Page 39 of Run Like the Devil

Gorrin said nothing back, which answered that, didn’t it?

Tyrus cleared his throat. “Well, why don’t we start out ahead? You two can catch up in a few minutes.” With that, he headed off, Yazmor and Hale in tow.

It left Gorrin and I behind.

“We weren’t like that,” Gorrin said, his gaze down.

I took in a deep breath, relief swamping me.

“However, I wanted to be.”

And there goes that relief…

“So why didn’t it happen?” I forced myself to ask.

Gorrin didn’t move or fidget as I would have under that level of scrutiny. His voice was soft when he answered, as though he didn’t want to tell the story. In fact, I’d bet he’d rather face that fog monster than talk about this. “Koller was always reckless and far too enamored with humanity. She never understood her place, that she was to keep order in the Plains. Instead, she was too soft on humans, spent too much of her time on Earth.” He let out a long sigh. “Eventually, she fell in love with a human on Earth. Even knowing it was forbidden, that such a union had no future, she did as she pleased.”

“Hubis kicked her out because of that?”

Gorrin shook his head. “If it was only that, he wouldn’t have intervened. He would have allowed her the time to realize it was a bad idea, to watch the human age and eventually die. The problem came when she attempted to usurp the order of things. She tried to take his soul herself, to free him from being bound to Hubis or anyone else. Angels cannot have souls bound to them though, not without taking on a demon form as I did. Her actions destroyed the human and nearly her as well. When Hubis found out, he wanted to kill her. I pled for her life, and only because of Hubis’ fondness of me, did he agree to exile as a punishment.”

Which meant that while Gorrin had cared for Koller, it had gone unrequited.

“I was never what she wanted,” Gorrin whispered. “And because of that, I could only watch as she made choices that destroyed her. When she was made a human, I cut ties with her, knowing that my presence would only remind her of what she’d lost.”

He didn’t need to add the rest—that he’d felt the same way watching me in the Chasm, having to stand by while I made choices he feared would lead to my demise.

He’d watched one person he loved destroy themselves, and he’d fought against me so hard to ensure it didn’t happen a second time.

I set my hand on his chest for balance, then went to my toes to brush my lips against his. My thoughts felt too jumbled for me to be certain what I meant with that kiss, but one thing was for sure—I better understood why he’d acted as he had.

He didn’t just accept the sweet gesture, though. Instead, he wrapped an arm behind me, pulling me flush against his chest, and made my kiss seem like kindergarteners playing doctor for the first time. He slipped his tongue past my lips, delving into the heat of my mouth, to tease me in a way that made me wonder if we could get away with having sex right here on the Path.

That would be a pretty good claim if Koller saw that, right?

The pettiness might have shamed me if I were a better person.

Gorrin, forever the responsible one, broke the kiss. His panting breath warmed my still damp lips and his honey-colored eyes bore into me as he stared down. “We should get going.”

“Are we going to see her?”

He nodded. “Koller can be reckless and naïve, but she wouldn’t cause us harm on purpose. If she’s here, she could have information that would benefit us.”

I gripped his shirt tightly in my fist, not giving a fuck that I’d wrinkled it. I just needed to hold fast, to cling to him, and the way Gorrin held me said the same.

It felt strange for us, out of character for the independent people we were, but that didn’t stop the way I wanted to never let him go. Even if it was stupid—and it was—I wanted to go right past Koller, to ignore any help she wanted to hold out to us.

As those feelings swamped me, I shook my head and shoved away from Gorrin.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

I peered over at Gorrin, who seemed every bit as perplexed by his behavior as I did.

I had a sinking feeling that whatever was happening would only get worse…

Chapter Ten

Wow, look at that—I still hate her.

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