"That's the guy you are," Addison agreed. She crunched down on her lollipop, which meant she was thinking too hard about something. "Aurora likes you. Like, actually likes you. Which is annoying because Aurora doesn't like people. She tolerates them and finds them useful and occasionally sleeps with them, but she doesn't like anyone."
"She likes you."
"I'm different. I've earned it." She tossed the stripped lollipop stick over the cliff and pulled another from the bag. "She's terrified of losing you. She won't say it because saying it makes it real, but she watched you nearly die on a news broadcast and she couldn't leave her guild tryout to be there, and that's going to haunt her for a while."
I knew that. I'd known it since the hospital, since the message thick with crying that Aurora sent from inside a gate she wasn't allowed to leave.
"So don't die," Addison said. "Simple instruction. You'd think it'd be easy."
"You'd think."
