“Yeah, I remember,” I grumbled, holding out my arm, and after a brief pause, one was tossed toward me. It landed against my arm in a way that suggested he had absolutely no intention of making this any easier than it needed to be. I caught it quickly, wrapping it tightly around myself before stepping out. The warmth of the bathroom did very little to offset the very real awareness of just how exposed I still felt.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded immediately, not even bothering to soften the question as I reached for another towel and began rubbing it briskly through my hair. My gaze flicked toward him despite myself.
“I told you the bathroom was…” he began.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I cut in quickly, waving him off with a distracted motion as I focused on drying my hair, though the tension in my voice gave away far more than I intended.
“After he trapped you in that cage, I figured showing up again might be too risky.”
“Thanks to you, I got out,” he replied, his tone sharpening slightly, though there was something else beneath it. Something that made me pause just for a second.
My gaze flicked toward the door, toward the space beyond it, my grip tightening slightly on the towel in my hands.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” I asked, quieter now, the question slipping out before I could stop it.
“Safe enough,” he said, though the answer wasn’t entirely reassuring. His eyes flicked briefly toward the same door before returning to me.
“I created a diversion. Something I knew would pull Lord Oblivion away.” Something in my chest twisted at that, the words settling in a way I hadn’t expected. Because the idea ofWye being deliberately pulled away, manipulated into leaving, didn’t sit quite right anymore. Not after everything that had changed between us.
Not after last night.
I shifted slightly, the towel loosening just enough that I had to catch it quickly. Then I pulled it tighter around myself, only vaguely aware of the way Bo’s gaze flicked downward for a fraction of a second before he looked away again.
“Next time, you might want to try knocking first,” I muttered, adjusting the towel with a small frown.
“Oh, please,” he scoffed, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly despite the tension still lingering in the room.
“Like I haven’t seen mortal… squishy bits before,” he said, waving a hand up and down to indicate my body.
“Oi,” I snapped immediately, glancing down at myself and now fixating on my own squishy bits, my face turning red, knowing how many of them Wye had seen this morning.
“Rude much,”I grumbled.
I finished dragging the towel through my hair before letting it fall around my shoulders. My fingers tightened slightly in the fabric wrapped around me as the silence between us stretched just a fraction too long. Because now that the shock had worn off enough for my thoughts to catch up, something else began to take its place.
Awareness of why he was here, or should I say, of what that might mean.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said finally, my voice quieter now, though no less certain as I looked at him properly.
“If he finds you…”
“He won’t,” Bo cut in, though there was no arrogance in it, just a kind of certainty that felt earned rather than assumed. His gaze flicked briefly toward the door before returning to me, his expression tightening slightly.
“Not if we leave now.”
The words landed harder than they should have.
Not if we leave.
A small frown pulled at my brows as I straightened slightly, my grip on the towel tightening without me realizing it.
“Leave?” I repeated, the word slow, uncertain, like I wasn’t quite sure I’d heard him properly.
“I’m not…” I hesitated, the rest of the sentence catching somewhere between instinct and something else I wasn’t ready to name.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
His expression didn’t change immediately, though something in his eyes did. As if he knew the real reason I didn’t want to leave and why I had now changed my tune.
