Cassandra’s amber eyes held hers for a moment. “With Lilith? Always.”
By evening, the office had mostly emptied.
The cleaning crew had started their rounds. Ava had noticed they were never quite human, their movements too synchronized, their conversations in languages that slid away from comprehension. She’d stopped looking too closely at the service staff.
She saved her work, gathered her things, and found Victor waiting by the elevator. He’d loosened his tie, rolled up his sleeves, and somehow still managed to look like he’d stepped out of a magazine spread.
“Survived day one,” he said.
“Barely.” She leaned into him as his arm came around her shoulders. “The stapler woman tried to touch my mark. Derek is building a Lilith conspiracy board. And I still don’t know whose cases I’m being reassigned to.”
“Tomorrow will be easier.”
“Liar.”
“I’ve been lying successfully for six thousand years.”
“Not to me you haven’t.” She poked his chest where his mark lay hidden under expensive cotton. “I can feel when you’re bullshitting me now. It has a specific… flavor.”
He laughed, genuine, surprised, warm. “I’m going to have to get used to that.”
“You’re going to have to get used to a lot of things.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
The elevator arrived with a soft chime. They stepped inside, and Ava watched the numbers begin their descent. Victor’s arm stayed around her, solid and warm. His contentment washed over her—tentative, almost surprised at itself, like he was still learning how to feel this way.
“Your place or mine?” she asked.
“I thought mine was yours now.”
“Legally, maybe. But I still need to grab clothes from the apartment. And probably face Mia’s interrogation. She’s sent approximately forty messages since Saturday, each more threatening than the last.”
“Shall I come with you? For moral support?”
“You’d face Mia’s wrath for me?”
“I’d face considerably worse for you.” He kissed the top of her head. “Besides, I liked her.”
The elevator slowed. Stopped at the lobby level.
“Tomorrow,” Ava said. “We’ll handle it together.”
“That’s the plan.”
The doors slid open, revealing the marble lobby, the evening security guard, the city lights beginning to flicker on beyond the glass walls.
“Ready?” Victor asked.
Ava took his hand.
The lobby doors opened onto a city that didn’t know their names.
CHAPTER 14
The summons arrived Thursday morning.
Cassandra delivered it personally, appearing at Ava’s desk with an expression that made Ava sit up straighter before a single word was spoken. The receptionist’s amber eyes held something that might have been warning, or pity, or both.
