AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Despite herself, Joy burst out laughing.Long hair?Ithadto be him.She swallowed thickly.
“By the wall,” she said just to confirm, her voice strangely high-pitched, “right in the corner?”
“That’s the one.” Iyore beamed.
Joy’s heart leapt.Strangely, she felt shy. Nervous.
She turned to look again, but he was gone.
Disappointment sent her heart crashing down to her feet like lead. She turned back around, clenching her jaw, then relaxing it. She couldn’t help but glance again,lookingwildly around the club, but he was gone. Had she imagined him?
She shook her head.She wanted to lie to herself that it didn’t matter, but she was so fucking tired of lying.
She missed him. So fucking much. The dry, formal way he spoke. How he’d held her hand while she’d panicked in the darkness, his glowing red eyes focused completely on hers. The way he had sex, so eagerly and intensely, letting her take all the control. That first time he’d laughed—his voice when he’d said he’dbuilt himself a fucking castle because he thought it was romantic.
Fuck. She missed him, she missed him, she missed him.
But she didn’t know what the fuck she was going to do about it. Sure, she’d managed to tape bits of her soul back together—she felt as close as she’d ever come to feeling whole since the incident—but she didn’t know how she could reconcile the life she now had with a fuckingdemon.
Ithad to havebeen easy for Aunty Paloma, already cut off from the rest of the world; she must’ve had nothing to lose, living like a hermit so she could hide her demon partner, who Joy wasgoing to meet officially during theEaster celebrations.
Then again, didn’t Aunty Paloma say Klaus liked to go on walks? Surely, people saw them when they did? And Aunty Paloma was an artist; matter of fact, she’d invited Joy to one of her art shows in the summer. Which Klaus was supposedly going to attend.
Joy paused. So, maybe Aunty Paloma wasn’t a hermit. She probably had friends Joy was unaware of. And she still had Klaus.
Malachi lived in the mortal realm, didn’t he? He’d said hell wasn’t his home. Not anymore.
Hope and possibility sprouted to life in Joy’s chest.
Then it quickly shrivelled and died when she remembered their last night together—when he’d used his magic to send her back to her place; when she’d practically said goodbye.
“What are you doing forEaster, by the way?” Iyore askedabruptly.
Joy blinked herself back to the present. “I’m spending it with my aunt. Why?”
“Oh, that’s great!” Iyore beamed. “How’s that going?”
“Quite well, thank you.” Joy had told her about recently reconnecting with her long-lost family. “What about you?”
Iyore suddenly looked nervous, her throat bobbing. “I told Malcom about … about my uncle.”
Everything in Joy turned to ice. Fuck. She’d forgotten about that bastard.
“The truth is,I’vebeen the one putting off the wedding,” Iyore admitted, a little shamefully. Joy tightened her embrace around her, wanting her to know she was supported. It worked, because Iyore straightened. “It was supposed to beEaster, originally, though it’s too late for that now. It’s just—I know—I justknowit—once we set a date and get everything into motion, even if I don’t give him an invitation, someone’s going to bring him. He’s my mother’s brother; there’s no way he won’t attend. And I can’t tell anyone why I don’t want him to be there.” Her lower lip wobbled.
“Oh, honey,” Joy said, heart breaking as she pulled her close.
“We’re supposed to be dancing,” Iyore said, but she held Joy just as tightly.
For a moment, they just stood, swaying slightly to the music, letting the moving bodies of the crowd rock and shift them around the dancefloor, rather than fight the current and block anyone’s path.
An idea lit up in Joy’s head, making her heartbeat pound. She clutched at Iyore’s back, swallowing with difficulty.
Once the idea took root, she couldn’t shake it off. This was her best friend—Iyore’s wedding—herhappiness, she was talking about. It had nothing to do with Malachi.
But if this meant she could see her demon again, at least one more time, then Joy was going to grab the excuse with both arms openwide.
FIFTEEN
