Page 105 of Veil of Death and Shadow

Kieran went back to his sullen silence, only occasionally grunting like a moody teenager when he found Aidan’s conversation boring or when he choked back his snarky commentary.

Though when Aidan insisted on walking me back to the apartment, Kieran couldn’t resist responding with, “The woman’s only got her ownliteralguardian here, but yeah sure—walk her home. I’m sureyou’llensure her safety.”

“Well, this is me,” I said, when we reached the diner, wincing at the cheesiness of the line, as if Aiden didn’t walk by the place almost every day. When did I get so fucking awful at this?

“So it is,” he said, his eyes roving over the diner and then up to the apartment windows. When his gaze fell back to meet mine, there was a wistful smile on his face. “This was fun. I really needed a night out. Away from,” he made a vague gesture, “you know . . .”

“Everything?” I finished.

Nodding, he let out a soft laugh. “Exactly.”

“Me, too.”

“So,” he said, face scrunching in question, “does that mean you’ll consider having dinner with me again? Sometime soon?”

Kieran sighed, then kicked a rock into the street.

Aidan turned around, searching for the culprit of the soft echo.

“Yeah, that’d be good,” I rushed out, an attempt to distract him. “Maybe next week?”

And maybe next week, we wouldn’t have a third wheel.

Though the thought of that sent a sharp pang through my chest.

Apparently, I’d grown reluctantly accustomed to the grumpy guardian.

Bad habits were so much easier to pick up than good ones, it seemed.

“Next week is great. Have a good night, Mareena.” Aidan smiled and pressed a soft kiss to my cheek.

I held my breath, hoping like hell that I might feel some kind of flutter or desire at his nearness, but all that I felt was his warmth, and the gentle scratch of his five-o-clock shadow.

And then, when he left, all that I saw was Kieran.

His forehead was pressed against the wall of the diner, and he rolled it over the surface, like he was trying to scrub the tedium of the night from his memory.

Uncharacteristically quiet, he followed me up to the apartment, a silent shadow as I locked the place up and replaced Menace’s water dish.

Sora still wasn’t back. Another anxious search of the place turned up no note, but I choked back my anxiety and fiddled with my ring while I got ready for bed.

My brain was swimming with a million ‘what if’s’ and possibilities of where she could be or of what could have happened to her, when I found Kieran lying on my bed, the book I’d been reading earlier opened on his chest.

“What are you doing?” I asked. I pulled back the covers to nudge him off, but he didn’t budge. After two more tugs, I gave up with a huff and slid myself beneath them. “You’re not sleeping in here.”

“Your friend is okay, Agony.” He put one arm behind his head and stared at the ceiling with so much focused attention, it was like he was trying to memorize every imperfection in the plaster.

“What,” I turned on my side and studied him, “is that your angel Spidey-sense tingling or something? Do you actually know where she is?”

He shook his head, and a small crease formed between his brows. “No, I don’t know for sure. And she’s not my charge, so I don’t have a read on where she is.”

“Then why would you say that?”

“I don’t—” the muscle in his jaw ticked as he searched for the words. “I don’t think that I like it when you feel worried.” His lips pursed in surprise at the admission. “And I thought it might help to have another voice weigh in on the matter—one to combat the voice catastrophizing in there.” He pressed his thumb between my brows, and I felt his touch sink into my bones and carve a crater inside of my chest. When his eyes met mine, there was nothing of the teasing or snark from earlier in the night. Only a steady clarity. “So no, I don’t know for sure that your friend is okay, but it seems far more likely that she is than she isn’t.” He smoothed the worry lines with his thumb, and though it shouldn’t have worked, it did. “Perhaps you inspired her to take the day off to find her own joy. Perhaps she’s out chasing it.”

Nodding, I swallowed back the sudden tightness in my throat. “Okay.”

“And if, in the morning, you’re still concerned, we can look into it.”

---