usual teasing as his violet-tinted eyes roamed over me.
“Peony, do you know this man?” he asked urgently.
Karsyn moved to stand at Elias’s side, scowling severely. “You shouldn’t go alone with him if you don’t know him.”
“So she should stay here with you?” The warlock released a loud snort. “Fuck no. Her mom would have my ass.”
“Stay out of this, shit brains,” Lucas snapped…though I don’t know if I could even call it snapping, considering his inflection didn’t change. He used his middle finger to push up his dark glasses. “I’ll kill you before you can even scream for help and then dispose of your body in Lake Michigan.”
Fucking damn.
“Damn,” the man drawled, echoing my thoughts. “You’re crazy, kid. How old are you? Ten?”
If it was even possible, Lucas’s expression turned even colder, hewn from ice.
“Thirteen,” he sniped. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to properly dispose of a body so it won’t be found by the cops. Don’t underestimate me.”
“That’s a level of psycho I don’t think I’ll ever achieve,” Cassian murmured to Karsyn. “But I like it.”
“And on that fucking creepy ass note…” The warlock pulled me the rest of the way forward until we had breached the wall of Devils. When we were far enough away that they couldn’t overhear, he whispered, “Have you talked to your mother about them? That redheaded one…there’s something not quite right about him.”
I just barely reined in the heaving sigh that wanted to escape. How could I tell him that I tried to…multiple times? That she never listened, and when she did listen, she never cared?
Simones were supposed to take care of themselves. If there was a threat, it was our sacred duty to eliminate it, with or without magic. At least, that was what Mom always told me whenever I came home crying.
“I’ll talk to her,” I rushed to assure him when the silence dragged on. “But I think you humiliated them enough so they won’t go after me.”
I didn’t believe that, not truly, but I could tell it made him feel better when he physically straightened, puffing out his chest.
“Good. They shouldn’t be allowed to treat you that way.” His crooked smile returned at full force, and I practically swooned. “It was nice meeting you, Peony!”
It was only when he walked away, hands in the pockets of his faded blue jeans, did I realize that I never got my savior’s name.
I smile at the memory as I plant myself on an empty bench, reveling in the way the wind blows my tresses around my face. Sometimes, I wonder what happened to that guy, my first crush. I picture him married with kids right about now, and the thought makes me smile. He was a good man.
“Peony?” I glance at the sound of my name, unable to cover up my irritation when I see Elias Briggs stalking towards me like a man on a mission. And that mission is, apparently, to make my life hell. Why can’t he just leave me alone?
Whatever he sees on my face stops him abruptly, hurt flashing across his face before he can contain it. He releases a sigh I can feel all the way to my bones before moving to sit beside me on the plastic bench.
Silence descends as we focus on the sidewalk in front of us. There’s a family strolling down the narrow pathway—two parents and a kid. Her smile is brilliant, devoid of any shadows, as she points to the window of the toy store which displays a lovely doll. I wonder what it would be like to be that innocent. To not have your past laden with pain and fear and anger. I imagine it would be freeing.
When the silence becomes too pungent, contaminating the air like a sickly poison, I say, “I never said you could sit.”
“You seemed upset,” Elias replies, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Why do you care?” I don’t mean for the words to sound bitter, but alas, I can’t seem to control myself today. Karsyn’s drunken confession the night before combined with the triplets’ sober one this morning all spin around in my head, a rough and brutal merry-go-round with no end in sight. Instead of slowing down, it merely speeds up until I cling to the golden pole in desperation and pray I don’t go flying to my death.
“Believe it or not, I care about you,” Elias confesses softly, and I