“I love you,” he said against my hair.

I closed my eyes, my cheek against his chest, rising and falling with his breaths. “I love you too.”

I woke alone in the bed and on the verge of panicking, because I didn’t know where Will was. The house was quiet, so I went through the kitchen and out onto the back porch. Will and Marcus were hanging out down by the lake, the afternoon sunshine gleaming off their hair and skin and the calm water’s surface. I bounded off the porch and down the lawn toward them. They turned to look my way and I let out a squeal of happiness as I leaped into Will’s arms. He caught me around my legs with a laugh and I threw my arms around the back of his neck and kissed him. It was wonderful to feel him again, to feel him hold me tight, to feel his lips against mine. He was warm from the sunlight, and he smelled like Will and felt like Will and he was back to his old self again. My Guardian, my Will.

“I’m still here, you guys,” Marcus grumbled. “Really. I’m going to gouge my eyes and ears out.”

Will set me down and I still clung to him, wringing my fingers around the bottom of his shirt. “How are you feeling?” I asked him.

“Great,” he said, and lifted his injured arm. “Like I’m back to normal.” The bandages were gone and the wound had just about disappeared. There would be no scar, as if nothing had ever happened.

“That’s wonderful! We should take it easy one more night before we get back to work. We shouldn’t take any risks right away.”

He raised an eyebrow at me, flashing a smile between Marcus and me. “How long was I out, again? I like this new you.”

“Let’s just say this new me is a lot more like the old me,” I corrected him.

“In a strange way that sort of makes sense,” he said. Now his smile was all for me.

Later that evening, Marcus left with Ava and Sabina to go patrolling while I stayed with Will. He was restless and itching to get back into the field, but Lauren had come over to help me convince him to relax. As we finished cleaning up dinner, Will stopped, frozen, mid-drying a dish.

I stared at him. “What’s wrong?”

And then I felt that soothingly familiar energy signature, but for Will, the energy was enraging.

I put my hand to his chest. “Will, relax. I can explain why Cadan is here. I’ll go talk to him and tell him that now isn’t a good time. He’s not here for a fight, trust me. He only wants to make sure everything is okay.”

I could hear his teeth grinding together and I got nervous.

“She’s right,” Lauren assured him. “Everything’s fine, Will.”

“I’ll be right back,” I said. “You have to trust me. Do you trust me?”

He nodded reluctantly. “Fine. You get him out of here.”

Relieved to know that no confrontation would occur, I left Will and Lauren in the house and found Cadan waiting on the porch. His expression was curious, but stone-hard, as he stared at the front door behind me. His light eyes and pale gold hair were bright in the moonlight.

“He’s awake?”

I should have known that Cadan would be able to sense us as we had sensed him. “Yeah. He’s good as new.”

“I’m glad for you.”

“Thank you,” I told him. I pulled him into a tight hug. His arms were warm around me. “Thank you so much for everything. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

We parted and he grinned down at me. “You would have eventually. I don’t doubt that. But I’m happy to have helped. I wanted to apologize also.”

“You don’t have to,” I promised. “Whatever happened, it’s in the past and I know you didn’t mean anything.”

“No,” he said sadly. “I’ll never be able to apologize enough for the way I behaved.”

“Well, I forgive you. And that’s all that matters.”

“Ell,” he sighed. “I tried to make you kiss me. You ought to hit me again—”

The front door blasted open and in the same instant, Cadan was sent tumbling down the porch steps to the ground. When I overcame my surprise I realized that Will had just coldcocked Cadan in the face.

“My turn for that,” Will snarled as Cadan struggled to his feet, cupping his jaw.

“Will!” I cried in anger, turning on him hotly. “What the hell? If anyone’s going to hit either of you, it’ll be me!”

“I can explain,” Cadan said as he held up one hand defensively and spit a glob of blood onto the grass. When his eyes met Will’s, Will disappeared, moving like a flash in the darkness, and he reappeared on the ground in front of Cadan. He hit him again. Cadan’s head snapped around. More blood flecked his shirt.

“Stop it!” I shrieked. “Both of you!”

“What’s going on?” Lauren burst out the front door, shocked and afraid. She gasped when she saw Will and Cadan fighting.

Will’s fist slammed into Cadan’s face and he was thrown to the side. As soon as they parted, I jumped between them and grabbed Will’s shirt as he moved to strike Cadan again, and the demonic reaper whirled out of reach. His wings sprang free, their leathery hide slick and gleaming beneath the moonlight.

“Ellie, this is between him and me,” Will growled and yanked free.

“It sure as hell is not!” I snapped at him. “You have nothing to do with what happened between us. He got a little pushy, I slapped the crap out of him, and he apologized. It’s over, done, finito! It’s none of your business, you idiot!”