I held him around the waist as he made his way to the door, easing it open without making a sound. He opened it a centimeter at a time. He peeked through the crack, then movedhis head away so I could lean over him and see what was happening, too.
I pressed against him. He’d always felt right in my arms. I should have known he was my beloved. What I didn’t understand was how Donn had kept it from me, even when we weren’t in the building. It seemed Elliot truly was the catalyst that changed everything, including the recognition that came with beloveds.
Donn stood with his back to us.
Cael wrapped his arms around him. He made a face when he spotted us, then gestured for us to leave.
Phin eased the door open a little more, slowly and quietly, to avoid alerting Donn.
Donn buried his face in Cael’s chest. “Beloveds are immortal, Cael. They can walk between realms. Don’t you see? This is going to collapse the system. I don’t know how to hold the pieces together. Beloveds are the problem.”
“You’re a beloved, love.” There were no straightforward answers, and Cael knew it. Hell, we all did. But no one wanted to give up their beloved, either, Cael included. He just didn’t have any other choice.
Their voices faded as we slipped into the hallway, moving as quickly as we could without attracting attention.
We turned the corner toward the elevator and ran straight into a demon.
She looked hurried and slightly annoyed, carrying a bag labeledMail.
With the lights flickering on and off, the building shaking, and the darkness cutting in and out, it probably wasn’t making her job any easier. Of all the jobs in the building, hers was the most time-sensitive. It seemed she knew what her job was, and it wasn’t catching reapers. All she did was nod in acknowledgment and move down the hall at a hurried pace.
I grabbed Phin’s hand and pulled Phin toward the door marked Stairs. The stairwell was concrete. The corridors were bare except for the exit signs above each floor’s door. I could see all the way down to the bottom. Good thing I wasn’t afraid of heights.
Shadows were moving below us. We didn’t go all the way down, but we made it three floors before I pulled Phin onto another floor. We ended up in another closet.
Chapter Fourteen
Phin
Iwas in a precarious situation. Five seconds from being sent to a very dark, scary place, or so I’d heard. The rumors were nasty. They painted Tech Duinn as a truly horrible place. Instead of thinking about that, all I could focus on was how hard it would be to let Ossy be happy with someone else. My heart literally hurt at the thought. How crazy was that? We were just supposed to be fuck buddies. Nothing more. Ossy had flaked on me more times than I cared to count. So why, for the love of the gods, had I fallen in love with him? Doing so was by far the stupidest thing I’d ever done. Here I was, mourning the loss of him in my life, even though he was holding me in a dark closet. Yeah, we were in the closet again. It seemed we would always be hiding in the dark. So why did I feel safe whenever Ossy held me? Every time I was with him, there was a sense of contentment.
Office romances were a little forbidden, even though no one really enforced it. Or maybe they hadn’t enforced it with Ossy and me when we were fucking. If that were so, it had to be because they knew we just weren’t meant to be. Donn, being a god and at the top, knew everything, didn’t he? Maybe that waswhy I forgave Ossy after all the times he didn’t show up and then apologized. We always went back to my place or his, and we fucked like rabbits. It had been great. But it was over. I had to accept that.
The darkness in the closet was all-consuming. The only light came from under the door. I could see people searching for us. Figures moved beneath the door as they walked down the hall, breaking the light as they passed. It was probably HR demons. They were persistent.
We were as quiet as mice, motionless. I was pretty sure Ossy even held his breath.
Files filled the shelves. The files contained every living person. The Bureau filed the folders, alphabetizing them by name. The room expanded in an unnatural, illogical way. It kept growing every few seconds, each time a baby was born and new life formed. Another file would appear on the shelf, and the room would expand. Rows and rows of shelving and files stretched out. I could no longer see the door or the light beneath it. My eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Ossy and I stood between the stacks. We were at the back. Everything shifted and shuffled around, including us. I couldn’t make out names, but the file folders were color-coded. I wasn’t sure what the colors meant, but they lined the shelves in soft, rainbow hues.
Ossy kissed my temple, then tilted my chin up and kissed my lips.
“I’ve missed you,” he whispered, trailing kisses along my jaw and up to my ear.
A single tear slid down my cheek, and with its escape came a newfound appreciation for the dark. “We shouldn’t be doing this, Ossy.”
I clung to him despite my words. I needed his tenderness because it reminded me of what we had before his beloved entered the picture.
He continued trailing kisses along my jawline and down my neck. Ossy had always been affectionate and gentle. Every time I was with him, he touched me as if he couldn’t get enough. I always felt like I was the only person he saw whenever we were in the same room. That I still did was what made it so hard to pull away.
If he had a beloved, we shouldn’t be like this anymore. It felt like a betrayal, even though I didn’t even know the person. It went against Ossy’s moral compass, too. I knew him well enough to know that. Maybe love was love, but if he had a beloved, everything we did needed to stop.
I wriggled free of his arms and took a step back.
He frowned as if he were confused by my behavior.
“Congratulations on finding your beloved, Ossy.” My gut twisted into knots, and I wrung my hands.