Page 42 of A Hint of Delirium

That morning, I strolled into the kitchen after showering and getting dressed in the clothes he and my mom had packed for me. I was exhausted.

“Didn’t get much sleep?”

I frowned. “How can you tell?”

He pointed to his eyes. “You got dark circles.”

I slapped my palms over my eyes and groaned. Ansel chuckled.

“It’s no big deal. You still look beautiful.” With that bombshell lingering in the air, he turned his attention back to the newspaper he held in one hand while he lifted a spoon from his bowl of cereal with the other.

I peeked around my palms at him. When he said things like that, the butterflies in my stomach stirred. It wasn’t fair. How could he be so chill, as if nothing ever bothered him, while I was standing over here being freaked out by being called beautiful? My cheeks burned with embarrassment. “What are we going to do today?” I asked, swiftly changing the subject.

“Wearen’t doing anything,” he said. “I’mgoing to be doing some stuff whileyoustay in the apartment until your shift tonight at the piano bar.”

“You’re shutting me out?” I scoffed.

“No.” He shook his head and wagged a finger at me. “I’m keeping you safe.”

“How?” I crossed my arms over my chest and popped a hip, ready to get up on my high horse.

He sized me up and down in a slow perusal that made my toes curl, finishing it off with a lazy smirk. His heated gaze lingered over every inch of my body like a phantom caress along my skin. Only the peppering of goosebumps was evidence of his effect on me. Why did he make me feel this way? Even as irritated as I was at him, his intense scrutiny activated something inside me that I was too conflicted to acknowledge.

“If they figure out what you are, Vi, they can easily pluck you off the street. You’re safe in the apartment for now, as long as no one learns that you’re a halfling.”

“I can’t stay in this apartment forever,” I grumbled petulantly.

“Which is why you’re going to work tonight.”

I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess … you’re coming, too.”

He winked but didn’t say a word.

Asshole.

22

ALEC

Sage stirred beside me. I shifted to my side to watch her as she woke up, stretching her long limbs as the sheets gently unfurled over her naked body.

“Good morning,” I murmured.

“Good morning.” She grinned. “Feels like old times.”

“Sure does.” I brushed her blonde hair back. “Although we were more subdued this time. No property was destroyed,” I smirked, sitting up and stretching with a groan.

She leaned on her arm and watched me. “True. You’ve lost your touch.”

I chuckled. “If you say so.” I swung my legs over the bed, reaching down on the floor for my pants. I slipped them on commando and walked toward the open balcony doors that looked out onto Central Park.

Bundling the sheets around her, Sage came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my mid-section. “Why you want to live here is beyond me.”

I grinned as I peered down at Central Park, so high from my perch that the little humans appeared to be nothing more than swirling ants. “Sometimes I stand here and wonder what it would be like to burn it all down,” I murmured.

“Ah, sothat’swhy you like it here!” Sage laughed. “No wonder.” She pulled away and came to stand in front of me. “Cael called last night.”

I raised a brow. “Oh?”

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