The gears turned in my head. Lily must’ve dropped by early this morning and left it for me. As my best friend, she was the only other person with a spare key.
Suddenly, I squinted suspiciously.
DidI have my key on me last night?
I ran to the place where I always kept it—not in a bowl by my front door, or hanging on a hook like a normal person. I kept my keys right on my bedside table because I was a dumbass who always forgot them unless they were right in front of my face the second I woke up.
Apparently, my tactic didn’t work last night. My key was still there. I’d forgotten it last night. I must’ve been dreading Jared’s party so badly that it slipped my mind.
Which meant...
“So, Hot Stranger did break into your apartment after all,”Faust mused, loving the drama.“Ooh, how do you feel? Are you utterly betrayed? Or are you secretly titillated?”
“Be quiet,” I ground out. I gave up trying to do damage control on the heat flooding my cheeks and stormed towards the bathroom. “I’m gonna shower. Can you, like, disappear for five minutes?”
“Of course, darling. I have no interest in your naked body.”
That was a relief. Unless the demon was lying.
“I tell only the truth, most of the time,”Faust said, reading my damn thoughts again.“Although—really, Chase? A five-minute shower? You do washeverything,don’t you?”
I stripped while ignoring the nagging demon in my brain, then turned on the water and yanked the shower curtain shut.
3
Chase
“Chase,I’ll give you a million dollars if you stop by Dustin’s Donuts,”Faust begged.
I hadn’t eaten any of the birthday cake before leaving the apartment, and Faust was miffed about it. Too bad. If anyone had any reason to be miffed, it was me. I had a freaking demon inhabiting my body.
“No,” I stated. “Also, what happened to you not lying?”
“Nothing has changed. I don’t lie.”
“You do not have a million dollars, asshole,” I muttered.
The man I’d just passed on the street raised an offended eyebrow at me.
Shit. I still wasn’t used to Faust’s voice. It was so vivid and loud that it sounded corporeal, not tucked away in my head. It felt more natural to reply out loud than to ‘think’ back my replies to him.
Having a conversation with the demon in my apartment was one thing, but in public, it got weird fast.
“Sorry, I wasn’t talking to you,” I apologized to the affronted dude.
He glared at me a second longer before walking away.
“Cool. Now everyone thinks I’m crazy,” I said under my breath.
“You will be crazy if you bypass Dustin’s Donuts without buying me one.”
“I’m not buying you a damn donut. I’m getting you exorcised,” I snapped.
That came out louder than intended. Multiple people on the street stared at me suspiciously and walked around me in a wide berth.
I flushed. I’d been doing that a lot lately, but this time it was from embarrassment, not because I was thinking about Sagitta.
Before I died from shame, I passed the empty unit beside Dustin’s Donuts, turned the corner, and ducked into the alley. Faust whined like a baby, but I ignored him. I just wanted my normal life back. The sooner I was rid of this demonic diva, the better.
