"Yeah, but later will do."
"Thank you." I dropped a kiss on his cheek, then left. Once we were outside, I raised my face to the sky. Though it was barely ten, the promise of heat was in the air, and sunshine bathed my skin. But it wasn't warm enough to burn away the uneasy fear that had first stirred on the astral plane. The no-face killer wasn't my problem, but I still couldn't escape the notion that he and I would meet again. I had to hope that notion was wrong, because I needed to get back to the business of chasing down portal keys and deadly sorcerers.
"Do you wish to return home now?" Azriel asked softly.
"I wish I could." Wished he would just take me in his arms and hold me. Just hold me.
But he didn't react in any way—even though he could follow my thoughts and knew my desires as clearly as if I'd spoken them—and I sighed softly. "But I need to collect my car from Adeline's, and then we have that meeting at the rail station."
"You should eat—"
I cut him off with an abrupt wave of the hand. "I'll grab a burger and chips along the way."
"That's hardly what you need right now—"
"It's food," I cut in wearily. "And it's better than nothing. You're not my mom, so don't nag me, Azriel."
"Someone has to." His blue eyes flashed with the annoyance he wasn't quite containing. "Because you seem absurdly determined to run yourself into the ground."
"And we can't have that when there's keys to be found, can we?"
"As I have said before," he said coldly, "that is not a fair comment."
I sighed. "Sorry."
He once again accepted the apology with an almost regal incline of his head, then said, his tone still frosty, "You wish to go back to Adeline's now?"
"Yes."