It’s fine.
“Really?” I cried, causing Nik to arch an eyebrow at me.
I’m not a jailer, the DFZ grumbled. You can make the work up later. This is important to you, and I’m all about people chasing their dreams. Go with my blessing, just promise you’ll take me with you.
That was an easy promise. With the city constantly in my head, I didn’t see how I could leave her behind even if I’d wanted to. She was still waiting, though, so I nodded. “I’ll take you.”
Good, the god said. Now go assure your boyfriend that you’re not insane. He’s getting that look again.
Nik did look pretty freaked out. “Sorry,” I said, flashing him my most confident smile. “Everything’s cool. Just had to check in with the boss, but she says I can go.”
“The boss,” he repeated nervously, staring at my forehead as if he was trying to peer inside it. “You mean the DFZ is in your head right now?”
“A lot of people are in my head,” I said with a helpless shrug. “My brain’s kind of a highway these days, but you get used to it. What’s important is that I’ll be there tomorrow night. Do you want me to bring anything?”
“I just want it to be over,” Nik said tiredly, glancing down at the clock on his phone. “I should probably go. It’s late, and I’ve got a med check early tomorrow morning.”
“Okay,” I said, standing up.
Nik didn’t follow suit. For all his talk of leaving, he seemed incredibly reluctant to move. I didn’t want him to go, either. Not after I’d just gotten him back.
“Do you…Do you want to stay?” I asked nervously. “My dad’s body is taking up the bedroom, so all I have to offer is a couch, but I’d be happy if you wanted to sleep over. You know, with me.”
My cheeks were burning by the time I finished. Real smooth, Opal. Way to flex your pro-seduction skills, and the fact that my dad was still in the room listening was the inappropriate icing on the awkward cake. I was about to tell Nik to forget it when he lurched forward.
“God yes,” he whispered, clutching me hard against him. “I’d rather be on a couch with you than anywhere else in the world.”
“Absolutely not,” my father said as I burst into the biggest grin.
“You don’t get a say,” I told him in Korean as Nik drew me back down to the couch. “This is my home. Go to your room.”
My father growled, but I wasn’t listening to him anymore. All of my attention, my entire world, was focused on Nik as he pulled me into the lumpy cushions, the two of us tangling into the happy, breathy heap that I’d lived without for far, far too long.
Chapter 6
Despite our best intentions, we ended up just going to bed after all. To be clear: this was not my fault. I was ready to go, but Nik fell asleep the second he was flat. Literally passed out mid-kiss. If I hadn’t been so worried about him, it would have been hilarious. I didn’t know what the Gameskeeper had been making him do between fights, but poor guy was absolutely dead. He was also far more injured than I’d initially realized.
After he fell asleep, I tried to remove his gear to make him more comfortable. I got his guns and boots off just fine, but when I tried to unzip his armored jacket, I realized someone had taped it to the bandages underneath. I didn’t know if that was to help with compression or to stop the jacket from moving so it wouldn’t accidentally reopen any wounds, but I wasn’t about to mess with whatever system was clearly in place.
It was probably for the best. I was exhausted too. Not as much as Nik, but I had no trouble at all falling asleep next to him despite our awkward position. Since he was bigger and had passed out first, he got the majority of the couch. I had to squeeze myself into the tiny gap left between his body and the edge, but I was too tired and too happy to mind. After so many weeks of worrying, it felt like my life was finally coming back together. Not fixed, not yet, but I felt like I was on my way at last.
That hopeful thought sent me to sleep like a baby. I woke up five hours later to the sound of my morning alarm. Nik jerked awake next to me at the same time, looking around in a panic before his eyes found me.
“Hey,” he said, relaxing at once.
“Hey yourself,” I replied, leaning in to kiss him before swooping down to grab my phone off the floor so I could shut off the incessant beeping. “I gotta go to training.”
“Do you have to?”
“Not immediately,” I said, snuggling back down beside him. “I mean, if I don’t show up in ten minutes, we’ll probably have a god in here scolding me, but I didn’t get undressed last night, so I’ve already got a head start.”
“Mmmm,” Nik said, burying his nose in my hair.
“You can stay if you want,” I offered. “There’s no food or anything, but the plumbing works and it’s as safe as you can get in the city.”
Nik thought about that a moment, then he shook his head. “I’ve got a checkup this morning. They want to make sure I’m okay to fight tonight.”
“Are you okay?” I asked nervously, tapping my fingers where they rested on his still-jacketed chest.
“I’m fine.”
I gave him a look, and Nik sighed. “The damage from my last fight hasn’t healed as fast as I’d like, but I’ll be good enough by tonight. One of the nice things about working for the Gameskeeper is that he isn’t cheap. The reason they’re calling
