Page 17

That was no surprise. Some outsiders believed Emberlyn was a hotspot for ghosts and guardian spirits that protected the land against intruders. Cabs from Emberlyn went all the way to the city, but those from the city rarely crossed the bridge into town.

Had Aaron forgotten to send them a car?

“We tried to reach Celie, but her phone is switched off.”

Evan internally fumed while his face threatened to flush his embarrassment onto the surface. So much for a good first impression on his sister’s friends.

“I’m terribly sorry about all this,” he said, flashing another charming little smile. “My house is just up ahead. This way, if you will.”

As the group hurriedly followed Evan’s direction, their spirits rising once more, Evan glanced back at Delos, who stood still in his place, smile intact.

With a hesitant glance towards the group, Evan offered, “Would you like to come along?”

Delos’s smile widened, but he shook his head. “Not today.”

Evan paused. He didn’t know why he’d imagined Delos would jump at the first opportunity to come over to his house. He was clearly one of those people who easily got attached and got along with everyone on the go.

“Well, then—”

“‘A sheep in disguise, a fox to hunt,’” Delos mused, catching Evan by surprise. “‘In search of warmth, a heart is burnt.’”

Evan stilled. A momentary uneasiness took root in his gut for some reason. “What…?”

Delos shrugged lightly. “Just something I read today.”

“Oh. Uh…” Evan slowly nodded, trying to brush off the twitching in his nerves. “That’s…good. Well, I, uh… I’ll see you around.”

Delos waved. “Defiantly.”

You mean “definitely”?

As Evan turned around, he shook his head with a sigh.

It was the same, slightly dim youth from that day after all, the one who pronounced words wrong with such confidence he could convince the listener his hearing was the one at fault.

Leading the group towards his house, Evan entertained their questions about the town and its history. But Delos’s words seemed to have engraved themselves into his mind’s wall, refusing to leave.

The one who answered the door was Celie.

Evan had hoped she would, so instead of unlocking it himself, he’d rung the bell to his own house. But he’d not had enough time to prepare himself to see her, so as soon as Celie came into view, his nervous system froze.

Celie looked up at him, all pretty eyes and delicate lashes so similar to their mother. But a sharp facial structure and high cheekbones that were the carbon copy of their father. She even stared at Evan like their father used to, expectantly, without uttering a word.

Evan blinked. Then cleared his throat.

What was he supposed to do? Hug? Shake hands? High five?

Oh, no... He had to talk ?

But instead of opening his mouth and delivering a reunion speech, his malfunctioning brain led his malfunctioning legs around his sister and inside the house, without sparing her a word.

God help me, my little sister is finally home!

A mixture of squeals and complaints and sighs flowed into the house after Evan as the group entered, the two girls glued to Celie’s neck almost instantly. The boys blew a breath of relief when they found all their luggage safe in the living room.

“Do make yourselves at home,” Evan said, taking off his coat and sliding it over the crook of his arms, trying to act as elegant as possible.

What was he supposed to do next? He had to be hospitable, but how exactly? He’d hardly ever had guests over, and even when an unfortunate soul did enter his house, Aaron was the one who attended to them.

Where the hell was Aaron?

Celie glanced at him every now and then as she consoled Elysia, who was whining about the ache in her feet.

With a single eye-scan, Evan noticed several things about his sister. Her hair was lighter than it was a year ago. She’d probably dyed it. Her skin, which used to be as pale as Evan’s, was golden-kissed, perfectly tanned. And both her ears were pierced. She wore a loose-fitting t-shirt and denim shorts, unlike the dresses she used to wear before she left for school.

As Evan turned around, a smile quirked his lips up.

Somehow, his baby sister had gotten prettier than before. And seeing how her friends doted on her, it made relief flood his system, soothing his nerves. She wasn’t lonely.

Evan disappeared into his bedroom, hung his coat, and decided to remain in his shirt and dress pants. Cat-printed pajama shorts and oversized hoodies wouldn’t make him look cool before his sister’s friends, would they?

When he reentered the living room, it was as if the house had come alive. Chatter and laughter filled every deserted corner of the room. Evan usually kept the lights dim for the sake of his sensitive eyes. But in that moment, as every light blazed, even though it was the middle of the day, he didn’t mind in the slightest.

Celie offered her friends water and now sat amidst them, chatting animatedly.

“And then we met Evan on the way,” Elysia explained to Celie. “What a splendid coincidence, right, guys?”

