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6

CALLIOPE

A s I stepped into the elevator with Adan, I knew nothing would ever be the same. What he’d told me should be impossible, but there was no denying something was otherworldly in the way his eyes bled completely to black.

The hotel, too. Now that I was paying attention, the entire building felt quietly alive in a way I couldn’t explain.

My pulse picked up as the doors slid closed behind us. Hoping to soothe my nerves, I joked, “Next you’ll tell me you have a dragon chained up in the basement.”

Adan’s deep chuckle filled the lift. “Wouldn’t be the strangest thing under this roof.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” I peered up at him, searching for any sign that he was teasing me but finding none. “Dragons are real?”

He nodded. “I don’t have one in the basement, but dragon shifters do exist and stay at The Abyss from time to time.”

I gawked at him, wondering if any of the guests I’d seen in the bar shared their body with a freaking dragon. “Like now?”

“Sorry, but no.” He shook his head with a laugh. “I can put in a call to an acquaintance of mine to see if he can swing by, but he likes to stick closer to home now that his son is in that curious stage where he likes to explore and get into all sorts of trouble. Safer to do on his own territory.”

He was talking about calling a man who could turn into a dragon as if it were the world's most normal thing. And maybe to him, it was. For me, it was mind-blowing, which was a good way to describe my night at The Abyss overall. Starting with the man at my side.

Adan’s steps were unhurried, matching mine with quiet ease. Even with my mind still whirling, I didn’t miss how his black dress shirt clung to his shoulders and arms as though it had been tailored to worship his powerful body. Or that his thighs had no business looking that good in those pants.

I’d just found out he was a demon, but instead of being panicked, all I felt was a humming sort of awareness that I didn’t want to define just yet. Luckily, I was saved from considering the reason for that by the elevator door sliding open.

I’d always loved discovering new places, wandering into hidden gems and sharing them with the world. But The Abyss wasn’t just a place I hadn’t visited before. It was somewhere I hadn’t even known was possible.

“Is it always this quiet?” I asked, my voice soft in the hush of the empty hallway.

Adan glanced back at me with a faint smile. “The entirety of the hotel, no. But this particular area doesn’t get much more foot traffic than the tenth floor since only a handful of employees are allowed to be here.”

There was a good chance he’d say I was an exception because I was his fated mate, but that was a topic I wasn’t ready to touch. So I just nodded and let him guide me farther down the hallway.

My sandals barely made a sound against the stone floor as I followed Adan down the corridor. The air was cool but not unwelcoming.

The farther we went, the more I noticed details I hadn’t caught before. The wall sconces shifted ever so subtly as we passed, the golden light softening when it fell on me, almost as though it was being filtered through warmth. I glanced over my shoulder, but the shadows behind us seemed unchanged. The floor gleamed without showing our reflections, and the walls bore faint carvings unlike anything I had ever seen. The closest I’d come in my travels was some old Viking runes in Scandinavia…but the ones here pulsed with energy, alive in a way no carving should be.

“What are these symbols?” I brushed my fingers lightly over the nearest one and felt a slight buzz against my fingertips.

“Wards,” Adan answered, moving closer with a satisfied gleam in his eyes that I didn’t understand. “This is one of my protective glyphs. Some guard against intrusion, others keep the building hidden from human eyes. Most respond only to me.”

“But I can see them.” I looked up at him.

He offered a faint smile. “I know.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I stayed quiet, taking in the subtle, impossible changes around me.

A doorway on our left blinked—actually blinked—before dissolving into the wall. I stumbled to a halt. “Did that just…”

“It did,” he confirmed with a nod. “The Abyss adapts to its guests. Some rooms shift location based on energy or need.”

“And some freaking blink like an eye?”

My dismay made him chuckle as he pressed his palm against my lower back to lead me farther down the hallway.

We turned another corner, and a massive window came into view. This one revealed a night sky awash in stars. There were too many for me to count. They glittered in a deep violet sky, and the constellations were unfamiliar, as though they belonged to a different world altogether. It wasn’t even the oddest thing I had encountered tonight, but the sight made me stumble to a stop.

“Where is that?”

“A place the window remembers,” he murmured. “Sometimes, The Abyss shows you what you need to see.”

As I stared out at the stars, a tall woman in a long gray cloak passed us. Her silver hair tumbled in waves down her back, and her eyes glowed faintly gold when she looked at me. They weren’t hostile, just curious.

“Good evening, Lord Deville,” she said in a twinkling voice.

He inclined his head with a kind of reverence I’d seen the hotel staff give him. “Good evening, Mistress Elari.”

When she walked out of view, I gave him a sidelong glance. “Lord Deville, huh? You didn’t mention that title earlier.”

He smirked. “Would you have taken me seriously if I’d led with that?”

“Probably not,” I admitted. “But it explains the whole ‘demon royalty’ vibe you’ve got going on.”

“Keep complimenting me, and I might think you’re warming up to the idea of staying longer,” he warned.

