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“What if he can tell my heart isn’t in it?” I whispered.

“Your heart is exactly where it should be.” When my eyes snapped to hers, she quickly added, “Inside your body.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You know something.” It wasn’t a question. It was an observation spoken out loud. “You’ve been acting strange for two days. What gives?”

Something fluttered across her face before she sat down beside me. “I’m worried about Devlyn.”

Devlyn?

“Why? Is everything ok?” I searched her eyes, looking for a sign. Something to ease my concern about our friend.

“I haven’t wanted to say anything because I didn’t want you to worry. But I’m going to stay here when you go home.”

My mouth opened to object, and Athena shook her head. “She needs me.”

“I need you.”

“You won’t need me after tonight.”

I turned on the bed to stare at my sister. “I’ll need you more after tonight! What if he isn’t right for me? What if he hates me and I miss my chance of ever having someone to love me?”

“How could anyone hate you?”

I rolled my eyes at my sister. Plenty of people hated me. They found me bossy and domineering. Two of my best traits when the time called for them. My bluntness was another issue. People didn’t like honesty. They didn’t want to know the choices they made were the reason they were suffering.

They wanted someone that coddled them. Someone to tell them what they wanted to hear, so they never had to feel bad about themselves.

Well, I wasn’t a freaking bakery. I didn’t sugarcoat anything.

“Freyja, stop fretting. Everything is as it should be.”

“But I’ll miss you.”

Athena wrapped her arm around me. “And I’ll miss you. But this is where I need to be right now. Devlyn is in a new place and she has no one down here.”

“She has Gator.”

My sister looked at me, raising her eyebrows. When I glanced at her, we both laughed. Devlyn did have Gator. When she wasn’t threatening to kill him and feed his balls to the... well, gators.

I released a sigh of defeat. “You’re right. She needs you right now. But if this man turns out to be an asshole, I reserve the right to stay here too. Gator will just have to make room for the both of us.”

Athena smiled. “Your place is not here.”

“I wish I knew where it was.”

Athena stood and walked to the closet. She ran her hand over the dress I had chosen and glanced over her shoulder at me.

“You’ll know tonight. And he needs your help.”

That sparked something inside me. “My help with what?”

“He has a lot on his plate and he needs you to ground him. He needs a safe place to land at the end of the day. And he will need your protection.”

“My protection? From who?”

Athena smiled that smug smile and I cringed.

“From the Sons of Hell.”