Wren hummed, typing something on his phone.

“Definitely,” Nick gave a thumbs-up.

He was clearly the father of the group. Elysia was the grown-up child in need of constant attendance. Wren, the unsociable kid, and Rumi—

Evan’s eyes traveled to the girl in a corner, glued to Wren’s side as she softly rocked back and forth on the couch. There was no malice on her. Or on any of the friends, really. That was the first thing Evan had confirmed. But Rumi was just…too alert, as if prepared for the worst to happen at any given moment.

Maybe she is just socially awkward.

“Who’s hungry? I’ll go buy us lunch,” Evan said, but Nick quickly interrupted.

“Oh, we already had lunch at a small bistro on the way here,” he said. “We were all kind of hungry, so…”

“Snacks,” Wren mumbled.

“We wouldn’t say no to some light snacks,” Elysia chimed in.

Evan nodded. “Snacks it is.”

As he turned to the kitchen, Celie stood up from the couch. “I’ll help.”

Evan’s gait faltered imperceptibly, but he didn’t turn back and cry in gratitude like he wanted to and headed straight to the kitchen, sister in tow.

“Could you get the glasses?” Without looking, he pointed towards a cabinet he barely ever touched, lined with brand-new tableware and cutlery. Aaron was the one who dusted and kept the place organized.

Evan’s brows furrowed as he took out cartons of juice from the fridge and laid them on the counter.

“When did Aaron leave?” he asked, pouring juice into the glasses Celie had washed and wiped before handing to Evan.

She glanced up, her voice as monotonous as his. “Almost immediately after dropping me here. He said his driver had called in sick, so he had to go pick up the others himself.”

“I see.”

That was really…unusual.

Aaron had forgotten to pick up the kids from the station, left Celie alone at home despite Evan’s explicit request not to, and he hadn’t contacted Evan once throughout the whole chaos. It was his nature to handle things on his own if he could, but when it involved Evan, he had always made sure to inform him.

Evan took out his phone as Celie laid out cookies and sweets, neatly arranging them on a tray, seeming intensely focused on the task.

So many questions were at the tip of his tongue, but Evan swallowed them up. He had to save them for a better time. He didn’t want to bombard her with his curiosity as soon as she was home and drive her away.

Dialing Aaron’s number, Evan placed the phone between his ear and shoulder as he placed the juice glasses onto another tray. Strangely enough, Aaron didn’t pick up, the call going straight to voicemail. With an annoyed click of his tongue, Evan pocketed his phone.

“I’ll take this,” Celie reached for the tray of juices.

“It’s alright. I’ll take it.”

The memory of her dropping a whole set of teacups a few years ago—because she couldn’t see where she was stepping—flashed in front of Evan’s eyes, and his heart stuttered nervously. She’d luckily not been burned, just startled, but Evan had almost passed out with a stroke.

Ever since she was a kid, Celie had been clumsy—much like Evan himself. It used to be cute then, but now it just gave Evan those few fluttering visions of heaven’s gate. That’s what happened to him whenever she got hurt.

“I’m not a child anymore,” Celie brushed away Evan’s hands from the tray, brows knitted as she picked the tray up herself. “I can do this much.”

Slowly turning around without spilling a drop, she held the tray to a side, watching her steps as she exited the kitchen. A few moments later, laughter and cheers erupted into the living room, with a faint meow muffled somewhere in the midst.

Oh, Misty is at it again, charming my guests.

Evan smiled softly as he recalled Celie’s determined face just now. She’d really grown up, carrying her own tray and all. When she was little, she insisted her brother do everything for her and treat her like a princess. And Evan was all but honored to cater to his little princess. Despite the ten-year age gap, they’d been inseparable as siblings. Until one day…

Evan’s smile quickly disappeared from his face, not because of the bitter memory that resurfaced, but because of a presence that crept up behind him. Warmth flushed his skin, the scent of damp earth mixed with that of the forest swirling into his nostrils as he spun around.

A red-clad figure stood leaning against the fridge, his towering stature dwarfing the appliance. Strands of raven hair fell into two dark eyes as Xen stared at Evan with a tilt of his head.

Evan’s first thought was to curse him out. Second was to stare at him a little more, study his profile for, well, future references. But then he realized there were people just a wall away, and his eyes widened.

“ What the hell are you doing here ?” He hissed under his breath, throwing cautious glances over his shoulder at the direction from where chatters still flowed into the kitchen.

