Page 142 of Psycho Gods

He grabbed my arms and used his strength to tug me up while he wiped his fingers across my cheekbones. They came back stained with blood.

At least, that was what I assumed the black substance was. My vision wasn’t picking up most of the color spectrum.

Shadows coalesced around me.

I choked, unable to draw the frigid air into my lungs.

“Pull your wings in. Now,” John ordered in an uncharacteristically angry tone.

I complied.

The crushing weight became manageable, and suddenly the chains pulling me to the ground disappeared.

I felt bizarrely light, like I could float away as a shaky trembling permeated through my muscles.

“Whoa, steady.” John wrapped his arms around me.

He grinned down at me with his dimples on full display. His dark eyes twinkled as he took in my questioning expressions and pulled me flush against him.

Pinpricks of pain raced down my spine.

I loved his smile.

“Yes.” John grinned. “I pretended to get mad to make you obey. Reverse psychology. I’m a genius.”

“You’re an idiot,” I huffed as I leaned into his embrace, relieved in ways I couldn’t put into words.

There were two constants in the realms: John was good-natured, and I was depressed.

It was who we were.

Intrinsically.

Two halves of a whole.

His arms wrapped around me squeezed punishingly, and I relaxed for the first time in hours.

He mumbled into my hair, “Let’s get you inside and warm.”

“I think we can still work—”

Knox was cut off by Scorpius shoving him in the chest and sneering menacingly, “She needs to rest.”

Knox’s black and yellow eyes flashed with violence.

They squared up to each other, equally matched in height and muscle, warriors bristling with barely constrained energy.

The forest appeared darker.

Sinister.

Abruptly, Knox’s features smoothed out, and he held his hands up in the universal gesture of surrender. “Of course, I meant no offense. My mistake. I didn’t realize we had been going at it for hours.” He stepped around Scorpius and looked at me. “Don’t get discouraged. Most people earn their wings when they’re younger and have spent their entire lives preparing to fly. We’ll figure it out.”

He smiled.

Too late, I was way past discouragement. We were entering manic breakdown territory.

Everything is going to work out great. Just have positive thoughts and keep trying. Blah. Blah. Blah.