Page 22

Julian escorted me upstairs after we arrived back at Damen’s house, grabbed something from Miles’s bedroom, and led me to a bathroom I hadn’t seen before.

“Here you go, darling,” he said, handing me a little tan sachet. “Why don’t you take a bath before the others get back? It’ll help you feel better, and then I can properly clean up the cuts on your hands and legs.”

I peeked in the bathroom. It was as large as a bedroom, designed with a dark undertone, and was complete with a wardrobe/linen closet, double sink, a wicker chair, and a deep tub under a stained-glass window on the opposite end.

Despite Damen’s choice of outdoor decor and the exterior disrepair, it was a fact that his interior design skills were on point.

Still, though…

I warily stepped into the room as Julian passed me and turned on the water. Then he opened the wardrobe and pulled out a towel. I hesitantly reached for it, wishing I could thank him, but my focus was pulled in multiple directions .

The last time I was in a similar position, it hadn’t ended well for me.

“O-okay…” My mouth went dry as I looked around in the large space. I doubted the ghost that’d hurt me before could get me here, but still…

“Bianca?” Julian paused, the folded towel still in his hand. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s fine,” I said, grabbing my sleeve and looking toward the ornate mirror. He stepped closer to me, and I added, “I won’t take long.”

“Hey…” He placed his hand on my shoulder, and I breathed in, trying to control my crumbling nerves. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Ye...” I began but then stopped and bit my lip. My heart was pounding as my chest grew tight. “No.”

He waited, and I shook my head and clenched my fists against my thighs. “I was scared earlier,” I told him, and the lights glittered as my vision wavered. “I thought—I thought I’d be taken away and might not ever see anyone again. That—that I’d get hurt.”

“Bianca—” Julian began, but I kept going.

Once the confession fully slipped from me, I could no longer hold back.

“I-I don’t like getting hurt,” I said, wiping my eyes with my wrists.

It was a stupid thing to say—no one liked getting hurt—but I could think of no other way to explain.

“I’m—I’m afraid to go to sleep tonight because I’ll have a dream about it. I don’t—I don’t want to be alone.”

I was suddenly pulled against him, my face pressed against his chest.

“You don’t need to be afraid,” he told me, and I could feel his steady breathing under my cheek. Even so, his hold was firm, assured, as he ran his hands down my arms .

But… he didn’t understand.

Still, his voice and demeanor reassured me, making it easier to breathe. I raised my hands and gripped his shirt at his sides. I wasn’t sure I believed him entirely yet, but his confidence was contagious. “O-okay,” I said again.

“How about I stay with you?” Julian asked. He stepped back, hands holding mine as the towel fell to the ground between us. “Would it make you feel better to have me nearby?”

I glanced between the tub and the seemingly long distance to the door. It was stupid, but “M-maybe. But…”

“But what?” Julian asked, rubbing his thumb in a circle over my wrist.

“I’d be naked,” I told him.

“I know,” he said, his face darkening. His gaze turned from mine, and he stared at some point over my shoulder. And when he spoke, his voice was a pitch lower than usual. “People are naked while bathing. I’m trying not to think about that. But I won’t look.”

I bit my lip and glanced back toward the tub. Strangely enough, having him stay would make me feel better. Plus, it wouldn’t be nearly so lonely. The last thing I needed was to fall asleep in the bath again. “If—if you don’t mind….”

“I don’t mind,” Julian said, returning my attention to him. His expression had turned into something serious as he added, “I just want to make sure you’re comfortable and safe. Then, I can also check that you’re not hurt—I know you’re in more pain than you’ve let on.”

Julian was more sensitive to my physical ailments than the others, plus he had a way of noticing things that others didn’t. Perhaps this was why he decided to become a doctor. Or maybe… He seemed upset about his abilities, which I was not sure what they entailed .

Perhaps they were related.

Either way, I wasn’t used to this level of attention, and I felt guilty about downplaying his concerns earlier.

“I’m sorry…” I told him. “I’m not trying to hide it.” I wasn’t—this was nothing. And this sort of thing never had been worth talking about before.

“That’s not what I meant.” Julian’s eyes widened, and he squeezed my hands. “I just wish you’d let me take care of you. I don’t think you understand how important you’ve become to us over the last few days.”

That didn’t make any sense. “Then why are you sad?”

“Never mind.” He sighed, releasing my hand. “You’ll understand someday.”

