“Great. I’ll be right back." Her voice strained with forced good-humor.
North freed himself of the blanket, lips a firm line. Static mussed the ends of his snowy hair and his eyes narrowed to almost a glare. He smoothed his hair back into place before rising to follow her. Sera set a hand on his chest.
“No, you stay.”
“I am not a dog.” He snatched her wrist with two fingers, like he wanted to use as little contact as possible and, fuck, his skin wasnotcold. It was warm. So warm. Impossibly warm. Cole’s skin was cool to the touch. She assumed it was a Winter Fae thing, but apparently not.
They stood for several seconds and, if he were any other person in the world, she might have assumed his silence suggested he was equally thrown by contact with her. But this was not a normal man, so his silence might mean anything.
“It’s more prudent to assume Cole would have your lodging watched. He might be waiting for you," he said, though his jaw seemed more tense than before.
Sera shook away the dizzy spin of her thoughts. “Do you see any death on me?”
His mouth snapped shut, eyes narrowing a fraction. “No.”
“Perfect. Then that means I should be at least okay for the right now, correct?”
He eased his thumb and forefinger apart, releasing her wrist. “It’s your life. Be assured, I am perfectly content with my efforts to prevent your demise, should the worst happen.”
Sera rolled her eyes, resting a hand on her hip. “Divine above, you’re unbelievably dramatic. I just don’t want you in my home, okay?”
“Rather bold assertion when you broke into mine.”
“Yes, but you’re going to have to get past that, darling.” She lightly tapped the tip of his nose. “I’ll write a formal apology later. I’ll only be a few minutes.”
The look that entered his eyes at what had been meant as a playful tap was close to scathing. “As I said, it’s your life.”
Sera blew a strand of hair from her eyes as she hopped down from the carriage. North may have spoken with a casual air of indifference, but there were depths of drama in his words. Still, she didn’t plan on taking long.
The carriage was parked across the street from her building and, thankfully, didn’t stand out too painfully among the rabble of the street. North’s more modest taste meant the carriage lacked embellishments or sigils that would have acted like a beacon to those in search of rich prey. As it was, no one gave the otherwise plain black carriage a second look.
Sera raced the cracked cement to the cobbled together building of her apartment. There was no one, uniform type of material used in Demon Row. Repairs and attempts to hold structures together called for whatever was cheapest, on hand, or recycled. Demon Row proper—closer to the outer borders of Unity and deeper into demon territory—was better maintained. Repairs in the inner boroughs were properly integrated and solid. Here the doors were lopsided or didn’t fit in the frames. No slab matched another in color, material, or state of decay. The stairs weren’t entirely uniform. Sera had walked them enough times to learn their particular cadence, but others usually tripped.
Demons and grimm were the main inhabitants here.
Demons had started the famed war all those years ago, but those were Greater Demons, as residents were quick to correct. The demons that thrived in the city were Lesser, less powerful and less favored by their creator, the Infernal. The distinction was rarely used by others, who saw all demons as evil, dangerous creatures because of their ability to sense a person’s desires and potentially use it to their advantage.
Previously, Sera had not feared her neighbors since she had been under Cole’s protection.
That protection was not likely to still be enforced. She didn’t doubt that anyone might be waiting to turn her over for showing her face here. She unlocked her door faster than she’d ever done and slammed it behind her.
“Sera?” Seth rubbed sleep from his eyes, sitting up to cross his legs in the middle of the bed. He was always so quick to rise in the morning, waking from sleep with grace and ease. Sera had to be dragged from the covers hissing and clawing. “You’re back! Thank the gods, I was so worried.”
His entire half of the apartment was covered in vines sprouting purple flowers. The vines wrapped around Seth’s arms and shoulders, the green a perfect complement to the earthy, copper undertones in his brown skin. Auburn hair was shaved on one side, while the rest of his head was covered in soft, swooping tufts. Radiant, orange eyes twinkled with cheer at the sight of her. He was a Summer Fae and was about to be very unhappy about their change of address.
“We don’t have time,” Sera said, out of breath. “Get your things.”
Seth didn’t question. He simply nodded and did as instructed.
“I failed,” Sera said. It was explanation enough.
Sera stuffed clothes into a tattered bag. Most of her things fit inside, but her dresses were too bulky. She hated to lose any, they were gorgeous dresses. The thing about sketchy contractswith powerful figures is that, despite squalor accommodations, lavish gifts were not uncommon. It hadn’t always been a shit apartment way out near the Fells, either. When Sera was shiny and new, she had a room in Cole’s house deep in Demon Row where things weren’t held together with glue and prayers. Until the next shiny new thing took her place and Sera was demoted to ‘falling apart shithole.’
“We’re not safe here,” Sera continued, “I have a temporary solution. It’s a long story, but I think it’ll keep us safe until I can think of something better.”
Sera stacked as many dresses over her arm as she could carry. Nearly ten minutes had passed. She had to hurry. There was no telling how fast news would reach Cole.
Seth had his things gathered into a suitcase and he’d filled a small clay pot with a single clipping of his thriving vines, all of which had to be left behind. She wished they could bring it, but it would only kill the plant faster.