Considering everything he’d told me and the strange things I’d seen with my own eyes, I should’ve been running for the door. But as odd as this place was, I felt welcomed. At home, even. And I couldn’t deny the magnetic pull I felt toward Adan.

“You’re not exactly making it easy to walk away.”

“Good.” He settled his hand at my lower back again, and the heat of his touch seeped into my bones. “Then I’d better keep it up.”

We passed a hallway lined with mirrors that had ornate black frames. Except when I turned to look, my reflection was only a faint outline. Adan’s was completely there, standing beside me.

“Okay, what in the heck is up with that?” I whispered.

“Not all mirrors show the surface. Some reflect presence. Magic. What’s hidden inside.”

Before I could ask why I appeared at all on the reflective surface when I was just a human, the atmosphere changed. The only part of this hallway I hadn’t seen yet was a single black door ahead of us.

It was unlike any that we’d passed during the tour. Taller, narrower, and smooth as obsidian. It didn’t have any symbols etched into the hard surface. There wasn’t even a doorknob. Just a faint shimmer, like the surface itself resisted being touched.

Adan’s gait slowed. His shoulders stiffened, and the air around him pulled tighter, like a current going still before a storm. His presence didn’t dim, exactly. But it shifted. As though it was being shielded by something I couldn’t see.

I stopped walking. “What’s behind there?”

He paused before answering, “That door isn’t part of the tour.”

I blinked. “You’ve told me more about demons, supernatural wards, and shape-shifting dragons than I imagined possible. And a random door is where you draw the line?”

“There’s nothing arbitrary in my reasons for skipping this particular one.” He turned to face me, but the smile he flashed at me didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Some things aren’t ready to be seen. Not yet.”

My stomach flipped, more from curiosity than fear. “You’re being cagey.”

“Only a little.” He shrugged. “I can’t give away all my secrets right off the bat.”

Whatever was behind that door, my gut told me it was important to Adan. I studied him for a moment, my curiosity sharpening, but I ultimately decided to save my questions for later. “I suppose that would ruin your air of mystery.”

“And it would be a damn shame to lose your interest.”

I snorted and muttered, “As if that’s going to happen.”

He was smug as he guided me to a set of stone stairs that led to the public sections of the hotel. By the time we looped back toward the elevator, the energy between us had shifted. Not drastically—or even all at once. But I felt it in the brush of his hand against my back. Also in the way his gaze lingered when I glanced at him. And how neither of us spoke, as though words might shatter whatever fragile thread was drawing us closer.

My breath caught as we reached the corridor near my suite. The hush pressed in closer now, thick with anticipation. The walls still hummed with subtle magic, but it felt different now. Somehow, it seemed less like the building reacting to me and more like it was holding its breath for us. Waiting for our return.

I stopped outside the door to my room and turned to him, needing to break the spell of silence. “I feel like there’s a lot you haven’t told me yet.”

He arched a dark brow, amusement shining from his gorgeous blue eyes. “It would take far longer than one evening to fill you in on all the secrets of The Abyss.”

“What about yours?”

His lips curved. “Considering I’ve been alive for hundreds of years, that would take a while, too.”

“Hundreds…as in plural?” I whispered, trying to wrap my head around this man being more than five times my age.

“Very much plural,” he confirmed with a nod, pressing his finger beneath my chin to close my gaping mouth.

“I…I don’t even know how to respond to that.”

His eyes darkened, the blue deepening to a stormy hue that made my heart stutter. “How about you promise to stick around so I can tell you more tomorrow?”

“I guess I could do that.” I licked my lips, which suddenly felt dry. “I missed check-in for my other hotel reservation, so I’m sure they canceled it on me.”

“Good.”

Then he kissed me. The press of his lips against mine wasn’t rushed or tentative. It was a deliberately slow claiming. His hand curved around the back of my neck, thumb brushing just beneath my ear. The heat of his mouth slid over mine like a promise, and everything else faded into the background. Including the part of me that still tried to deny that any of this was real.

The only thing I was aware of was Adan. The feel of his lips. The quiet strength in his touch. And the sudden, breathless awareness that something in me was changing—responding to him in a way that defied logic.

I swayed toward him, wanting more, but then he stilled. His hand tensed slightly at my nape, and he pulled back, just enough to rest his forehead against mine. His breathing turned ragged, his voice rough with restraint. “Something’s wrong.”

A knot formed low in my stomach. “What do you mean?”

“A ripple in the wards.” He pulled away, his hand lingering on my neck for a heartbeat longer. “I have to check on something.”

Disappointment and confusion churned in my chest, but I nodded. “Okay.”

His gaze swept over me as though he didn’t want to forget a single detail. “I’ll see you soon, Calliope.”

He turned and walked away, his powerful stride already shifting into something more purposeful…and dangerous.

I entered my suite, and the door closed behind me with a soft click. But I didn’t move right away. My fingers brushed my lips as my heart thundered in my chest.

The kiss had shaken me for all the right reasons. But it was the look in his eyes as he walked away that really made my knees go weak.