The silence that followed their laughter felt almost sacred—the kind of quiet that comes after surviving something that should have killed you. Samantha sat on the floor amid broken glass and splintered wood, Nova sleeping peacefully in her arms as if she hadn't just helped seal a cosmic horror between dimensions.
Through the bond, she felt her mates' exhaustion mixing with exhilaration, creating a cocktail of emotions that made her slightly dizzy. Or maybe that was just the magical hangover from channeling more power than any four beings should reasonably possess.
"Is anyone else seeing double?" Kai asked from his dramatic sprawl on the couch. "Because I'm pretty sure there are two Marcuses, and that's two too many."
"There's barely enough patience in the universe for one of me," Marcus replied dryly, though he was swaying slightly on his feet. "I certainly don't have the energy for a duplicate."
