“Oh, he’ll be fine,” Citrine said lightly.
“He’s had worse,” Sever said. “Deservedly so.”
She looked at the braid-wearing giant in surprise. “He didn’t deserve this. He was saving me.”
They had just reached the bottom of the stairs, and Sever raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Excuse me, what?”
Citrine stopped dead. “He rescued you?”
“Adrien?” Sever said, aghast. “This guy? Are you sure you saw right in the darkness?”
She nodded, vaguely offended for Adrien that his friends didn’t believe he would do something selfless. “Why? Is it so shocking?”
Sever gave her a long look head to toe. “Yeah,” he said drily. “It really is.” He looked at Citrine. “A human,” he said in a hushed voice.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, following them as they started up the steps.
She got no answer from the men in front of her until they reached the top of the steps.
“We’ll talk more in the morning,” Citrine said. “For now, I’ll show you your room.”
“I’m not staying in some strange building with men I don’t know,” she insisted, trying not to think about how warm and nice a room here would be.
She followed them to the hallway at the end of the current one, and Citrine walked to a door to the right. He pulled out keys and unlocked the door.
“Look,” he said. “We run a legitimate business, and the last thing we would do is commit a crime or hurt someone. You can tell anyone where you are, but we need you to stay here.”
She took a step back, wondering if they would chase her if she ran.
“Look into my eyes,” Citrine said, stepping forward. “I promise you no harm will come to you.” He removed a key from the keychain and held it out to her. “This is the only key. No one will come in without you opening the door.”
She reached out and snatched it from his hand. She didn’t want to stay, but she didn’t really have a choice. And when she snuck a look at his eyes, she did trust him, despite all her reasons not to.
Plus, she still owed Adrien at least a thank you. And she wanted to stick around long enough to make sure he was all right.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll stay. Just until morning.”
Citrine smiled in satisfaction while Sever just let out a huff. “Perfect,” Citrine said. “We will see you in the morning, then.”
She looked at Adrien. “Take care of him.” She couldn’t make them go to the hospital, and they probably knew more about their friend than she did.
She unlocked the door to her room and walked in, feeling she was in a dream.
She turned around to shut the door and noticed there was a deadbolt as well. She couldn’t resist grinning as she slid it into place.
Safe.
She was safe. And warm. She backed up and jumped onto the bed, which was soft. Heavenly soft. She looked up at the ceiling, noticing a fan. Imagine being so warm that you needed to have a fan to cool you.
She wanted to get up, strip out of her clothes, see if there was a shower, or what else was in the room, but she was just too tired. With the deadbolt ensuring no one could hurt her and a soft bed beneath her, she couldn’t overcome her exhaustion even a minute longer.
She fell asleep on top of the covers, slipping into dreams about flashing silver eyes.
“He saved her. Adrien got himself beat up for a human.”
“I know.”
“What do you think it means?
Adrien’s head was aching, blurry, and he groaned as he slowly forced his eyes open. Who was talking and why and about whom?
The room in front of him swam, sunlight streaming through the window, and the two men sitting across from the couch he was on looked over at him.
He blinked a couple times, rubbing his head, as it all came back to him in bits and pieces.
“Sever. Citrine,” he said tersely. “What are you two doing?”
“Making sure you actually wake up,” Citrine said. “You took a nasty blow last night.”
“I did. I did?” He looked around him, whipping his head a little too quickly and stopping with a groan, covering his eyes. “What happened?”
“There’s a human woman in the apartment next door that says you saved her.”
Adrien groaned again, trying to remember. He’d been drinking, looking out the window. And then… there’d been a spy?
“No,” he said. “It’s not what you think.”
“It’s not?” Sever asked with a sardonic grin. “Because it looks to me like you finally decided to be a hero to a damsel in distress.”
“Shut up,” Adrien said bitterly. “No. It’s not like that. She was… camping out in the hallway. I thought she was a spy and chased her out. I didn’t know she was…”