“Do you really mean all that?” Leo asked, looking more vulnerable than I had ever seen him before.
I knelt in front of him, took his hands—grounding us both.
“I love you, stupid,” I whispered. “I think I’ve loved you for a long time. Even when I didn’t have a name for it. I love all of you.”
He stared at me like I’d just given him back something he’d thought was lost.
“I thought I was being clear,” I added, my voice cracking a little. “But maybe I wasn’t.”
Leo’s breath hitched. His voice broke on the words. “I love you too. Gods, so much.”
Leo’s hands tightened in mine. Like he couldn’t let go, even if he wanted to. He pulled me into him like he couldn’t bear to be apart another second. And I let him. Gods, I let him.
His lips crashed into mine—desperate, unfiltered, raw.
I gasped, but he didn’t hesitate—just deepened it, tilting his head to devour more. His hands cupped my jaw, his thumbs brushing my cheeks like I was something precious, something he thought he’d lost.
I moaned into him, fingers knotting in his shirt as I pulled him closer—closer still—until I could feel every breath he took like it belonged to me.
His kiss was heat and hunger, unspoken pain and unshaken devotion. It said everything he hadn’t dared to. Everything I hadn’t let myself hope for.
My back hit the wall before I realised he’d moved us. His thigh pressed between mine. His mouth trailed lower—to my jaw, to the corner of my throat.
“Leo,” I whispered, breathless.
He pulled back just enough to meet my eyes. “I thought I lost you,” he said, voice wrecked. “Don’t let me lose you again.”
“You never lost me, Leo. I was always here.” I reached up, cupping his face. “You’re my light, Leo. You crashed into my life like a cannonball back in Varrowmere. And now I can’t go back—not to who I was before you.”
He closed his eyes, leaning into my touch like he couldn’t bear not to.
I looked to Slade.
He stood now, arms crossed again—but something had shifted. Less guarded. Less stone.
“If you don’t feel the same—”
“Don’t.” His voice cut clean—calm, steady, but firm. “Don’t say that like I haven’t been choosing you every godsdamn day.”
I swallowed hard.
“I’m not good with words,” he said, voice lower now. “I don’t say things first. I don’t always know how. But if you’re standing there wondering if I feel the same…”
“Then you haven’t been paying attention.”
He stepped forward without a word and crushed his mouth to mine.
It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t restrained. It was a claiming.
I gasped into him as his hands slid from my jaw to my hips, gripping me like he couldn’t stand not touching me. His kiss was all tongue and teeth and tension finally snapped.
I rose to meet him, fingers threading into his hair, dragging him closer. His chest met mine with a low growl in his throat. My legs buckled and he caught me without breaking the kiss, pulling me flush against him.
I could feel everything—his breath, his heat, the way he trembled slightly like he was barely holding it together.
“Slade…” I whispered against his lips.
And in the silence that followed—there was no emptiness.
Only gravity.
It was full. Almost.
Only one person still remained missing. Only one person could have made the moment perfect.
And we would find him.
No matter what it cost us.
We would find Thorne.