I pushed against his chest, then drew him closer. “Stop, or I’m going to cry.”
He cupped my face, his thumb running along my cheekbone. “You are already crying.” He kissed the remaining tears from my cheeks. Eventually, he stood, pulling me up behind him. “Come on. It is time to go. I do not want to get on the bad side of the hunters.”
We walked slowly, each step seeming more and more dreadful. It felt like walking Uko to death row, and it was killing something inside me. We saw the three hunters, smiling and cuddling, and I realized that all three were lovers. They looked so freaking happy. Both the guys looked down at Rella with such love in their hearts, that it made my own ache even harder.
As if they scented their prey, both gargoyles turned toward us. The big one, Romanus, nodded. “It is time to go.”
Ukobach nodded, leaning down and kissing me softly. “Live big, Elsie. Don’t forget me.” He stepped forward, and the gargoyles grabbed one wrist each.
Then he was gone. Forever.
I sobbed and collapsed onto the gutter. Maybe I could go home and convince myself this was all a dream. I didn’t think it would help, but maybe I could get on with my life that way.
I didn’t realize that Rella was still there until she rested a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll make this right. Leave it with me. I’ve got some sway with the Big Guy.” Then she disappeared as well.
I sat there and cried into my hands until security came along and called me an Uber to the bus station. It was time to get on with it, but it felt like I had a huge hole in my chest that might never be filled.
CHAPTER
FIVE
I gotready for work in a daze. The last few months had felt so gray. Like I’d lived in glorious technicolor for a moment, and now I knew what I was missing. The only brightness came from the pictures that hung on my walls, moments captured as proof that it had all been real.
Luckily, I’d gotten my job back. When I’d gone for my exit interview with HR, and they’d asked me my reason for leaving, I’d told them the truth: I’d caught my manager banging my boyfriend. I wasn’t even angry about it anymore.
Apparently, HR took managerial misconduct seriously, and they’d pulled the video footage from outside her office. They saw Cade go in, and unfortunately for my boss, when I’d walked in on them like a complete dumbass, I’d left the door open so you got a good thirty-second clip of Cade plowing the field, so to speak.
My boss had been sacked, I’d been reinstated with a slight promotion, and my new manager was a sixty-year-old no-nonsense woman with what appeared to be one hundred grandchildren, judging by the pictures in her office. Productivity was up, I got a bonus, and it all seemed to be for nothing.
I looked down at the squiggle—I’d named it Bob—who was on my wrist today. Still murky green. Still melancholy. Wherever he was, Uko was as miserable as me.
I drank my coffee, not sure I could face another day of my life. Maybe I should move home. Or try for a brand new start somewhere else.
All of a sudden, Bob the squiggle imp launched down my hand to my index finger, changing from murky green to brilliant blue.
“What the hell?” I murmured, raising Bob to my face. “What’s going on with you?”
There was a knock at the door. “Delivery!” someone yelled, kicking the door with a thump.
Probably my Amazon order of demon romances.
I opened the door and gasped when the redheaded hunter, Rella, was there, grinning. “You owe me one.”
Then she disappeared, and the person behind her made me squeal. His huge smile made my eyes water and my heart explode in my chest.
“Uko!”
