“Promise me,” I begged.
Tears pooled in her eyes, but she said, “I promise.”
“Thank you.”
“Hey,” she said in a watery voice. “What are best friends for?”
“Apparently, for murdering each other when one of them goes ‘dark side,’” Vol snarked, though it lacked his normal edge. “Friendship goals, amiright?”
Eliza and I shared a small smile, though neither of us responded to his comment, seeing as how Levi and Rathiel took that moment to approach.
“Are you ready?” Levi asked.
Eliza bent down fast—too fast—to recheck a buckle that definitely didn’t need fixing.
I blinked, shocked by her strange behaviour.
But then…oh.
Clarity struck, and I gave a bemused laugh, one that Vol echoed, followed by a little “oooh” noise under his breath.
Well now, this was an interesting development. Perhaps this was more than the one-off blush I’d caught the other day when Levi said they’d “spent time together.”
I coughed into my hand, mostly to hide my growing grin.
Eliza glared daggers at me and mouthed, “Shut up.”
A second later, she stood and dusted off her thighs, like our conversation hadn’t just included a murder pact. She was the image of casual indifference—except that her ears were pink and she was studiously lookinganywhereother than Levi.
I had to admit, I found this downright hilarious. Eliza was a siren. She was used to everyone fawning over her. But I’d never seenherfall for someone. Maybe she never had? It must have been hard to develop relationships when your siren abilities attracted anything with a heartbeat. Anything other thancelestials, of course. We were immune to her powers. Perhaps therein lay the appeal.
“What’s going on?” Levi asked, his gaze darting between us.
“Nothing,” I said too quickly. “Just girl talk.”
Not exactly true. Butoh, we sure as hell would begirl talkingtonight when we returned to camp. Because apparently Eliza had it bad for the only halo-wearing angel in our group.
“Girl talk?” he echoed.
Rathiel strode over to me and glanced between the three of us with a confused frown. I subtly jerked my chin toward Levi, then to Eliza, then winked. Rathiel’s brows shot upward, and he coughed into his fist, suddenly interested in a distant rock.
“Mm-hmm,” I murmured. “You know—makeup, murder, men…”
Levi blinked. His attention flicked to Eliza, who was blushing like a virginal bride on her wedding night.
“No one here, of course,” I quickly added. “We were discussing our friend Mason, who’s back on Earth. Very handsome fella, ya know. I think he had his eye on Eliza before we left for Hell. We were just discussing whether or not she’s interested in him.”
“I—what?” she sputtered. “I, no, I don’t—Lily!”
Levi said nothing.
I’d purposely mentioned Mason—our fellow gargoyle—to gauge Levi’s interest. Mason was the perfect scapegoat to possibly rouse a little jealousy in Levi, if such a thing existed.
Eliza shot a death glare at me. Then she turned and visibly stiffened when she came face-to-face with Calyx, who’d practically appeared out of nowhere. The colour drained from her cheeks, and she paled two shades.
Okay…that was another interesting reaction.
Calyx stared at her, and like always, he seemed more bored than anything. But then, I caught the slightest tic in his jaw. Hisgaze shifted to Levi, and his eyes narrowed just a fraction, just enough to tell me something Ineverwould have expected.
