Page 83 of Howl for the Gargoyle

And in spite of what I'd said to Rafe just minutes ago, I was suddenly desperately grateful to anything and everything in my life that had brought me to this man.

CHAPTER 28

Rafe

"TAKE THAT! HA!"

"Go to hell, Hannah."

I grinned, watching Hannah trounce Natalie at another round of darts. At my side, Theo sucked in a breath and swallowed the last of his drink.

"I need to go intervene," he said.

I raised my eyebrows. "Do you?"

Theo's smile was sheepish. "Natalie's a sore loser."

I was going to say that Nat had never seemed sore during our games, and then I realized that was because she'd always won. I cupped my hands to my mouth and called across Nightlight.

"Good job, babe, you kicked her ass."

"Oh, thanks, that helps," Theo muttered, stifling his laugh as Natalie glared daggers at me and Hannah just rolled her eyes.

Elias passed Theo, and it took me a moment to register seeing the mothman out from behind his bar. He had a basket of fried pickles in one hand and a shot of what looked like his ghost pepper moonshine in the other.

"Here," he said, passing me the food and drink. He pulled a stool out from his bar and sat down next to me, staring at our friends. "How are you?"

Hannah was twisting her hair up off her neck, revealing a hickey I'd left that I was pretty sure she didn't know about yet. Natalie was still fuming, but Theo and Hannah were smoothing the way with some distracting conversation, from what I could tell.

"I'm really good," I said, grinning in a way I knew would baffle Elias.

But when I glanced at him, I found his stare fixed to my scars. "And your wings?"

I blinked. "Were you worried about me, Elias?"

"A bit," he said, meeting my eyes.

Which was startling.

"Khell told me you were healing," he said.

Khell had texted after the full moon to check in on my "mating progress" with Hannah, and I'd updated him on the events that had passed. Hannah had spoken with Theo too. One direction or another, the news would've reached Elias, but I hadn't reached out to the moth fae directly.

Smirking, I opened my phone and started a group chat between Khell, Theo, Elias, and myself, sending a pickle emoji and nothing else. Elias pulled out his phone and stared at the text, at the screen, at the names listed, and then put it back in his pocket.

"How did it happen?" he asked instead.

"Uhhh. Fincher followed Hannah home. Must've been watching us, 'cause he—"

"Not that," Elias said. "I read the police report—"

"Elias, how did you get the police—"

"How did you end up in love with a client?"

I gaped at him briefly and then shook my head, popping the questions that bubbled up. He wouldn't answer them anyway.

I had asked Khell a similar question when he'd quit MSA, unable to fathom forming an emotional attachment to any of my own clients.

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