“No.” I took his arm. “Let’s walk and talk.” I called back to Aedan. “Give us a five-minute head start.”
Aedan’s sense of smell was keen enough he could follow our path to wherever Asa had parked his SUV.
Once we got far enough away from Aedan, I leaned in close. “Your other half was ready to tear him a new one.”
“Last night?” Asa absorbed the information in stride. “I did warn you rapid transformations were likely to happen as we progress.”
According to him, the daemon would claim his skin more often to ensure I cared about them both.
“I don’t mind him visiting.” It sounded odd but felt right. “But he can’t kill everyone who talks to me.”
“Any man who talks to you,” he clarified, as if that made all the difference.
“Yes.” I pinched his side. “He needs to learn how to behave.”
“He doesn’t want to lose you.”
I heard what Asa left unsaid, that he didn’t want to lose me either. “He won’t.”
A twitch in his neck warned me he wanted to look back at Aedan. “Are you certain?”
“Did you know Aedan is in his twenties?” I jerked on his arm to stop him. “He’s a baby.”
A short laugh huffed out of him. “Daemons mature at accelerated rates.”
“He’s a third of my age, Asa. I have zero interest in him. Besides, he flirted with Arden.”
Tension knotted his shoulders as his protective instincts kicked in. “That is not advisable.”
“I warned him off her.” I rested my head on his shoulder. “She’s not ready, I don’t think.”
“And, perhaps more pressing, she doesn’t know daemons exist.”
“That too.” I buried my face in his suit jacket and breathed in his green apples and cherry tobacco scent. “Ain’t love grand?”
“Yes.” He appeared to give it serious consideration before smiling down on me. “I believe it is.”
The way my throat swelled shut convinced me I would never breathe normally again.
“I gave you five,” Aedan said from behind us. “You kind of stalled out, and I didn’t know what to do.”
A grateful laugh unglued me, relief a giddy thrill in my middle, and I latched onto the interruption.
“You’re fine.” I pulled back from Asa. “We got distracted.”
The glamour suited Aedan, but I could tell he didn’t interact as a human often.
“What’s that smell?” His sharp inhale flared the sides of his neck. “Can we…?”
“Your, um, gills are showing.” I ran a finger down my throat. “You might want to fix that.”
“You forgot your bag.”
The voice drew my attention back toward the shop, which was barely in sight.
“Rue.” Arden lifted the duffle in question. “Wait.”
Part of me felt vindicated for my earlier clumsiness when she tripped on the same notch in the sidewalk, then I watched, helpless, as she took the same tumble. I ran to help her up and dust her off, but Aedan beat me by a mile.