“It’s a date, then.” I wink and smack her on the fine arse, and then she’s off.
“Drae’s a dick,” Auggie says, once she’s out of earshot.
“Huge one,” I concur. “Biggest I’ve ever seen.”
“Pretty sure I’m gonna beat his ass tomorrow night, if you want in. Just trying to finalize my approach.”
I laugh. I’m about to take him up on the offer when a shrill beep sounds off near the bar.
Rook.
He finally snaps out of his trance, frantically snatching his phone off the bar.
Glancing at the screen, he gasps.
“What the bloody hell is that?” I ask.
“The alarm on the code-breaker I built. I just cracked the encryption on the SSD card.” He looks up at us with a wide grin. “We’re in.”
Chapter Eighteen
DRAEGAN
I don’t know why I’m lingering outside her door.
Clearly, she’d rather be left alone.
And for my part, Westlyn Avery is the last person I want to see right now, anyway.
But she’s also theonlyperson I want to see right now.
The paradox is splitting my skull.
Fuck. My head’s a mess, my heart’s tangled up in thorns, and I’ve got absolutelynobusiness disturbing her. No right to ask after her wellbeing when it’s generally my fault she’s unwell in the first place.
Guilt chews through my gut. The pained look in her eyes tonight when I refused to kiss her for a second time… Bloody hell, the memory of it is a curse that will haunt me more deeply than the one that turned us all to stone.
Because unlike that ancient spell,thisagony is something I could’ve prevented.
Apologize to her, you daft bastard. Apologize, and then you can both get back to politely avoiding each other like you did in the good ol’ days…
I knock softly, and she invites me in, her voice sweet. For that brief moment my heart lifts—perhaps I didn’t wound her as deeply as I’d feared—but the instant she sees me entering, her face falls, taking my hope down along with it.
Clearly, she thought I was one of the others. Anyone but the gargoyle who keeps her at arm’s length, reeling her in when it suits him, only to toss her back out to sea the moment things get the slightest bit uncomfortable for him.
That’s what she sees when she looks at me now, and I don’t blame her.
“Draegan,” she whispers, and I try to pretend it’s not disappointment lacing her voice. “Is everything okay?”
I watch her for a moment, sitting on her bed in a pair of lavender shorts and a cropped hooded sweatshirt, her cheeks pink, her just-washed hair dampening the fabric around her shoulders. She’s lit a few candles on her bedside table, the warm light flickering in golden hues on her face.
Devil’s balls, how did it come to this? To this fierce, fiery woman crashing into our lives and upending everything I thought I knew, thought Iwantedout of whatever time we had left, only to leave me feeling as helpless as I did the night the dark fae destroyed us?
I can’t deny the connection I felt to her—right from the very start, just like the others. I’ve always known there was more to it than a simple appreciation for a beautiful woman. More to it than lust or curiosity or even a gargoyle’s protective instincts.
Butthis? No. She has utterly invaded me. I’mdrowningin her, and I don’t remember how to breathe.
“No,” I finally reply. “It isn’t. There’s… something I need to tell you. Many things, actually. Only… I’m not quite sure I know where to start.”
