Free Shimmer: The Rephaim Book 3 by Paula Weston

chef. Jude chooses the same and we head back to the table. He’s also juggling a tall glass filled with skinny breadsticks and a jug of red wine. We get settled and he pours us both a glass. I raise my eyebrows.
    ‘It’s Italy,’ he says, as if it’s a no-brainer to drink in the middle of the day. For a heartbeat I’m back in Monterosso with him, sipping limoncello in a café by the sea at ten in the morning. Another memory from a trip we never took. Another lie.
    ‘We need to stay sharp,’ I say.
    ‘Says the girl who just got the shit kicked out of her.’ He looks past Zak. ‘Bloody hell, he’s persistent.’
    Malachi is coming back, this time with Daisy and Micah. All three cradle half-eaten meals. Jude knocks my knee under the table. Be patient .
    ‘You want to make room?’ Malachi asks.
    Zak measures him, seems satisfies with what he finds. ‘Fine. But don’t think we won’t throw down in here if you pull any of your usual shit.’
    ‘Noted.’ Malachi sits in the spare seat beside Zak. Daisy puts her plate on the table and drags a chair over, squeezing next to Jones. Micah finds a spot further along. The two Outcast girls he sits between don’t seem too put out at having to make room for him.
    ‘Hey,’ I say to Daisy. ‘Did you bring me these?’ I pluck at my hoodie.
    ‘Yeah, your stuff is in boxes in the storeroom.’
    Something quivers in my chest.
    ‘Do you have anything of mine?’ Jude asks her.
    ‘No.’ Daisy concentrates on her bowl, pushing the thick soup around. ‘You took most of your stuff when you left.’
    Of course he did. When Jude left the Sanctuary, he had no intention of coming back.
    ‘What sort of stuff?’ he asks.
    ‘Books, clothes, weapons.’ All the things in the cottage on Patmos. ‘You guys didn’t leave much behind when you left. Except Rafa’s motorbike.’
    ‘Rafa had a motorbike?’ I look to Ez. ‘Seriously?’
    ‘Yes,’ Ez says. ‘The guy who thinks cars are a waste of time decided he couldn’t live without an overpowered motorcycle.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘To annoy Daniel. And then he learned to ride it and loved the speed. Never rode with a helmet, of course.’
    I nod. ‘If he lost control, he could shift before he hit the ground, right?’
    Ez smiles at her gnocchi, shakes her head.
    ‘What?’
    ‘You’re the reason he wrecked the first bike.’
    ‘That’s right,’ Zak says. ‘You wanted him to red-line it through the Alps. He flipped it on a corner north of the border and lost it over a cliff. You two thought it was a hell of a joke.’
    ‘I dared him to do that?’
    ‘Gabe,’ Ez says, almost chiding. ‘You were on the back with him.’
    I try to picture it: me on a bike with Rafa. Fearless. Laughing. Before he and Jude left the Sanctuary. Before whatever happened between Rafa and me. Whatever it was, it stopped Rafa finishing what we started in his bedroom in Pan Beach; has held him back every time we start to cross that line. And now I’ll never feel his lips or his hands on me again unless we get him out of that room.
    ‘He bought another one,’ Daisy says, and I’m dragged back to the moment. She catches Jude’s eye. ‘You used to ride it too, just not like a lunatic.’
    A crooked smile. He can’t help himself. ‘Is it still here?’
    ‘It’s in the garage as far as I know. Nobody’s been on it since you guys left.’
    ‘We should check it out,’ he says to me.
    See Rafa’s motorcycle? One that I used to ride with him? Just thinking about it makes me feel hollow. ‘We need to check on Simon and the guys at some point too.’
    Nobody seems excited by that prospect. The room hums with chatter now, the occasional chink of glasses and cutlery. A gust of wind disturbs the pine trees outside, the tops bending and swaying.
    Jude finishes his meal first, scrapes his plate and licks the knife clean. ‘Could Rafa and Taya shift inside that iron room?’ he asks.
    Malachi’s fork pauses at his lips. He looks at me,