Page 15 of Demons and Darlings


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The hand in mine that didn’t budge for the entirety of the night.

It was well past ten o’clock when he finally agreed to take me home. Alek helped me tighten my coat around my shoulders before holding open the glass doors.

“Hope you’re okay with walking,” Alek said, typing something on his phone. “My driver had an emergency. It’s just a few blocks.”

“Just a few…wait—how do you know where I live?”

He smirked. “You don’t think I did my research on you, Lyra? I know a lot of things about you.”

Alarms went off in my mind. If he knew about me…no. It wasn’t possible. If he knew who my mother was, we would be having a very different conversation. He certainly wouldn’t have brought me to meet his father. I was just paranoid.

We strolled down the dark street. “That’s disturbing,” I said. The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. “And once again, creepy.”

Alek smiled, but I noticed how exhausted he looked. Dark circles now hung beneath those emerald eyes. When he didn’t answer my snarky comment, I turned my attention toward the city around us.

Tall, sky-scraper buildings surrounded us. I couldn’t help but stare at the scattered apartments that still had lights on.

I hardly left my apartment after dark. I hardly left my apartment at all, actually. Unless I were heading to school, which was mostly online these days anyway. Natalie was the only one who forced me to get out every once in a while.

The city was pretty at night. I had never noticed before.

My thoughts were interrupted when I stepped in a small crack in the pavement, twisting my ankle and completely busting my ass. My knees cracked against the concrete as the fabric around my knees ripped. Pain shot through my knee.

Alek was next to me in a second. “Shit, Lyra! Are you okay?” The genuine concern on his face shocked me. A hand was instantly on my knee, examining the blood that was already dripping from my skin. “Does it hurt?”

“No.” My lie was easily discovered when he wiped the dripping blood away from my skin, causing me to hiss in pain.

“Come on,” he insisted. “We’re almost to your place.”

I started to stand but Alek threw my arm around his neck and picked me up.

“I can walk!” I insisted. The remaining distance wasn’t short, but it would definitely be difficult for him to carry me the entire way.

“No way,” Alek argued. “I don’t need you dripping blood everywhere. This is supposed to be a secret, remember?”

I shook my head and turned my attention back to the city, even as my entire being was electrified at every place my body touched his.

I tried to ignore the way his muscles flexed under my grip.

And the way I wanted to feel more.

“Not the front door!” I interrupted as my building came into view. “We have to go through the window. It’s to the left.”

He stopped walking. “Are you serious?”

“My mother has a camera set up to watch the front door. She doesn’t know I left tonight. Window, please!”

He shook his head in disbelief but eventually carried me through the grass and over to the window. He lifted me up and through it with ease.

I only backed away from the window when Alek started crawling through. “You don’t have to come in,” I insisted. “I’m fine.”

He ignored me entirely.

“Nice place,” he said once he was inside. He pushed past me and surveyed the interior of my small living room.

It was weird hearing him say something so casual. “Um, thanks.”

His eyes lingered on the photos of Natalie and I, and for a second, I could have sworn I saw him smile. “Sit up here so I can look at your knee.” He motioned to the kitchen counter.

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