Marge threw her hands up in despair. “Why the devil not?”
Bridget shrugged and slipped out the door before Marge could complain about her lack of foresight.
Outside, the night air blew off the river and held the first crisp scents of fall. Bridget stuffed her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket and thought about everything she had read about that day.
She was reluctant to admit it, but Bas might have been right after all about her building a mind library in the astral plane. But how?
She would be the first to admit she didn’t actively try and go to the astral plane. She had kind of stumbled into it as a kid. The library hadn’t felt like other places. It felt like her own.
Maybe Marge was right too, and getting around some people might help reset her brain. Bridget often had problems getting out of her head. She didn’t have friends outside of a few regular customers. When she went out, it was because she wanted to be alone with people. She found normal people hard work.
Bridget had a weird childhood, and as an adult, she had strange interests. She wouldn’t have been able to chat about celebrity scandals or the latest movie she enjoyed. She didn’t have relatable content to share with people her age. It made friendship-building difficult, and it was getting worse as she got older.
Lámfada’s Hornwas already filling with the night crowd of drinkers. Bridget was a regular because they had the best fish and chips in Dublin, and it was a short walking distance from the river and the bookshop.
Bridget put her order in at the bar before finding herself a spare seat in a far corner near windows that looked out over thestreet. She pulled a book out of her bag and settled in with her pint of Guinness.
The sea of noise washed all around her, and she let it become white noise. She was good at being invisible when she wanted to be. A guy with short brown hair and dark eyes gave her a smile, and she quickly looked away, not wanting to encourage conversation. Her brain was still mushy from being buried in a computer all day.
Annie, the bartender, let out a shout of happiness, and Bridget turned to see her leaning over the bar to hug a blond man. “Apollo Greatdrakes, my golden boy, it’s been too long,” she said, kissing his cheeks. Annie had never been that happy to see anyone, and Bridget couldn’t help but smile as the older woman flirted shamelessly with the man.
Bridget’s smile slipped clean off her face when a tall, dark, and familiar stranger came over and bumped the blond man’s shoulder.
What the fuck is happening?
Bas wasn’t just in her dreams but now in her bar. He stopped talking, his head swiveling towards her like a wolf catching a scent.
Bridget wanted to duck, but there was nowhere to hide. Bas’s look of surprise turned into a smile. He said something to the blond guy—Apollo—who turned to look at Bridget too. The blond only grinned and nudged him on.
Bas took his drink from Annie and started moving toward her through the crowd. Bridget looked to the door and calculated the distance and the time it would take to get her through it. Not enough to lose him.
As if sensing her intention, Bas course corrected to ensure he was between her and the door.Shit.
The crowd of people seemed to get out of Bas’s way. He was tall, and his broad set of shoulders looked ridiculously good ina tight button-up shirt. Dark curls and those insane purple-blue eyes made more than one woman glance his way. Bridget had to admit that if he hadn’t rudely disrupted her mind library time, she would have given him a second glance too.
Fuck.Bridget fought the urge to smooth her hair, which was still in kinks from sleeping in her braids. She didn’t have time to check what her daily eyeliner was doing or if she had anything in her teeth.
Bas stopped before her and stared at her with his vibrant eyes and predator-like focus.
“Hello, Hawk Girl,” he said, his mouth stretching into a relieved smile. “I’m so glad I finally found you.”
5
Bas had never thought much about the idea of Fate playing a role in his life, but finding Hawk Girl in the second bar of the night sure as hell made him feel like something was pulling his cosmic strings.
“Were you looking for me?” Hawk Girl asked uncertainly. She was sitting on a bar stool and still barely reached his shoulder. The eyeliner she was wearing made her rum-colored eyes look even bigger, and he fought the urge to touch her to ensure she was real. She was even prettier in real life, which was problematic because he had a hard enough time keeping his thoughts straight when he was around her.
“I was. I mean, I have been. I’m worried about you,” Bas said, going for honesty because he had always lacked Apollo’s easy charm. She looked at him like he was crazy, and he didn’t care because he was too excited that she was there in the flesh.
“I’m so glad you’re real,” he blundered on.
“Did you have your doubts?” she asked, her scared brow kicking up.
“Didn’t you? The astral plane is a really strange place. I’m glad you’re not some weird entity that just looked like a person, you know?”
He really needed to stop talking. Luckily, a waitress interrupted them and placed a plate of fish and chips down on the counter.
“Sorry, Sarah, can I get this to go?” Hawk Girl asked.