Xen’s dark eyes followed his. “I see you have guests.”

“That’s not what I asked!” Evan’s eyes narrowed before he crossed his arms across his chest. “Oh, wait. Why did you run away earlier?”

Xen’s eyebrows lifted. “Run away?”

For a moment, Evan studied his expression. Though, as usual, it didn’t give much away. After a beat, he concluded with a sympathetic nod, “You were scared of Del, weren’t you?”

A flash of red lit up the dark pools of Xen’s eyes. “I don’t run away, ” he said, enunciating each word with a quiet intensity.

Evan scoffed, stepping forward to rub it in. “You know, for a demon, you’re not very convincing.”

“I wasn’t trying to be,” Xen took a step closer himself, looming over Evan like a storm about to break.

Dammit, had he grown taller?

“Good," Evan muttered. "Because it won’t work on me.”

A corner of Xen's mouth lifted, flashing his pearl-white fang that seemed to sharpen right before Evan’s eyes. With something cold in his hand, Xen lifted Evan’s chin and leaned down to breathe the velvety words into his face. “One day I’m going to put this smart mouth to good use.”

…Oh.

For a single damned moment, every thought drained from Evan’s brain as his eyes glazed over. He stared into Xen’s hypnotizing eyes, an image rising involuntarily in his brain of him kneeling, his hair tugged back, his mouth being put to good use.

Evan blinked, jerking himself out of his reverie, startled by his own imagination. “You… you…”

Xen grinned as though he’d seen what Evan had imagined. Before Evan could smack that smile off his face, footsteps echoed from the living room, heading towards the kitchen.

Evan’s eyes bulged. “ Shit .”

With a strength Evan didn’t know he possessed, he shoved Xen to the ground by the shoulders, into the empty storage space under the kitchen counter. Considering the physical dynamics, it was probably Xen allowing himself to be pushed around, but he was so big, he hardly squeezed his hunched upper half in the storage space. Those long legs of his that went on forever were spread out on either side of Evan’s feet.

Evan kicked his knees in an attempt to stuff him inside, but Xen instead folded his legs, wrapping them around Evan’s ankles and locking him in place.

Just as Celie appeared at the kitchen door, Evan straightened with a cough, sliding his hands into his pants pocket as if he had bent to just pick something up from the ground. With a confused look, Celie approached the opposite side of the counter, staring at all the snacks still laid out before Evan that he was supposed to bring out. “What were you doing?”

“On a call,” Evan lied, wincing inwardly as he did so. No one in this world could make him feel guilty about lying other than his sister.

“Oh, was it Aaron?”

Evan opened his mouth, but instead of words, another wheezing cough slipped out of him. A warm hand wrapped around his ankle and slipped upward, into his pant leg. Heat rocketed up his body.

A vein surfaced in Evan’s forehead as he hunched over the counter, suppressing the urge to knee the fucker under the counter in the face.

Celie’s eyelids fluttered as she inched closer to the counter. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Evan quickly said, pressing two fingers to his temple. “Just a little tired from work today.”

He cleared his throat rather loudly as Xen’s legs locked tighter around his ankles and hands caressed their way up his calf, kneading the skin with curious, almost greedy fingers.

When a hard bulge pressed against Evan’s toes, his control threatened to snap.

I’m going to castrate you with the blunt end of a rusted butter knife! Evan mentally sneered at Xen. And unexpectedly, for the first time since Evan had started spewing telepathic profanity at Xen, he heard a response echo back in his head.

Please keep threatening me… A nose brushed against Evan’s knee, warm through the fabric of his pants. It’s turning me on.

Heat rocketed down Evan’s body, gathering and bubbling in an area he had long left dormant. A tightness clenched low at his spine, making his toe twitch. If he didn’t die of embarrassment over getting a boner in front of his sister, Evan would rid this world of the demon currently latched onto his legs.

Celie reached over the counter, poking a finger at Evan’s shoulder with wide eyes when a shiver wracked his body. “Hey, you’re scaring me. Are you really okay?”

Mouth pressed into a straight line and eyes narrowed at the counter, Evan picked up the tray of snacks and almost shoved them into Celie’s hands. “Why don’t you take this first? I’ll join you shortly,” his voice came out more strained than normal. More sharp.

When Celie looked hesitant, he urged her with a nod of his head. A look of uncertainty crossed her features before she turned around and headed out of the kitchen.

