I shiver. My eyes close, and images of Hex’s presence filling up the hallway and flinging Wraith away as if the other shadow man was nothing more substantial than a broken doll, come into full focus.
It was terrifying. Hex was terrifying. He was saving me, but what if he ever decides to fling me down the hallway? What if we argueand he loses his temper? My… lover, or whatever he is, is a literal monster.
He was my nightmare, and now he is something else, and I’m not really sure how those two parts fit together.
“Yes,” I croak hoarsely with my eyes still closed.
Hex’s cold, semi-solid hand covers mine. “I would never hurt you, My Love.”
My heart thumps. My stomach squirms. “I know. I think I know. You scared the crap out of me when we were kids and you lurked under my bed. I got over it. I’ll get over this. I think I just need time to process.”
Soft lips brush over my forehead. “Then take your time, My Love.”
I suck in a breath. “Right. Let’s sort these lightbulbs out.” There are only so many emotions I can deal with at one time. It’s best to keep busy.
I get up and go to the under-sink cupboard and rummage around until I find the box of replacement bulbs. I set them on the counter. I look at them. I look at the blown fitting above the kitchen table.
“I’m going to need the stepladder,” I say.
“Top of the wardrobe,” says Hex, which is where I keep it and which he knows because of course he does, because he has memorised the location of everything in this flat and probably has opinions about all of it.
“Right.” I don’t move immediately. “Thank you,” I say, to the packet of lightbulbs. “For last night. For going to Felix. For coming back.”
A pause. Then, quietly, “Always.”
I pick up the bulbs and go to get the stepladder.
The morning continues. I replace the kitchen bulb, then the hallway ones, then the one in the living room. Hex holds the stepladder steady without being asked, which is the kind of thing that makes it very difficult to maintain any sort of appropriateemotional distance from a shadow prince, but that is a problem I am choosing not to examine right now.
By the time Felix arrives in the afternoon, the flat is full of working lightbulbs and the smell of fresh coffee, and Hex has reorganised all the toiletries in the bathroom, which I choose not to comment on. Felix appears in the doorway, looking immaculate in borrowed clothes, a small bag over his shoulder and the particular expression of someone who is fine and intends to stay fine through sheer force of personality.
He looks around the flat. He looks at Hex, who is leaning against the kitchen doorframe with a mug, looking for all the world like he belongs there. He looks at me.
“Right,” he says. “Someone put the kettle on and tell me absolutely everything.”
I put the kettle on.
Hex, for once, does not reorganise anything.
Chapter 20
The Not-Ex
Felixisonhisthird cup of tea and has reached the stage of processing where he stops being fine and starts being furious.
“Intentional,” he says, for approximately the fourth time, turning the word over like he’s deciding what to do with it. He is sitting cross-legged on my sofa in a borrowed jumper with his dark eyeliner very slightly smudged, which is the most dishevelled I have ever seen him and probably the most dishevelled he has been in his entire adult life. “Someone burned my flat down on purpose. To distract Hex. And I was just. Collateral.”
“You weren’t collateral,” I say.
“I was absolutely collateral. I was bait.” He picks up his mug. “I have never been bait before. I find I deeply resent it.”
“To be fair,” says Hex, from the armchair, where he has been sitting with his arms crossed and the carefully neutral expression he uses when he’s decided not to involve himself in something and is finding this decision difficult, “you were extremely effective bait.”
Felix points at him. “That is not the reassurance you think it is.”
“I’m not trying to reassure you.”
“No, I can see that.” Felix looks at him for a long moment with those sharp dark eyes. Then, apparently deciding something, he nods once. “Right. When this is over, I’m going to do something about it.”
