“And now?” she whispered.
He smiled, not a cocky one. No, it was Soft.
“Now I can’t. You wanted someone who would choose to. AndI did.”
The words cracked something wide open.
Joy. Fury. Relief. Grief. Hope.
She jerked her hand away, as if he’d seared her.
“Then why did you leave?” she snapped, voice tight. “Why did you let me feel, why let me believe?”
“I didn’t have a choice,” he said, voice rising with hers. “The magic yanked me out like a hook through bone. I had to fight my way back.”
She stared, lip trembling.
“Really?” she asked, barely breathing.
He paused. Let her believe it. Then shrugged.
“No. Just paperwork. Mountains of it. No one ever talks about the bureaucracy when you’re a demon.” He said with a smirk.
A strangled laugh burst out of her, wet and furious and disbelieving.
“You’re such an asshole.”
He shrugged. “You summoned a demon. We come in two varieties: terrifying, and hot with bureaucratic trauma.”
She grabbed a throw pillow off the couch and launched it at him.
It hit his face. He didn’t even blink.
“I deserved that,” he said.
She lunged, maybe to hit him, maybe to kiss him. It turned into both. He caught her, and he held her, letting her shake in his arms.
And for a while, there were no words, just her breathing into his chest. Just his arms wrapped around her like a vow.
And the steady, impossible beat of a heart that shouldn’t be real.
But was.
11
Sticky Fingers, Hexed Teenagers, and a Demon in Flannel
She woke tangled in limbs and her black velvet sheets.
For half a second, her brain fought it. Instinct kicked in, telling her to brace. That nothing this good lasted. That she’d open her eyes and find nothing but a cold pillow and that creeping ache in her chest.
But then, there was Ashar.
Warm, solid, his body curved around hers like punctuation to a sentence she’d never dared finish. His arm lay heavy across her waist, anchoring her. His breath brushed softly against the back of her neck. One of his legs was draped over hers, pinning her in place like he thought she might try to run.
She didn’t. She just lay there, heartbeat steady, letting it sink in.
He stayed.
