Veiled Threats by Ava L Bishop & Auburn Tempest

Author:Ava L Bishop & Auburn Tempest [Bishop, Ava L & Tempest, Auburn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dauntless Publishing Inc
Published: 2024-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

The night was dark, cold, and miserable. Sleet hammered against the windows in huge gusts as snow turned the streets to slush, and I had never been so grateful to be holed up inside on a couch, wrapped in a cozy patchwork blanket, with a takeout box of shrimp and pasta in my hands.

Bastian shifted slightly beside me, tilting the cushion in a way that slid me more firmly against him. Gravity and all that. Look, it was simple physics. That was my story, and I was sticking to it.

His arms slid around my shoulder, encouraging me to lean against his chest while he steadily made his way through his own dinner, one-handed from where it was balanced on his knee.

It was nice. Really nice. Especially since Bastian, while he wasn’t exactly warm, was above room temperature these days, so it wasn’t like cuddling with an ice pack anymore.

He called me earlier to tell me his job was wrapped up and asked if I wanted to grab food. After making sure that it wouldn’t be one of his more creative dining experiences—because I was not mentally prepared for that at the moment—I met him at his apartment, right as the storm moved in.

It was nice to get away from all the Magi stuff for an evening. Even though Bastian wasn’t technically human. And even though I spent an hour catching him up on all the crap that had been going on since we saw each other last.

It still felt like an escape, and that was good enough for me.

“So, Tessa is worried, but not in a specific way.” I popped a prawn into my mouth and closed my eyes to savor the rich cream sauce. There was nothing better than a carbohydrate coma when the weather was crap. “She didn’t find anything, so she said to take it easy and to let her know if anything changes.”

Bastian nodded, but his mouth was tight…so was his grip on my shoulder.

I shifted a little to get more comfortable, and he relaxed his hand like he hadn’t realized how strongly he had been clutching. Bastian was a lot of things, but silent wasn’t one of them. Not to say he was never quiet, he was…but this was different. It felt heavy.

I poked around, hunting through my pasta for another mushroom. “How was work? What does your brand of demolitions involve?”

Some of the tension eased out of his shoulders, and he hummed. It felt like I was cuddling a person again, and not a piece of statuary.

“It’s not very exciting.” Bastian shrugged. “I wait until it’s dark and do a walkthrough of the building. When I’m sure there’s no one and nothing inside, I just…”

He made a ‘poof’ gesture with the hand not holding his fork.

I shook my head at him, nudging him with one shoulder. “Only you could think that disintegrating a building could be not very exciting.”

That earned me a proper smile. “So, what about the mystery your letter-writing friend put you

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.