Page 83 of Grim Tidings

“In the water,” he orders, and I huff, lifting my foot over the edge of the tub.

I hold on to my indignation and pride for all of seventeen seconds before the decadent feel of the slightly too-hot water against my skin makes me collapse into a puddle of moans and groans. I slip the rest of the way into the tub in a rush, water sloshing at the edges.

Gabriel grins at me from the bath mat, his arms crossed on the lip of the tub, his chin resting on top. I sink back into the water until everything below my chin is submerged, my toes wiggling happily.

This is what heaven must be like. A claw-foot tub in an outdated bathroom with a beautiful angel draped over the edge.

“Good?” he asks.

I close my eyes and make another sound I’ll probably be embarrassed about tomorrow. “Very.”

He gives the water another minute, and then reaches over me to turn it off, the ancient pipes groaning once again. It smells like Gabriel in here. Like whatever soap he uses. Maybe his laundry detergent. I slip half an inch deeper in the water, and my body goes loose. Like a spool of thread rolling across the floor.

I float in the tub and Gabriel sits quietly next to me, keeping watch and trailing his fingers across the top of the water. I lift my knees until they poke out of the water and I feel Gabriel’s attention shift, his mouth curled in a barely there smile.

“What?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “It’s just—you have freckles.” His thumb rubs over the top of my knee. “They’re cute.”

“Cute?”

“Mmhmm,” he hums.

I close my eyes again and let his gentle touch soothe the restless tangle of something in the middle of my chest. My magic is still looking for an outlet, and I’m still desperate not to give it one.

“When did you know?” Gabriel asks, and his voice is carefully stripped of anything accusing. I think it might be the kindest thing he’s ever done for me. “When did you know it was Nate?”

I keep my eyes closed. His thumb rubs a neat circle to the top of my calf.

“That day in the back hallway of the bar,” I confess in a whisper. “I knew right away.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because,” I manage, my throat too tight. “Because you didn’t trust me. Because you wouldn’t have—you wouldn’t have let me help. If I told you the truth, you would have shut me out. Chased me out of town. And I wanted a chance to prove that I could be something different. I needed to do it for myself. Do you understand?”

The hand on my knee lifts. The warmth at my side disappears.

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep my bottom lip from wobbling, but there’s no helping the tears that burn behind my closed eyes. They slip from the corner and trail down my cheek, mixing with the bathwater.

I ruined it. I can’t change what I am. It doesn’t matter that I saved a life, I still had to lie and scheme my way there. One good deed doesn’t outweigh the bad and I’m—

“Hush.” Gabriel is behind me now, his fingertips brushing against the back of my neck as he lifts my hair. “It’s done now.”

I blink my eyes open and stare at the stretch of his arm balanced on the lip of the tub. There’s an olive branch tattooed on the inside of his elbow. Angular. A collection of shapes pieced together with thin, delicate ink.

“Is that supposed to be stained glass?” I ask.

Gabriel pulls the elastic off the end of my braid with one hand, then starts to comb his fingers through the long strands. “What?”

“This tattoo.” I tap at the mark. “The lines are so sharp. It almost looks like stained glass.”

“Oh. Yeah, I don’t know. They just show up, Darcy. Whenever I’m done with my work.”

“You’ve never been curious?”

He gathers all my hair in his fist, then eases it into the water. “Sometimes.”

“I’d be curious,” I mumble. “I’d want to know.”