Page 90

Suddenly, Misty’s shriek startled everyone.

Rumi shot upright, face pale and wide eyes glued to the floor.

“E-Excuse me,” muttering that, she fled towards the bathroom.

Nick straightened next and motioned to Elysia, who quickly nodded and followed after Rumi.

“She’s exhausted from traveling,” Celie said as Evan glanced in the direction of the bathroom, his eyes narrowed in thatpeculiar way when he was wary of someone. Celie cleared her throat, then her eyes landed on the two strangers. “Who is this?”

Oh, I wish I knew, sis.

“I’m Delos,” chirped the silver-head.

The group of unwavering stares redirected to the red-clad figure next. But when he remained stone-faced, glowering at the floor, Evan said in his stead.

“This is Xen.” Evan’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “They’re my friends.”

Celie’s brows twitched in surprise. The silent exclamation was evident.You made “friends”?

Evan scratched his temple. “I’ll go grab my coat.”

“Are you going somewhere?” Celie, surprisingly, followed Evan into his room. He’d made an effort to clean his room the previous night for this exact reason. But there was nothing much in there to clean, so he’d simply just shoved all the clean clothes into the closet and dirty ones under the bed.

“Uh, yeah. Aaron has run into a…slight problem. I’m gonna go bring him back,” he threw the coat over his arm and rummaged through the drawers before finding a crumpled pack of cigarettes and pocketing it.

Strange, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d smoked, which was ridiculous considering he was a stress smoker and nothing was constant in his life if not stress. Especially for the past couple of weeks.

“What happened?”

At her strained tone, Evan stilled. When he turned around, Celie was frowning deeply at his feet, her fists clenched. She looked close to bursting into tears.

Evan’s stomach dropped.

“Hey, it’s okay. Nothing happened,” he reached for her head, reflexively settling over the soft locks of hair and ruffling it like he used to when she was little. “Everything will be fine.”

Celie froze at his touch, then stepped away as if burnt, blinking furiously at the floor. Evan’s hand hovered in place before falling back to his side.

Oh, she wasn’t worried abouthim. Aaron had been more of a brother to her than Evan ever could be, even when he tried. It was at Aaron that her concerns were directed, justifiably.

“Aaron will be fine. I promise I’ll bring him back,” he said, shrugging on the coat, expression blank as he stepped around her and out of the room. “Delos will stay back. He’s easy to get along with, so I’d suggest all of you stay inside until I return. Please,” he added the last word with more emphasis than necessary.

Evan had dusted and aired out the guest room for guests. If he had any idea that Celie would bring four people along, he’d have booked them a room in the town’s best motel. But for now, their safety was more important than hospitality, and he couldn’t guarantee that anywhere other than his own house.

Celie didn’t respond as Evan stopped at the threshold of his room. She didn’t even move. And after a few moments, he smiled at her back before walking away.

At least she is home. That’s enough for me.

Delos was on the couch, watching something on Wren’s phone that he was proudly showing to him, with Nick hovering behind them. When Delos saw Evan, he gave him an encouraging nod. That made Evan square his shoulders as he stepped out of the front door, ready for battle. Ready for war.

Late afternoon sun scattered hues of pinks and oranges across the sky, the sun hiding away as the ever-present dark clouds slowly hovered into the colorful canvas. There was a storm coming.

Xen stood leaning against the front gate, hands pocketed in his slacks, hair tousled in the blowing wind, and his suit blazerunbuttoned, fluttering idly. The scene could make an artist fall to his knees and weep for mercy.

As Evan approached him, those dark eyes with a glint of red rose, tense brows drawing back to rest as he spotted him. Just a few minutes back, he seemed like he could bite somebody’s head off, probably Evan’s. Why was he so relaxed now?

Ignoring whatever act he was putting on for attention, Evan opened the gate and shut it behind him, not sparing Xen a single glance before striding towards the town.

“Where are we going?” His tone was no-bullshit. Aaron’s phone sat heavily in his pants pocket, a reminder of what he was neglecting in order to bear this demon’s tantrums. “This better be important.”