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“We all did,” she replied. “I haven’t had much luck with girlfriends since I moved back here. Alek does a great job at scaring away all of my friends.”
“I can see why,” Nat mumbled.
“Well, you’re welcome with us any time,” I admitted. “Although Nat’s usually the one dragging me out of the house.”
“Really?” Salem asked. “Seems like I’ve seen your face around here quite a bit.”
“You’re welcome,” Natalie chimed in.
I elbowed her before answering, “My mother is strict. That’s all.”
Salem leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands. “How so?”
“She doesn’t want me—”
“Socializing,” Nat finished. “Living. Being seen in the flesh.”
“Yes,” I interrupted. “All of those things.”
Salem eyed me, as if trying to decide how much of that were the truth.
If only she knew.
“So why don’t you forget her?” she pushed. “Plenty of people do it.”
“It’s not that easy.” I choked back the feeling of defensiveness that crept in from the darkness. Salem only wanted to help. I knew that. “My mother has connections.”
“So what? What could she possibly do to you that would be so terrible?”
I stiffened. Where did I start? Salem wouldn’t understand. Nobody would. Nat was the closest person to ever seeing inside that locked window, and that was only because she saw some of it up close and personal.
She must have realized this, too, because she said, “Lyra’s mother is a force to be reckoned with, trust me. You don’t want to get on her bad side. Lyra’s life would be over in a second if it were up to that woman.”
My throat stung. The sudden talk of my mother reminded me precisely how not free I truly was.
My mother would be back soon, and all of this would be in my past.
All of it.
“I need to use the bathroom,” I muttered before slipping out of the booth. They didn’t question me as I slowly walked away. I needed air. I needed space.
But I would never be far enough. I would never be fast enough to run away from the memories I created in this place.
And that would haunt me forever.
Alek left the group of demons he was standing with and sauntered over to me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, half a whisper in the thin air that lingered between us.
Every part of me was wanting to lean in, to close that tendril of distance between us.
Alek was danger. He was thrilling and terrible and chaotic.
And he was free.
“Time to seal the deal, Lyra,” he breathed. “If you’re going to dance in this bar, everyone here is going to know who you belong to.” His lips were so close to mine, they would have brushed if I moved even an inch. He knew it, too. He stayed that way for only a few seconds, long enough that the curious stares were now glued to us.
Every inch of my body burned with desire.
