“Okay.”
“You’ll have to be patient,” I add.
“I can do that.”
“Can you?” I raise my eyebrows. Celine shoves my chest playfully, and I pull her into a headlock, then bring her hand up to my mouth. “Don’t give up on me,” I whisper against her knuckles.
She pulls free of my hold, her expression fierce. “Never.”
“How touching.” Alistair’s ghostly drawl glides through the air, and Celine rounds on him.
“Stop doing that,” she insists. “It’s creepy.”
“You wound me.” He dips his head, but doesn’t bother hiding his grin.
Celine opens her mouth, then shuts it, shaking her head and marching toward her apartment. We follow her up the internal staircase and down the hall, stopping outside the familiar corner unit. She unlocks the door, three different locks clinking as she works.
When we step inside, she locks them all back while I try to see Celine’s place through Alistair’s eyes. As always, it’s meticulously clean and organized. Every framed piece of art, while inexpensive, hangs evenly on her light green walls. It’s warm, welcoming, and the exact opposite of my dull, boring bachelor pad.
Her attached kitchen is spotless, with one lonely plate rinsed and stacked in a dish organizer beside the sink. Even the tassels on the floor mat are stretched in the same direction, and I can picture her nudging them into place with her toes whenever they get out of line.
“Can I get either of you something to drink?” Celine asks, twisting her hands together before she realizes what she’s doing and drops them to her sides. Her nervousness disorients me.
“I’m good,” I say.
Alistair, meanwhile, is busy examining the art on the walls like he expects to discover a secret Monet. “Nothing for me, angel.”
Celine mutters something, but my hearing isn’t strong enough to catch it. Alistair’s lips twitch, and I feel a sting of jealousy that he got a piece of her I didn’t.Cut that shit out.She isn’t a bone to fight over.
Determined not to be weird, I stride to the couch, drop to my usual spot, and clear my throat. “If we’re doing the whole transparency thing, you should know I killed the demon, Alistair. Celine had nothing to do with it.”
“Luca,” she hisses. Air blows by my ear a second before the throw pillow smacks me in the face with the force of a brick. My head rocks to the side, and I see stars.
“You don’t get to make dangerous decisions to protect me,” I tell her, refusing to budge even if it means she beats me to death with her pillows.
“Because that isn’t exactly what you did when you did the—you know what.” She opens her eyes comically wide, then blinks slowly.
It’s ridiculous. I can only hope that’s not how I actually look when I turn someone to stone. That’s embarrassing. “Gods, that was awful,” I blurt. “If you’re going to act it out, don’t forget to sweep the asshole up.”
Celine swats me with the pillow again, this time on the other side of my head.
Alistair sinks gracefully onto the couch at my side. “Fascinating.”
“Don’t call us fascinating,” I snap. “You sound like a sunburned tourist visiting an aquarium for the first time. We aren’t fish.”
Alistair, typically the patron saint of calm and collected, chokes on his laughter. “It’s hardly a criticism, Luca. I’ve just never seen two people more determined to be hostile and selfless at the same time.”
“I’m not selfless,” Celine insists, her voicestrained.
I chuckle. Of course she takes offense at that part, but doesn’t care if she seems hostile.
“Look, Alistair,” I say, trying to bring us back to the point. “Celine didn’t do anything wrong. She happened to be hot as fuck while in the path of a dick.”
“Way to make me come across like some quivering damsel in distress.” She glares at me, malicious intent in her eyes. This time, when she swings the pillow my way, I snatch it from her hand and sit on it.
“I never said you were quivering. The prick pulled a knife on you, and I stepped in. I would do it again—stop glaring at me. We’ve been over this,” I remind her. “And I won’t apologize for doing what needed to be done.”
“And now Ciprian is sniffing around,” she huffs, tossing her hands up in the air. “I’m going to change into something I can let my wings out in. Don’t talk about anything important until I get back.”
