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“Because I want to know,” Xen replied.

Evan closed his eyes, nostrils flaring. “I told you tostopreading my mind.”

“Tell me.”

As he urged, Evan sighed, settling into the bed and hugging his knees. Xen was damn stubborn. He probably wouldn’t leave him be if he didn’t give him an answer.

Evan turned the question over in his head but didn’t know how to respond or where to start. WhatwasCelie like? He knew what she used to be, but how she’d turned out in the past year was a mystery to Evan too.

“She looks like our father,” he finally said. “But she has Mom’s eyes.”

“And you?” Xen leaned on the other side of the door, intently listening to Evan’s muffled voice. “Who do you take after?”

Evan blinked, then mumbled into his knees, “Mom.”

A smile curved at the edge of Xen’s lips. “Then she must have been beautiful.”

“She was,” Evan reflexively replied, feeling a little proud, before the meaning of Xen’s word dawned on him and his face burned like someone had set him on fire. “Not like you would know!” he snapped before burrowing into his pillow.

That damned demon was so weird and a hell of a smooth-talker. One minute he was indirectly calling Evanbeautifuland a minute before that he was threatening to light a match under the world’s ass.

His way of thinking was too odd, too dangerous for the masses. He seemed to be the type who would sacrifice everyone else—including himself—for the sake of the one person he wanted to save. That was as laughable as it was unsettling.

I hope he never falls in love. Evan thought.That would not end well for others.

9. The Haunted Ruins

Of course, the day Celie was coming home, Evan had to be called away for a new case. What even was life if not a series of predictable but unavoidable disappointments?

Aaron had offered to accompany Evan after dropping Celie at home, but Evan refused and asked him to stay with her instead. If the first thing she came back to was an empty home, Celie would probably despise Evan more than she already did.

Who knew for how many years she’d avoid him this time?

Evan had grown up hearing his mother—disowned by the Blackwood family after marrying his father—speak of her siblings, never able to reach out to them again. Evan didn’t want to inherit that same fate with his sister.

Hence, he let Aaron give her a warm welcome at home and decided to handle this case on his own.

At least that’s what he’dhopedfor.

A semi-demolished house stood in the center of the forest clearing. There had once been several more, but over time, as the forest slowly reclaimed its territory and people grew reluctant to cut the trees, the area was eventually abandoned. All except for this one house.

As Evan circled the ruins of the house, a warm presence lingered behind him.

Xen had traded his formal shirt for a full-blown, blood-red suit. Exactly like Evan had fantasized about in a moment of weakness. His hair was tousled at the top, trimmed shorteralong the sides, like he'd stepped out of a damn fashion magazine. He stood barely half a meter away, because personal space? What was that?

And this overextravagant roleplay getup was what he called hisnormal human form.

What about it was “normal” was still a mystery.

As Evan surveyed the clearing, the demon’s presence loomed behind him, more imposing than the heavy air that clung to the ruined property.

Finally, he stopped and spun around. “Remind me why you’re here again?”

Xen barely glanced at the half-destroyed house, his expression bored. “Didn’t you say you hate going to such places alone?”

“I wasthinkingabout it! Why were you eavesdropping on my thoughts again?”

Xen shrugged before looking away.