Eve had a strange dream.

In it, she was walking down a paved city street, the heat of the summer baking atop her skin. Summer cicadas chirped in a broken symphony from the arid, urban planters and sparse treetops. There were no other people visible, only the shimmering asphalt and sticky humidity keeping her company. As she walked, the road seemed to stretch like gum between teeth, dragging out wider and darker, taking the sunlight together with it. Wrapped in night, the cacophony of insects was even louder than before, overwhelming in her ears, a cascade of desperate noise which flooded from the very shell of her ear through to her brain and suffocated any other thought.

She passed a food truck. On the side was an advertisement: a woman in a bikini, holding a coconut, with the words 'Fresh Juice!!!' emblazoned across her fruit. She was smiling, but there was an eerie emptiness in those eyes, an almost obsessive cheerfulness and optimism that was familiar. Eve ran a finger along the laminated paper. Did this woman, whose bare body was emblazoned and on display for passing eyes, know that her photo was there?

Something about that half-crooked grin told her that the answer was a resounding yes. That the stranger had been wholly aware of all the various ways in which her body would be manipulated. And that she had done it anyways, whether by choice or not, being wholly irrelevant.

It was more than Eve could say about herself.

The light of the truck swirled into a distorted mess of colors on the floor. Her feet wandered thoughtlessly towards the middle of the street, sidewalks disappearing from view altogether, just her, and the pitch black road, and the screaming bugs.

A pinprick of light appeared in the distance. Acting foolish - as most people do in their dreams - Eve waded through the night into its direction.

The little wave of thrill which rushed along the ground towards her, building beneath her ribs until her heart thrummed with desperate speed, was sickeningly familiar. The rubber soles of Eve's sneakers scuffed along the ground as she walked, a little faster, catching the scent of citrus perfume dulled by a recent rain. Her breath began to come in desperate little gasps, too suffocated to break into a run, and too desperate to stop walking. She inched forward, pushing as though running through water, and finally grew close enough to make out a shock of long, golden hair, rosy lips, a sly smile that caused her heart to ache. A red-gloved hand, raised in goodbye.

Eve reached for him.

Darkness swallowed the scene before Eve could make out anymore details - and it grew oppressive then - terrifying and familiar in a wholly different way, fingers stretching into obsidian emptiness.

She screamed, a short thing that wrenched the breath from her lungs.

Then she woke up.

Arman was there, looking at her with suspicious, judgemental eyes.

The man was lounging in the driver's seat of a car, one arm hanging casually out the open window and an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips. Leather seats, marred by cigarette burns. They were in a Lincoln, likely the same one she'd nicked days earlier. Silent for a moment, Arman stirred, bringing the lighter up and flicking embers down to the ground outside.

They were still on the beach. Someone had laid her atop the reclined passenger's seat of the car, and there was enough sand stuck to her skin that Eve had to guess she'd been moved recently. She gazed questioningly up at Arman through the smoke. The man just shrugged, not even bothering to take the cigarette from his mouth before speaking.

"Wasn't sure if you were going to start breathing again or not."

"I....wasn't breathing?" Eve asked, quietly, not even bothering to move yet.

"For a little bit," Arman nodded. "Creepiest shit I've ever seen. No air, but your heart kept beating."

"Surprised you didn't bury me."

"Samir said not to."

"And you agreed?"

"Never seen him so panicked before," Arman muttered, running a hand through thick crimson hair. "Shit, I wasn't sure what I was going to do if you didn't wake up. Lost his mind for a bit there. Refused to let go of your hand until your lungs worked again. Demanded that I do so too."

"Language," Eve murmured, but glanced out to where she could hear the sea, and let her vision go fuzzy. She didn't want to think about that too deeply. It had likely been Arman's confusion and nerves that had saved her. Had fed her enough emotion to keep her heart beating long enough for the rest of her stupid, human body to catch up. Samir had either known something, or he'd gotten lucky.

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Of course, it had also been Samir's fault in the first place, that she'd been forced to use so much magic. Still, however unfair it was to the man, he was tangled up in her mess now.

Eve supposed that made them even.

She didn't hate the thought of that as much as she had expected.

Stirring with painful care, taking stock of each limb, Eve sat up. Salt was crusted to her clothes, her back was uncomfortably damp, and she was so goddamn tired, but at least she was warm and in one piece. Thinking realistically, it was more than she could have asked for from that situation. A ridiculous piece of luck, that they had managed to escape at all. In the human world, Hedeon could not interfere with such careless freedom. Her attention drifted towards the redhead with a question hanging from her tongue.

