At Rex.
The words die in his throat.
I watch Phoenix's blue eyes travel across Rex's unmasked face in the amber light of the corridor. The exposed teeth and tendons. The lidless eye staring back at him with that damaged, unblinking gaze. The other bright with feral light. The missing flesh where the side of his mouth should be, the jawbone visible beneath grafts that didn't fully take.
Phoenix goes absolutely still.
Raf comes up behind Phoenix's shoulder and stops dead too.
“Stop fucking staring at me,” Rex growls, turning the scarred side away and reaching up to cover it with his hand.
Phoenix doesn't let him. He steps forward and pulls Rex into a bear hug, squeezing him hard enough Rex's entire body goes rigid.
"Get off me," he snarls.
Phoenix squeezes harder.
"I said getoff.” Rex shoves against Phoenix's chest, hard, and Phoenix releases him with obvious reluctance and a sound like a disappointed bear, making graspy hands at where Rex just was.
Rex staggers back a step. His lidless eye is wide and glassy and the other is terrified, the pupil shrinking to a pinprick.
Raf hasn't moved. His expression is unreadable. Where Phoenix's answer is always intense physical affection, Raf doesn't seem to know what to do with emotions in general. Especially not this.
Phoenix solves it by clapping Raf on the shoulder and squeezing hard enough to make Raf yell in pain. "What the fuck! Are your hands steel traps?"
"That's not what you thought the other day," Phoenix says, grinning.
The mark on my neck fires again.
It’s more than a spike this time. More like a sustained, drilling agony. I double over, my hand flying to the collar, and a sound comes out of me that makes all three alphas snap to attention like someone fired a starting pistol.
"Bells!" Phoenix grabs my arm.
"Stephen," I gasp. "He's…" The pain pulses in rhythm, a compass pointing me toward the source. "He's in the auditorium. The main one. Upstairs."
I straighten up. The pain doesn't stop but my brain overrides it because this needs to endtonight.
"I can feel him."
Rex's eye meets mine. "How sure are you?"
"Completely."
Raf racks the charging handle again.
Clack.
"Let's fucking go."
CHAPTER 38
BELLS
The auditorium doors are massive oak fucking behemoths reinforced with decorative ironwork like they were built to keep out a dragon.
It’s a lot, and I’m not remotely surprised Stephen chose this place for the grand finale.
Rex and Phoenix hit them at the same time.