“I really liked your apartment,” he admitted quietly.
Before I could say anything else, shadows curled softly around him again. The hallway lights flickered once more, and his fingers slipped from mine.
Then he was gone. Just like that. The hallway was already freezing without him there.
I stood completely still beside the abandoned grocery bags while smoke marks still covered the apartment walls around me. One of the oranges had rolled near the stairs during the attack, and his coffee stained hoodie still hung slightly oversized around my shoulders.
Behind me, the apartment door creaked open. Nina stepped into the hallway, took one look at my face, and stopped there. The concern in her expression made the situation feel painfully real all over again.
Chapter 13
Eva POV
The apartment felt painfully empty after he left, and the stillness settling over the rooms was wrong, like the entire place had gotten used to his presence faster than I wanted to admit
Nina stood awkwardly near the broken apartment doorway for a full minute before finally looking around the apartment slowly. “Okay,” she said carefully, “I know he was technically terrifying, but why does it feel like somebody died.”
I kept staring at the spot where he disappeared. “Can you maybe not say things like that right now.”
Nina’s expression changed. “Oh my God. You actually miss him.”
“No I don’t.”
“You are literally wearing his hoodie.”
My gaze dropped automatically, and I realized that somewhere during the disaster in the hallway, I'd apparently put it on without even noticing.
Embarrassing.
“It was cold.”
“Mhm. Sure.”
I ignored her and dropped heavily onto the couch instead. The apartment still smelled faintly like coffee and smoke and him, that felt like a personal attack at this point.
Nina sat beside me quietly while the silence stretched again.
The apartment was wrong without him in it. No teasing voice from the kitchen, no demon casually reorganizing my cabinets without permission, no terrifying demonic prince fixing broken appliances with the energy of a fully confusing husband.That realization alone nearly ruined me.
Nina noticed my face. “Eva.”
“I’m fine.”
“That sounded illegal.” I grabbed one of the couch pillows and shoved it directly into my face. “I hate this.”
“You miss him.”
“That feels unrelated.”
“It feels EXTREMELY related.”
I groaned dramatically into the pillow while Nina leaned back against the couch beside me with the exhausted patience of somebody watching a friend self-destruct in real time.
After a while, she asked quietly, “So what are you gonna do now?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer came out smaller than I intended.