As soon as Celie left, Evan blindly jammed his knee forward, the brute force enough to crack a human skull open. But instead of a skull, a warm palm greeted his attack, cupping his knee and squeezing it. A light tug on Evan’s bound feet and he tumbled backward with a muffled gasp.

Xen flashed out from below the counter, his lap cushioning Evan’s fall. His hand wrapped around Evan’s mouth to trap another series of curses. “Shh…”

Adrenaline rushed through Evan’s system as he sat panting in the confinement of Xen’s arms, his back pressed against a hard chest. And for a few moments, he remained slumped into him, thankful he’d not made a fool out of himself in front of Celie.

With a puff of breath through his nose, he finally found his equilibrium, then mumbled against Xen’s palm, “ltt gg oofi.” Let go of me .

Enclosing his free arm around Evan’s middle, Xen pulled him completely into himself, dropping his forehead against his shoulder. His palm slipped from Evan’s mouth to wrap around the rest of his body. It seemed as though he wanted to engulf Evan in his arms, to hide him away and never let him go.

“A moment,” Xen’s voice trembled against Evan’s skin like it might sink beneath the surface any moment. “Just a little bit more.”

Evan’s brows lowered as his shoulders slumped in defeat.

Did demons have attachment issues? If not, why was this mountain of a man clinging to him like a puppy?

“This wasn’t in the contract,” Evan muttered to himself but sat still, feeling warm under all the limbs and muscles. He’d become a silkworm, wrapped in a cocoon.

He’d damn himself to hell before admitting it, but being held like that actually wasn’t bad. It’d been quite some time since he’d willingly let anyone embrace him so intimately. The last time that happened was years ago, and he couldn’t distinctly remember whose bed he was in—

A growl stirred low in Xen’s chest, the rumble of it running along Evan’s shoulder blade. His pulse stuttered, breath hitching involuntarily, suddenly aware of just how intimate their position was.

If he just shifted his hips a little, his ass would be flush against Xen’s crotch, where he could undoubtedly feel a hard muscle poking him. If Xen decided to drop his hand lower down Evan’s body, he would definitely feel his—

With a twitch in his lower body, Evan shook his head to ward off the demon’s influence on his thoughts.

No, no, no. That was never going to happen. What was worse than defying the rulebook of his ancestors and shaking hands with a demon?

Fucking the said demon.

He wasn’t going to walk in the footsteps of Florence the witch, no matter how tempting it may seem in his head.

With much effort, he pushed off Xen’s lap. Surprisingly, Xen didn’t object, his hands lingering a moment longer on Evan’s hips before falling away.

But Evan’s legs seemed to have turned to water because before he could stand, he landed back on his ass on the floor.

His face flushed in anger and embarrassment.

It’s because that damned demon pulled me into his lap. It’s a biological reaction!

Resigning to fate, he sat down cross-legged in front of Xen. The sound of laughter was still persistent in the other room as Evan took a moment to relax, facing Xen.

“Why did you disappear earlier?” he asked again, unable to get the question out of his system.

Xen stretched one leg out and folded the other, resting his arm over his bent knee. “I had to take care of some personal business.”

Evan rolled his eyes. “Fine. Then why did you come back here? I’d explicitly asked you to stay away from my sister.”

“And I’d made it clear I am not here for your sister,” Xen cocked his head. “I’m here for you.” With his free hand, he pulled out the thing he’d used to tilt Evan’s chin earlier.

Evan instantly recognized the gadget in his hand as he took it. “Aaron’s phone.” The phone was splattered in dirt, its side cracked. When Evan turned it on, there was his own missed call on the lockscreen. “Where did you get this from?”

“The woods.”

Evan’s head snapped up. “The Dark Wood? What were you doing in—Wait, never mind that. Why was Aaron’s phone there?”

He’d said he was going to pick up Celie’s friends from the nearest station outside town. For that he’d have to cross the town bridge, and that was in the opposite direction of the Dark Woods. Plus, entry into the Dark Woods was forbidden without a permission pass from Choi, who’d been with Evan the whole day.

Had Aaron trespassed into the forest? No, that didn’t make sense. Other than the fact that Aaron would never do something so reckless, he also didn’t have a reason to when Evan could easily conjure a permission pass for him. Aaron shouldn’t have been in the woods unless…

As the information aligned in Evan’s head, his heart dropped.

…unless he hadn’t gone there willingly.