Page 122 of Illusory

Dominic or Trace?

It was impossible to choose. Andthatwas why we were in this mess in the first place.

Then again, I could always throw my conscious out the window entirely and just say yes to both of them. Judging by the way they were eyeing me, they might just—Woah.No. What the hell was I even thinking?

Get your head out of the damn gutter, I inwardly scolded myself.

Gosh, they looked so good, though. Felt even better. They really weren’t playing fair at all. Maybe if I just—

“I think I’m going to die of boredom,” announced Tessa as she waltzed into the room, snapping me out of my head and away from the cliff I was preparing to throw myself off of. She paused at the coffee table and looked down at the three of us, crossing her arms. Her hair was half up in a sloppy ponytail, like she couldn’t have been bothered to fix her hairafter rolling out of bed. “Do I even want to know what’s going on here?”

I was about to ask the same thing about her new look. “Nothing is going on,” I quickly answered, though I sounded far too defensive for it to ring true.

She rolled her eyes and moved to the other armchair beside Gabriel, flopping into it and exhaling dramatically. “I’m going stir crazy in this house.”

“Maybe you should try leaving your room a little more often,” I offered.

“And do what? Sit here and watch you three be weird?”

The back of my neck prickled with heat as I avoided everyone’s eyes. “We’re not being weird,” I mumbled back, my cheeks damn near on fire.

“The problem is we’ve been in this house for too long,” she said, bouncing a look over at Gabriel. “What we need to do is go out for a bit and blow off some steam.”

Ooh. I liked the sound of that. “How about a movie? I’ve been dying to see—”

“We’re not going to a stupid movie,” she cut in, rolling her eyes at me. “I’m talking about going out for real.”

“Going out for real?” repeated Gabriel aghast, like she’d just suggested we sacrifice a virgin for Lucifer in the front yard.

“Yes, Gabriel. Going out and having fun. You remember what that is, don’t you?”

“No,” he said sternly, though I wasn’t sure if he was answering her question or just the general notion of partaking in anything that might be constituted asfun. “It’s out of the question.”

“Why?” Tessa and I whined at the same time.

“Why?” he snapped back, his hard eyes zipping to mine. I immediately backed down, pressing my back into the couchwhere he couldn’t glare at me from behind Trace. “Have you forgotten what you’re up against right now?”

“No,” I answered quietly, staring down at my hands as I picked away at my cuticles. I mean, of course I hadn’t forgotten. How could I? It was the whole reason we were stuck in the house to begin with.

“Then need I really say more?”

I quickly shook my head, though I doubted he could see it from where I was hiding.

“But that’s exactly why we need this,” argued Tessa, apparently, not intimidated by him in the least. “Her birthday is tomorrow, Gabriel. This is literally her last night before god-knows-what happens to her. We should go out and have fun for once!”

“Jesus.” I made a face at her, not appreciating the ‘last night’ comment in the least. “Thanks a lot.”

“All the more reason to be cautious,” maintained Gabriel, refusing to be swayed by Tessa and her newfound relaxed lease on life. “This isn’t the time to be careless. The house is warded, and this is the safest place for her to be right now, so this is where we’ll be staying.”

“Since when do you get to decide for everyone?” asked Tessa, her balls of steel in perfect form tonight. “We’re five adults here.”

“And?” He raised his brows at her.

“And I say we put it to a vote.”

Gabriel smirked, but there was nothing friendly about it. “Go ahead.”

“All in favor of going out tonight?” she asked, throwing her hand up high.

---