I doubted it. “Okay…”

Julian quirked his lips before he walked to the chair and turned it to face the wall. “Don’t mind me,” he said, pulling out a blue-cased cellphone. “I’ll just be reading.”

“Blue?” I asked. Knowing what I did now, the color had taken on a new meaning. I side-eyed him.

He clearly hadn’t stopped watching me yet because he chuckled under his breath.

“Yes, Bianca.” He didn’t even glance in my direction as he spoke. “Blue is my favorite color. Damen’s favorite color is red. Miles’s is brown, and Titus’s is white.”

I stared at his unfazed form, incredulous. “Who in the world has favorite colors of white and brown? White isn’t even a color! I bet those colors are attributed to the element we’re supposed to represent. Could you be any more stereotypical? Finn’s favorite color is red, too, you know.”

There was a hint of a smirk on his lips, but he responded with the same matter-of-fact tone as he continued to watch his phone. “Didn’t you say that your favorite color was pink? ”

“I did not.” I didn’t even realize he remembered that conversation. “I said that pink is my second favorite color. My favorite color is green.”

Julian smirked, glancing at me. “How… stereotypical.”

“What?” I wasn’t sure what to make of this. I never expected Julian to tease me.

“The color for the Wood element is green,” he replied.

“I’m going to take a bath.” I changed the subject, quickly stripping and ducking into the foamy water. I wasn’t even going to dignify that statement with a response.

He didn’t reply, and eventually, I leaned back against the side of the tub and closed my eyes. Whatever Julian had put into the water helped ease the deep aches that’d settled in my bones, and his presence remained a comforting reassurance.

I didn’t have to worry about being alone, at least.

Julian seemed content to let me be with my thoughts, which I appreciated. Somehow, he seemed to know exactly what I needed.

“Are you falling asleep?” Julian’s voice broke through my awareness. It was that, and not the lukewarm water washing over me, that reminded me I still sat in the tub.

I blearily raised my head from my crossed arms and glanced at him. At this point, I had no idea how long I’d been in here.

He picked up on my disoriented state. “It’s been forty-five minutes. The others are already back. Do you want to head down?”

“Yes.” I had to admit I felt much better now and more than ready to take on the rest of the evening.

Julian bandaged my knees and hands—which, in my opinion, was still overkill as there was nothing there beyond the slightest of scrapes—and I got dressed. True to his word, we weren't alone when we entered the living room.

“Bianca!” Miles swooped in on my other side and grasped my hands. “I heard about what happened! Are you okay? If I’d been there, I would have—”

“You’d have what?” Titus scoffed, barely looking up from his conversation with Damen.

Miles glared at him, hackles rising. “I’d have killed them!”

“Sure,” Titus said. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“Be nice,” Damen frowned at Titus.

I glanced between them and found myself agreeing with the dragon. Miles was much too pure to go around murdering people—even bad guys.

“Thank you,” I said anyway. It was kind of him to offer. However, I’d observed him in a fight already, and even though he’d wiped the floor with his foe, in terms of lethality and strength, he was far from where he should have been.

“I believe you,” I told him because I believed that he would have tried and most likely won. But he probably wouldn’t have killed anyone yet.

“What do you want to do tonight?” the witch continued, pulling me away from Julian and to the couch. “We should probably relax while we can. Damen invited Bryce and Brayden over tomorrow to see if we can end things with the ghost that tried to kill you and Finn the other night.”

“Did he?” I glared at the onmyoji, but he pointedly looked away from me.

“But Miles…” I turned back to him. This was terrible timing for interlopers to appear. Miles must have so many other responsibilities. “Tomorrow is the full moon.”

What were we going to do? Could we hunt a ghost without him ?

Actually, we most likely could, especially considering how he was frightened of them. But that was beside the point.

Miles opened his mouth to say something, but my focus had already moved on. I glanced at Titus. “Didn’t you have a meeting tonight?”

“No,” Titus said, and from how he was grabbing his phone, it was clear that it’d completely slipped his mind. “I’m canceling it right now.”

I watched him as Miles showed me to a seat. Honestly, I’d thought he would be more responsible. Yet, lately, he’d been rather busy with my drama. I shuddered to think of the Mafia/shifter work he must have missed over the last few days.

He’d made fun of Miles, but had he ever killed someone?

Even if he had, there was probably a reason: bad blood, stolen money, vigilantism. I couldn’t expect him to reschedule his life for my sake. “You—”

My statement was cut off as Titus’s phone chimed again.