“You’re still waiting for the running and the screaming, aren’t you?”

“I won’t run.” Gabriel gulped. “I promise.”“You aren’t being punished; you’re being protected.” Cal snorted. “But you’ll run. When you’re scared or hurt, your first instinct is to run. You can’t help it any more than I can resist chasing you.” The shifter leaned to brush his mouth over Gabriel’s. “Be smart, pet. Run to me.”

“You’re easily distracted, aren’t you?” Ty deadpanned.“Not really,” Zane said smoothly, dragging one hand down Ty’schest. “I’m still focused on you.”

“You can still be cool when you’re dead. In fact, it’s much easier, because you aren’t getting old and fat and losing your hair.”

“You’re a sulker, aren’t you?”A sulker? Akira had never had a sibling, but she recognized the type. He was a button-pusher. “And you’re a younger brother, aren’t you?”

“Certainly it’s all in bloom, certainly we’ll go. For aren’t you and I gods? . . . I sense in my blood the rotation of unexplorable universes. . . .Listen—I want to run all my life, screaming at the top of my lungs. Let all of life be an unfettered howl. Like the crowd greeting the gladiator.Don’t stop to think, don’t interrupt the scream, exhale, release life’s rapture. Everything is blooming. Everything is flying. Everything is screaming, choking on its screams. Laughter. Running. Let-down hair. That is all there is to life.”