Neyu pulled back enough to see his eyes.“What did you promise the humans?”
Saer’s lower jaw jutted forward, some of his aforementioned relaxation forgotten.“That they’ll ascend into godhood when they die.”
Neyu gave him a considering raise of her eyebrows.“You pulled on their pride to make them believe it.”
“Then Ahraan arrived and healed one of them with some sort of…” Saer made a vague gesture with one hand, unable to elucidate further.“The guard would have died otherwise.”
“Ah.”
He smirked.“Yes.Ah.”
She smacked the front of Saer’s chest with her knuckles, and he couldn’t help his amused grin as he swept her hand in his.He bowed his head to kiss her fingertips.“Careful with these, or I’ll pin them down.”
Her breath caught, precisely as he’d hoped, and he grazed his mouth on Neyu’s knuckles.“Since then, he and I’ve been at odds with one another.I just need to find the right tactic to convince the other half of the settlement to come back to me.”
His demoness laced her fingers through his.“You could take half of the village and move on.”
Saer made a point to look as unamused as possible.
Neyu scoffed.“Pride himself won’t settle for anything less than the entire village, will he?”
“I’m better than him.”
She rolled her eyes, but with placating humor.“Be that as it may, sometimes one must take what one can get—”
“Neyu.”
“Saer.”
The way she threw his name back at him surprised a laugh out of his throat, and he snapped his arms around her, pulling her into him quick enough to elicit a quiet squeak from her lips.Her heart slammed behind her breastbone, so hard he could feel it against his chest.
We’ll take the entire village, he wanted to say.Instead, staring into her fathomless blue eyes, he found himself whispering, “I love you.”
An exhale filled with relief and adoration left her.“I love you too.Impossible as you are.”She trailed a finger along his jaw, her clever gaze locked with his.A pause stretched before Neyu took a deep breath and made her offer.“I could try to find out more about Ahraan.Talk to him.See what he’ll say.”
Saer frowned.
“It could be to our advantage.”
She was right, much as the words burned like acid in his stomach.“I trust you.But he…” Saer growled and let his judgment fill the silence.
His love nodded, patient as always.She leaned forward to press a kiss to his lips, which he surrendered to with another quiet sound in his throat.Forehead pressed to his, she whispered, “Information-gathering only, Saer.Nothing more.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” he murmured, and was surprised to note it was true.
Neyu smiled, nudging his nose with hers.“Are you worried about me?”
“Yes.No.Not like that.I—” Saer cut himself off with a huff, gathering his thoughts.Now that Neyu was back in his life, he didn’t relish being away from her.He couldn’t be present when she gathered information from Ahraan, and he didn’t trust the man.Then again, she was the fiercest amongst them in the quietest way.If anyone could do it, it was his beloved, and he would give her anything she asked for.“I can’tnotworry about you.”
She seemed to understand he meant so much more than their small time in the village.“In this, we’re alike.I’ll be fine.”Neyu brought her lips to his, then whispered against his mouth as though reading his mind from earlier, “We’ll take the whole village.Together.”
Neyu paced in the hut while Saer sat in the room’s only chair and watched her.Outside, a desert storm broke on the horizon and thunder echoed from afar.The evening sky sparkled with ill-intended lightning.She rounded to resume her back and forth pattern, muttering, “If not tonight, I don’t know when.Why has nothing happened yet?Were we not thorough?”The demoness dragged her fingers through her hair, pulling her veil away and back in the process.
Over the weeks, tensions rose to the boiling point.Despite Neyu’s close proximity to Ahraan, even going so far as laughing and joking with the man, she’d not uncovered anything to help sway the townsfolk.Families pitted against one another, Saer’s followers versus Ahraan’s.
At the risk of violence breaking out, they heard final arguments from Ahraan versus Saer and Neyu—while Kalia observed.Then the villagers demanded to be left alone to debate a final solution.
The deliberation lasted all day, seeping into the night.
