Page 129 of Infernal Secrets

The girl seemed nice, but I didn’t like Rae watching how messed up I got around strangers. I didn’t want them touching me or getting too close. Touches from anyone but the guys—and now Rae—made me twitchy. Even thinking about it made my skin crawl.

“No, it’s fine. With Grandma’s passing and everything that happened with Ash, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

What happened with Ash?

I stopped at the top of the stairs, listening.

Eavesdropping felt wrong, but if I walked in, I’d start talking and never learn what she meant.

“Yes, Maya, I’m sure. Don’t even mention it to Leo.” A pause. “No.” Another longer pause. “I promise when I feel better, I’ll consider going on a date with him, just… not now.” She laughed. “I am not gonna become a crazy cat lady. I don’t even have a cat.”

I stepped around the corner.

She looked up at me and held up a finger. “Listen, I need to go. They’re back from the store.” She lowered her hand and laughed. “No, I washed the bedding earlier. They’ll use the other bed again.” Her hand covered her mouth as she laughed and shook her head. “You’re ridiculous. Okay, love you too. Bye.”

I stepped into her room as she tossed her phone onto the bed and sighed.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

I shrugged, rubbing the small flat disc on my earlobe between my fingers. “I heard you and Cyn fighting earlier,” I mumbled.

“That’s him being an asshole.”

Rounding the bed, I dropped beside her and propped up on my elbow. “He’s not always like that,” I said, feeling the need to defend him.

The whole situation kept Cyn on edge. While he sometimes acted hostile to strangers, I had a feeling if we weren’t stuck on Earth, he wouldn’t mistreat Rae. Though if we weren’t stuck here, she wouldn’t know us.

I hated how the thought made my stomach hurt.

I flinched when her soft fingers brushed the space between my eyebrows.

She pulled her hand away. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You looked uncomfortable.”

I grabbed her hand before she could retreat too far. “I didn’t notice your hand. It surprised me.” I brought her hand to my forehead until her fingertips brushed my skin. “I don’t mind if it’s you touching me.”

She laughed. “As opposed to?”

“Everyone?” At her confused expression, I added, “I don’t like it when random people touch me. I know that sounds weird since I touched you on day one, but that was my choice.”

She nodded as if she understood. I hoped she did.

“So yeah, uh… you can touch me. I don’t mind.”

Her thumb smoothed the space between my eyebrows again. “What’s wrong?”

I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the topic at hand. “I don’t want you to have a bad impression of Cyn.” When she sighed and lowered her hand, I opened my eyes. “He’s as bad as I am about change, but he handles it differently.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I internalize it instead of projecting it onto others. It comes out in the things I do—like, it’s the only time I clean our house.”

“You live together?”

“Yeah. We don’t like living in the palace, so we have a house behind it where all four of us live together. You would love it there. We have a pool out back, and trees surround the whole place. It gives us privacy and keeps other Shyrlivi out because they’d have to go through the palace and guards to get to us.”

I paused, realizing I’d started rambling.