"Samir is outside," Arman answered before she could ask. "Resting. Getting some air."

"Go get him." Eve reached for the car door, fighting a flinch in response to Arman's sudden scowl of protest. She raised a palm to cut off any objections and ignored the shiver wracking her body at the cold breeze brushing over the land. "Get him, if you don't want us all to die. How long do you think it will take before our location is tracked down? With us out in the open like this?"

The door was yanked open before she could say another word, and Samir leaned down to meet her gaze from outside the car. He was twirling a small silver ring on his pinky finger, and his icy gaze swept straight through her, settling as the seed of some small, unknown fear in the pit of her stomach.

"Why so surprised?" he asked, as she gawked at him. "You wanted me here, no?"

"Could you hear us from outside the car?"

"Of course not," Samir shook his head, long black hair falling over his eyes. It should have been messy. Eve found it charming.

"Then...?"

"How could I ever rest without knowing that you were alright?" Eve swallowed thickly. Arman looked affronted that he'd been lied to. They both ignored him.

"Samir," Eve whispered. "You hardly know me. Why should it matter to you, whether I live or die?"

"Then get to know me," Samir said, and he rested one arm on the roof of the car so he could lean in and examine her face. Up close, his copper skin seemed to shine from within, as though something immense and immeasurable was trapped just beneath the surface. He didn't touch her. Eve fought to keep still and pretend as though she didn't desperately want to feel the warmth of human skin right now. Samir leaned in, voice slipping into a dulcet whisper. "Or tell me it isn't the same for you. Tell me that you have not thought of me once in my absence, that you wish you'd never see me again. And I'll be gone."

She met his gaze evenly, searching for any hint of deceit. Continued to pretend with all she had that Samir's measured gaze wasn't sending warm longing through her veins. It was all useless, either way. There wasn't any way she could leave the man alone now that Hedeon knew his face.

"Just until I can figure out how to get them off your trail," Eve murmured, accepting defeat.

Yes, just until then.

The smug smile that bloomed on Samir's face contained all the magnitude of the sun.

It was as damning as it was magnificent.

"Who's them?" Arman blew a long cloud of smoke towards the sky. It stunk up the car.

Eve grew serious. She drew a line on the floor with her shoe, unsure of how to answer. "It's better that you don't know."

"Stupid, don't you think? That you wouldn't tell your.." Arman paused to grimace and put the cigarette out. "Whatever we are - information that's crucial to cooperation?"

"As if you've told me everything," Eve snorted. Arman scowled. She still didn't quite like the man. The way in which he seemed to be looking down at her. And she hadn't forgotten their aggressive first meeting either. To her surprise, though, Arman looked a little guilty.

It wasn't a good feeling. Eve's brows knit together, words rolling sharp from her tongue. "What haven't you told me?"

"Well - we have our own problems."

"Be specific."

"There may or may not be another group on our tail. I think you may have met a few of them already." And of course, how could Eve have forgotten? She'd met Samir when the man had been beaten half to death. So much had happened in the past few days that Eve had almost forgotten these guys were involved with the mob.

A long, exhausted sigh escaped her, and Samir reached for her then, long fingers carding through her hair.

"It's not a big deal," he said, still petting her. "A day's worth of work at most."

"I don't know what you mean by that, and I don't want to know," Eve muttered. Samir's answering chuckle reverbated in her chest, low and throaty.

"You take care of things on your end, and I'll wrap up my work neatly. We'll keep things separate. I think you would prefer things that way also, no?"

"In my ideal world, this wouldn't be happening at all," Eve sighed, pushing his hand away more gently than she had intended. "But we make do with what we have."

Arman snorted. "She's all bark, no bite."

Eve flashed him a smile full of teeth. "You want to test that?"

"No thanks," the man snickered. "I'm brave but not an idiot."

"You need better subordinates," Eve turned to Samir. "Someone like-"

Her breath caught in her lungs.

Someone like Aska.

A sudden fervor overcame her. Hands flying over her pockets, Eve searched for her phone, thumb smashing the speed dial button.

"Samir," Arman said suddenly, sliding out the door of the car, standing rigidly. "Incoming. Sixty seconds." His face had hardly shifted, but a stiffness had come into his limbs, an edge gathering at the corners of his eyes.

"Aska," Eve breathed, hearing her pick up. For an eternal second, there was only the sound of breathing. Eve's stomach dropped out to the floor, puddling in a lake of horror at her feet as the roaring of engines sang through the air.

"Found you," Hedeon purred from the other side.

Keep things separate, huh?

Yeah, there wasn't a single chance she'd have any luck with that.