What the fuck?Dear Lord, he’s gorgeous.
Smells good too!But also, what the fuuuuuck?!
But the moment was over as soon as it happened. He stepped to the side so I could shuffle out of the path of the door as he pulled it open.
“After you,” he said, and Isworehis eyes sparked with the same swirls of rose-colored energy that were emanating in the air around him.
Attraction. I’m seeing attraction.
Holy shit.
If we were in any other situation, I probably would have ruminated on that fact and twirled it every which way in my head, dissecting it for hours. But this wasn’t any other situation, because we were stepping into a place where we didn’t belong and needed to be on our best—or worst?—behavior.
“Whoa…” I breathed, for once at a loss for words as I looked around.
I had been expecting something as dark and dilapidated as the disguised building we’d first approached, but that wasn’t what awaited us at all. Instead, it was like we were stepping into a wide, long, and well-lit street that stretched on for longer than a city block.
Not much of the night sky was visible above, obscured by all sorts of vegetation hanging down from vines, thick moss, and bioluminescent plants. But between all that, I saw stars that were overly bright, like someone had put a magnifying glass over the whole place. It was stunning just as much as it was alien, and if I didn’t know better, I would think we were no longer on Earth at all.
“How is this possible?” I breathed quietly, which was probably still too loud, but oh well. I was caught up in just howcreepy but cool, how atmospheric but uncanny, how beautiful but unnatural the whole place was.
“Probably pocket dimension magic,” Paul said with a shrug like it was the most obvious thing. Well, it looked like I had another thing to add to my ever-growing list of TBR (to be researched, of course).
“Probably,” I agreed, like I had any sort of opinion on the matter.
But how theymadethe space ranked as slightly less interesting than how theyarrangedthe space, and I took another couple of steps forward.
It was like a mix between a jazz festival, an Italian mezzanine, and a typical city neighborhood with brownstones on either side of the long street, some with business signs on them, some with open doors and people sitting on the stoops, and some as silent as the graves we’d end up in if we crossed the wrong person.
Exciting.Terrifying. But cool!But also, have you consideredterrifying?
I looked at the large, open-air area to my left, where tables were all set up—enough for a couple dozen people to sit and eat at—complete with fairy lights strung up between posts. Notliteralfairies, of course. I was pretty sure those didn’t exist. Granted, with everything I was learning tonight, maybe I was wrong about that.
To my right, on the cobblestone that reminded me of a palazzo, was what looked to be a beer garden with a canopy over it, stretched wide to make a sheltered sitting area in case it rained.
Or maybe for anyone who’s sun-sensitive in these parts?
Interesting.
“Let’s start with that area,” I said, jerking my head in the direction of the outdoor seating area.
“Any reason or just intuition?”
“Good ol’ psychic gut feeling.”
“Right. I’ll get us drinks, so we can blend in. Any requests?”
“Something with caffeine. And a lot of it.” I’d only had one energy drink so far, and that really wasn’t enough. Especially since I was about to use my abilities a whole lot. Even though it was a part of me, it still took quite a lot of energy. “And make it a double.”
“All right, then.”
Paul headed off the ten or so feet under the canopy. I knew it was implied that I should stay still and wait for him. I meant to, truly, but as I scanned the area, my eyes settled on a hulking man. Swirls of true happiness geysered up around him in random jets of rainbow sparkles.
That seemed as good a place to start as any.
“Hey there,” I said, sliding onto the bench opposite him. The giant bowl of broth he was leaning over obscured perhaps the world’s tiniest kitten from my view. “Who’s your friend there?”
“She came to me,” he said sharply, not even looking up. “You can’t have her!”