Page 88 of Grim Tidings

But Brad doesn’t have clearance to leave the department. Brad is still a Ferryman. Ferrymen can’t leave unless—

His blue eyes lift and scan the room quickly before focusing back on the woman in front of him with a warm smile. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but I clock it.

It’s almost as if he was—like he was looking for someone.

My magic flickers to life, curling in the palms of my hands. I turn away quickly and slip closer to the bar, trying to hide behind Nate.

“—then he kicked them all out and made them scrub the steps with toothbrushes for, like, two hours— Whoa.” He grips my arm, holding me steady. “What’s going on?”

I shake my head, trying to make myself seem smaller. My magic is thrumming now, pounding through my bloodstream in warning.

Brad is here. Brad is here and I think he’s been sent for me.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” I try my best to smile. “I just think I see someone over in the corner that I used to know.”

Nate, bless him, turns on his stool and uses more of his body to block mine. “A bad someone?”

“Someone I don’t want to see,” I answer.

Nate nods, a serious look on his usually playful face. “I’m going to stand up in a minute, and you’re going to go to the back, okay?”

I nod. “Okay.”

“And once you’re in the back, I’ll let Gabe know.”

I nod again, slipping off the stool. My whole body is trembling like a leaf. I can’t believe they’ve sent a Ferryman to find me. I can’t believe they sent Brad.

“Okay,” I agree. “Thank you.”

Nate turns in one direction, and I turn in the other, careful to keep my back turned to the other side of the room. I hold tight to my magic. The last thing I need is to shatter every glass in this place when there’s a target on my back.

I slip down the hallway and breathe a sigh of relief. Back here, in the shadows, I feel safer. Especially when I see Gabriel’s silhouette appear in the narrow entrance, his big body striding toward mine.

“It’s okay,” I tell him, reading the tight lines of his face. “I’m fine, I just saw someone, and I think—”

“Yeah. I saw him, too.” Gabriel keeps walking, forcing me backward down the hallway. I almost stumble, but he grabs my hip. “He was walking in this direction. C’mere.”

“What are you—”

Gabriel slips his hand down to the curve of my thigh and uses his grip to hitch my body against his without slowing down. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his hips as he marches us backward, hiding us both in the shadows.

“We’re just two people,” he says against my temple, his scruff scraping against my skin. “Looking for a corner to disappear into.”

I peek over his shoulder at the bar. “Do you think he’ll come back here?”

“If he does, he’ll just find two people making out and move on.”

My stomach swoops. “Making out, huh? Is that what we’re doing?”

“It’s what I’m trying to make it look like we’re doing.” Gabriel shifts me higher against his torso, his hand firmly under the curve of my ass. He finds a spot he likes in the back corner and tucks us there. I watch the entrance, but no one comes down.

“Darcy. Relax.”

“I am as relaxed as I can be.”

His palm sweeps up my spine and down again. “You need to look like you’re enjoying yourself.” On the next upward sweep, his fingers fist in my hair. “Moan a little bit.”

I make an uninspired sound and Gabriel snorts. “I know that’s not what you sound like when you’re enjoying yourself.”