“I know. You suck as a brother,” she said.
“Fuck off, Crystal,” he snapped, and her eyebrows rose in surprise.
“What crawled up your ass and died?” She cringed. “Actually, don’t answer that. I don’t wanna know about your ass fetishes.”
Danny removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Crystal, seriously! Fuck off.”
As her gaze ping-ponged between us, she wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “Just don’t angry-fuck too loud. I’m watching Drag Race.”
I flushed horribly as she threw herself onto the couch and resumed her paused program on the TV. Danny glared at her, his cheeks as pink as I imagined mine were. Then he looked at me for a moment before turning around and stomping back up the stairs. I imagined I wouldn’t receive a nicer invitation, so I followed him up the steps.
Danny’s room was just like I remembered it from the summer. Shelves of books lined the walls. A poster of the Milky Way hung near the window. His bed was rumpled, like he’d been lying down before I arrived. A few stray clothes lay strewn on the floor, and he kicked them under his bed.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he ran a hand through his brown hair. It was shorter than it had been on Halloween, like he’d recently cut it. His eyes were bloodshot, and my throat swelled.
“Hi,” he said hoarsely.
“Hey,” I said back.
I stood awkwardly in the center of the room, hands in my pockets. Danny scrutinized me, eyes narrowed. His brows furrowed. I looked down at my shoes.
“You look different,” he said.
I touched my short curls, then smoothed a hand down the shirt I wore. I supposed I did. My taste in clothing had changed since I’d returned from the cursed realm. My jeans were tighter, borderline skinny jeans. I wore a pair of Converse on my feet. My shirt was halfway between orange and pink, stylish stripes of white running diagonally down. It was something my alter would have worn, which made me smile. Then it made me sad.
“Not that,” Danny said, like he could read my mind. “I mean, yeah, your hair and clothes. But it’s… something else. You’re different.”
I nodded. “I guess I am.”
Silence followed. Awkward silence.
Danny broke it first. “Xavier said…”
When he drifted off, I cleared my throat. “He said?” I prompted.
“He didn’t tell me much. He said it had to come from you. But he told me you had a rough time. That you were in the hospital or something?” He cringed when I nodded. “Was it because of those”—he chewed his bottom lip—“monsters? The ones that killed Sharon and Bethany?”
I nodded again.
His voice cracked when he asked, “Are you okay?”
Instead of nodding once more like I instructed my body to do, my tear ducts welled. My throat was full of sand, and my lungs burned. I couldn’t look at him, not as my eyelashes clogged with unshed tears.
“I’m not okay, Danny,” I confessed. “It was really bad, okay? I’m sorry I didn’t do more for you. I should have. But it’s been a really bad four months.”
Quirking his head, he sniffled. “It’s only been two months.”
My laugh was sharp and splintered. “It seems a lot longer to me.”
A tear dropped onto his cheek, trickling down until it dripped off his chin and soaked into his shirt. “What happened, Riley?”
I scuffed the carpet with my shoe. “I spent two months in Purgatory with the seven princes of Hell.”
When Danny didn’t make a sound, I looked up and grimaced at the look of horror on his face. “Are you for real?” he asked.
“I’d say it sounds worse than it was, but…” I shrugged.
“Ri—”
“I really don’t want to talk about it. Can we—can we just not? Can we maybe pretend like the last two months never happened? Like, maybe we’re just two normal friends who weren’t attacked by demons or tortured by fallen angels?”
A strangled sound choked him for a moment. “Tortured?”
“Like I said, it’s been a bad couple of months.”
He shook his head. “But Xavier said you were in the hospital in November. You weren’t gone that long.”
“Time worked differently there. It was longer for me. I don’t know exactly. It was weeks, months, maybe. It was… bad.”
Slowly, Danny rose. His cheeks were wet. I blinked rapidly to fight off my own tears. It was a losing battle. They escaped, streaking down my cheeks.
“I’m sorry. For everything. I put you in danger. I lied. Bethany and Sharon are dead because of me. And I’m sorry. Danny, I’m so sorry.”
His hands cupped my face, his thumbs brushing away my tears. More took their place.
“Can we be friends again?” I begged. “Please, I don’t—I need us to be friends. I don’t think I can handle not being your friend.”
“Yeah, Ri. We’re still friends, okay?” He hauled me into an embrace, and I fisted my hands in his T-shirt. “I’ll always be your friend.”
We cried then. I pressed my face into his neck. He smelled like laundry detergent and shampoo and sweat. Entirely human. I breathed him in and wept.
When he led me to his bed, I followed meekly. He guided me to the mattress until I was on my side. He curled up beside me. Facing each other, we lay with legs tangled loosely, hands clasped between us. His glasses were crooked, but he didn’t seem to care.
We lay in silence, but it was comforting this time. We were still so long my eyes started to droop. I was half unconscious when Danny tugged on my hand to capture my attention.
“Xavier said you were special. That you were important.”
“Did he?” With all the secrets Xavier had kept, his praise left a bitter taste in my mouth.
“He said you weren’t human.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re”—he glanced around us like he was checking for eavesdroppers—“like them? An angel?”
I shook my head. “Not entirely. My father was Fallen. He used to be an angel, but—”
“Xavier explained. I mean, probably not everything, but he told me about angels and fallen angels and demons and…”
“Oh. Well, um, I’m not fully Angel. I’m a mudblood,” I said, and Danny snickered at the reference.
“You were glowing. On Halloween, when you saved me. You were glowing, and—” He squeaked when I opened my hand between us and tendrils of electricity arced over my palm. “Holy shit.”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said. “I promise.”
“You’re like a superhero,” he breathed.
“What?”
“Secret identity. Tragic backstory. Forbidden love.” He laughed then. “And I’m your mundanely human sidekick.”
Closing my hand, I smothered the sparks. “I like that you’re human. You’re the only normal thing I have now.”
“As long as normal is a good thing.” He took my hand and opened it, tracing the skin where my energy had manifested.
“It is.” My ankle shifted over his shin. “I’m an Angel-Fallen hybrid, dating three guardian angels. Normal is definitely a good thing.”