Eva POV #6
Then quietly, without looking at me, he said, “You are no longer safe near me.” Anger hits me faster than fear. I stepped toward him. “That is NOT how this works.”
His expression tightened slightly. “Eva.”
“No. Absolutely not. You do not get to say devastating things and then vanish dramatically like some tortured fantasy character.”
“That is strangely specific.”
“You know what I mean.”
My demon finally met my gaze then, and the calm expression he usually wore around me had started cracking at the edges. Whatever had happened had shaken him more than he wanted me to see.
Not for himself. For me, and I hated how much that realization affected me.
Behind us, somebody opened an apartment door farther down the hallway before closing it again after seeing the scorch marks.
Honestly, it was a very fair reaction at this moment.
My demon stepped closer. “They will continue coming.”
“Then let them.”
“That is not bravery. That is human recklessness.”
“You literally fought nightmare smoke in a hallway wearing a hoodie I bought at Target.”
“That is unrelated.”
“It feels EXTREMELY related.”
For one brief second he almost smiled again, and that made my chest ache even worse because in that moment I finally understood he had already made the decision.
“You’re leaving,” I whispered.
He stayed silent, and that alone gave me the answer.
I stared at him while cold hallway air curled around us both. The grocery bags still sat abandoned near the apartment door, and one of the oranges had rolled halfway down the hallway during the attack.
The stupid normality of it hit me so hard I almost didn’t know what to do with myself.
“You promised you were handling it.”
“I was trying to.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
His voice softened slightly then. “It was selfish.”
Something inside me twisted painfully at the word selfish because he sounded angry at himself for staying. Not regretful. Just guilty for wanting to.I hated that for him.
“You are not allowed to decide what hurts me,” I muttered quietly.
My demon's gaze lingered on mine for a long moment before dropping to my hand at my side. Then, with a hesitation that was strangely unlike him, he reached for it and threaded his fingers through mine with a gentle familiarity that completely ruined my ability to think clearly.
“You should stop looking at me like you want me to stay,” he said softly.
I swallowed hard. “What if I do?”
My demon was genuinely speechless for the first time since I’d met him.
The hallway went too quiet around us.
Then his hand tightened around mine slightly before he stepped closer enough that I could feel warmth through the sleeve of his hoodie.
And when he kissed me, it felt nothing like the dramatic movie kisses people always described.
It was careful at first. Almost hesitant. Like he was trying very hard not to want this as much as he did. Then I finally kissed him back. That ruined whatever self-control he had left.
His free hand moved to my waist, pulling me closer while the kiss deepened hard enough to steal the air from my lungs completely. Everything around us blurred into warmth and adrenaline and the faint smell of smoke still lingering in the hallway.
For one terrible second, it was painfully easy to imagine him staying.
Then my demon pulled back slightly. The warmth around me disappeared with him.
His hand stayed against my waist for half a second longer before he forced himself to step away completely, and the distance between us seemed wrong so fast it almost made me angry.
Neither of us spoke.
My heartbeat was still completely ruined while he stood there looking at me like leaving was hurting him too.
“That,” he said quietly, “was a mistake.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “YOU kissed ME.”
“You kissed back aggressively.”
“I was operating on instinct rather than reason.”
For the smallest second, the corner of his mouth almost lifted again before the expression disappeared completely.
Then something shifted in his expression, not colder but worse, like he’d finally made up his mind.
My stomach dropped instantly.
“No,” I whispered.
My demon stepped closer one last time before resting his forehead briefly against mine. The touch lasted barely a second, but it still felt devastatingly gentle compared to the terrifying things I’d seen him do tonight.
“If I stay now,” he said softly, “they will stop warning me before they come for you.”
The fear hit me hard after that, and this time it had nothing to do with demons or monsters or Hell. The thought of losing him was worse than all of it combined. Before he could step away again, I grabbed the sleeve of his hoodie tightly.
“Don’t.”
His eyes closed briefly like that single word hurt more than the attack had.
For one horrible second, he wavered. Then, very gently, he pulled himself away from me.
“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.
For a few seconds neither of us spoke before I admitted quietly, “I thought he’d come back.”
Nina’s expression changed slightly after that. Not teasing anymore. Before she could say anything, something slipped from the hoodie pocket and landed softly against the floor beside the couch.
Both our attention shifted to my hand at the same time. A black ring rested against it, simple dark metal marked with faint silver symbols curling along the inside.
Nina stared at it for one full second before turning toward me. “Please tell me demons do friendship rings.”
“I don’t think demons do friendships.”
“ And I really don’t like that .”
The ring glowed faintly, before disappearing .
Both of us screamed. The light spread briefly across the apartment walls before dark symbols burned themselves into the paint near the kitchen doorway.
Nina grabbed my arm hard enough to bruise. “NOPE. Absolutely not.”
I was already staring at the wall. Three words slowly appeared through black smoke curling against the paint.
Come get me.
The apartment went completely silent. Nina's eyes moved from the message to me.
Then at the shoes already in my hands.
“…Eva.”
“I need to make a very bad decision.”
Nina stared at me for a long second before pointing dramatically toward the glowing message still burned across the kitchen wall. “Okay first of all, I need it officially documented somewhere that this is the worst idea you’ve ever had.”
“That feels dramatic.”
“You are trying to go to HELL.”
“In my defense,” I muttered while shoving my feet into my shoes, “this week has been beyond difficult to me.”
Nina followed me as I moved around the apartment gathering candles from random surfaces with the energy of somebody making terrible life choices at alarming speed.
“You cannot seriously be considering this.”
“I’m not considering it.”
“That made me MORE nervous.”
I grabbed the gold chalk from beside the coffee table while the black ring continued glowing faintly against the floorboards nearby.
The apartment felt exactly like it had the night I summoned him. Only now I understood what I was doing. Which was significantly more dangerous.
Nina watched me clear space on the living room floor before speaking carefully. “Eva.”
When I lifted my gaze, I realized she wasn't joking this time.
“You know this could actually kill you, right?”
The honesty in her voice hit harder than I expected.