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I shoved his shoulder, giving the others a wide-eyed look of pure innocence. "I legitimately haveno ideawhat he's talking about. The man's crazy. We should check him into an asylum."
"Do we even want to know?" Ark asked, heavy on exasperation. But his soul warmed a few shades, probably because I was settled too. I was only now realising how my own crazy affected my mates.
"I want to know," X put in, his face set in an impish grin. "I want details, little morsel."
I winked. "Later."
He did a little fist pump, which was cute. I tried not to notice the worddisgustingscarring his forearm.
"I'm glad you're here," Arkan said abruptly to the devil, his eyes sharpening. Uh-oh. "You can convince Aveline that she's not, under any circumstances, facing Eidolon alone."
Dev snapped his head around to stare at me. I swallowed. He kept staring.
Nope. Not gonna break. He could stare for as long as he wanted; I wasn't going to say anything. I was well within my rights to face my psycho abductor head-on, alone.
He raised an eyebrow.
I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked my chin out. Nope. Not justifying myself.
"This is interesting," Joseph murmured, affection filling his soul as he watched me.
Dev closed the distance between us, and tipped my face up with a crimson finger under my chin. He juststared.Oh, that motherfucker.
I bit my lip. Swallowed.
He gazed soulfully into my eyes, slowly, patiently.
"I can't lose anyone else, okay?" I blurted, and groaned at myself for losing the battle of wills. "If I go alone, I'm the only one who has to get hurt. And that's the worst case scenario. Best case scenario, I kill Eidolon, come home unharmed, fix Hell, kill the traitors, and no one ever hurts us again."
"Ever? Seems unrealistic," Taj remarked. "There are always enemies."
"Not like my father," I argued, and growled at me saying the damn F word again.
Dev's expression shifted to something unyielding and stern. My stomach trembled; I swallowed again.
Oh, no. I wasn't going to like this.
"Can you give us a moment?" he asked the guys. "Take the dogs for a walk around the tower. We'll join you."
"I'm staying," Joseph rumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "We upset Avie enough. I'd rather stay in case she needs us."
"I pretty much always need you," I admitted offhandedly. "But I'll be fine. It's only Dev."
Taj sent a gentle brush down the bond and headed for the stairs, whistling to round up the dogs.
"You break her," Arkan whispered, as if I couldn't hear him, "and devil or not, I will end you."
"You seemed to be doing a fine enough job of breaking her before I arrived," Dev replied coolly.
I prodded him in the ribs with a claw. "Knock it off."
Dev didn't like Ark because he abandoned his post and Koa was killed, but the second he found outwhyArkan left that night, he'd drop all this glaring bullshit. The only flaw in that plan was Ark wouldneverdiscuss it with anyone outside the circle.
Ooh! I could just prod the others into letting Dev into the circle. Problem solved. I definitely wasn't mentally rambling because I was so nervous about what Dev wanted to private-chat about. Nope. Not even a tiny, teeny little bit.2
"I'll be fine," I repeated, laughing when the dogs started barking chaotically again.
"Blue!" Taj ordered from the staircase. "Get down here, you little shit."
