Chapter 61

He hadn’t felt this numb since Michelle told him that both Gideon and Emma were dead. Now he had Gideon, but that didn’t seem to blunt his pain. Strangely enough, he wanted to talk to Michelle. He had seen a side of her that he had never expected. He had imagined her as some sort of ogre, destroying his life and ignoring his free will with a casual flick of her wrist. But the woman he remembered now hadn’t been an ogre. She had been old and scared.

She hadn’t been right. Jesse wasn’t willing to forgive and forget. But he didn’t hate her either.

Even if he had a lot of living to do without Emma.

Gideon was solid behind him, but he had held himself back, ever since JT had finished the last of the magics to destroy Michelle’s blocks. Gideon had been the one to wish the other men a good night, and it had been Gideon who helped Jesse up to their room, but he hadn’t uttered a word since the door had closed and he hadn’t shifted where he stretched behind Jesse.