The apartment was painfully empty without him in it. That was the problem. Because in less than two weeks, my terrifying demon had become part of my life so completely that the silence afterward was unbearable.
“I know,” I admitted quietly.
Nina’s expression softened. “Oh no. You’re actually serious.”
I laughed weakly once while kneeling onto the floor beside the old candle marks still faintly visible against the wood.
“Apparently,” I said, “I’m partially attached to a demon.”
“That sentence should not sound as depressing as it does.”
“It really shouldn’t.”
Nina lowered herself beside me while I carefully redrew the ritual circle across the floor in trembling lines of gold chalk. My hands weren’t shaking from alcohol or panic this time.
That was probably worse.
The gold markings curled across the floorboards while candlelight flickered softly around the apartment again. Outside, rain tapped quietly against the windows, and for one strange second it felt like the entire world had narrowed down to this room.
This stupid apartment.
These stupid candles.
And him.
Nina watched me silently for a while before finally muttering, “You know… for someone who spent three straight days yelling that he wasn’t your boyfriend, this feels deeply committed.”
“I liked him before the demon prince thing.”
“That is strangely worse.”
I finished the final line of the circle before sitting back slightly on my heels. The room went quiet. Then Nina looked around nervously. “So how exactly did you do this last time?”
I thought about it seriously.
Then grimaced.
“…Tequila.”
Chapter 14
Eva POV
Nina stared at me for a full five seconds before rubbing both hands over her face like her soul was trying to leave her body peacefully. “No. Absolutely not. I refuse to help you get drunk enough to enter Hell.”
“You helped me summon him.”
“That was DIFFERENT. We were drunk and unsupervised.”
“And now I’m entirely attached and unsupervised.”
Nina pointed at me. “See? You hear yourself.”
She was right. My brain had apparently decided to handle the supernatural trauma by developing feelings for the demon instead.
I ignored her and reached for the tequila bottle sitting abandoned near the kitchen counter from three separate bad decisions ago.
Nina watched me carefully while I took a long drink straight from the bottle. “You cannot seriously be planning to walk into the demon world for a guy you met in 2 weeks .”
