“Lucy, wait…”
Cas caught up to me, taking my arm in his strong grip and turning me to face him. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” I cried incredulously. “Aside from being accosted by demons in the women’s room?”
He stepped back. “What?”
“Deb and K.”
“You saw them? In the flesh?”
I nodded. “They said that I should ask you who I am.”
Cas spat a curse in his native tongue. “They shouldn’t be here. Not on This Side.”
“But what did they mean? Who am I?”
He shook his head and took my arm, walking me away from the bar. “Nothing. They’re sowing discord, that’s all. Trying to upset you.”
“Well, it worked,” I cried. “Am I in danger?”
Cas whirled on me. “No. I’ll let nothing happen to you. I swear it.” He scanned the deserted streets. “But they shouldn’t be here.”
“Well, they are, and you’re acting like you want to sabotage our plan.”
“What are you talking about? Sabotage—?”
“You were hanging all over Abby tonight,” I said, hearing the jealousy in my words. “I mean, that’s…fine. Whatever. You can do whatever you want, but then you act like you want to murder Guy. Like you hate him.”
Casziel ran a hand through his dark hair, a distinctly human gesture. “I don’t…hate him. I’m playing the part. The jealous rival vying for your hand.”
“It doesn’t feel that way. In fact, nothing feels the way it’s supposed to. It’s all messed up.”
“Nothing is messed up,” he shot back.
“It’s all going according to plan. Did you not hear Guy’s serenade?” His voice was dripping with contempt. “Did you not see how he gazed into your eyes, Lucy Dennings?”
“He’s drunk…”
“He’s noticing you. He’s going to fall for you,” he said, his voice faltering. “Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what will make you happy?”
What would make me happy, I realized with an aching heart, had nothing to do with Guy. But if we didn’t at least try to make this plan work, Casziel would be relegated to an eternity of the same pain he’d been drowning in for centuries.
“Yes,” I said. “That would make me happy. Guy and me. Happily ever after. That’s exactly what I want.”
“Then there’s no problem,” Cas gritted out and started to walk past me.
“That,” I said, tugging his arm to make him stop. “That is what I don’t understand. Why you look sad now instead of glad. I feel like there’s a whole other story happening that you’re not telling me. One that I feel like I should remember but can’t. Like a dream that slips away when you wake up.”
“Your imagination, nothing more.”
“Is it? Because the dream I had just the other night—”
“Was just a dream.”
“But—”
A group of people noisily exited a restaurant and headed our way.