Not alone.He couldn’t let her face It alone.“We go together.”
She shook her head.“If we’re together, he’ll know.”
Saer had thought the same thing for years, that if Lucifer witnessed him next to Neyu, It would know the place Neyu held in his heart.It was why he’d stayed out of the Hells altogether.His jaw worked back and forth.“If anything happens to you—”
“It won’t.”Neyu’s ocean’s deep gaze carried a blazing fire in its core, and a warm wealth of pride swept off her.“I’ll promise him more large harvests.He won’t get them unless we perform them together, and he can’t come to the surface to see us together.”
What she said made sense.Still, Saer held his tongue, unwilling to acquiesce.
“I’ll talk to Kalia and let her know it’s okay to say we were together, but she’s not witnessed anything else directly—it would be easy to refute, even if she voiced it.And she won’t.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Have you known Kalia to say anything that creates more work for her?”
Saer ran his tongue over his teeth.Theyhadbeen careful.Beyond a glance or a handhold, Kalia had nothing else to say to prove their relationship, and Neyu was right.Sloth wouldn’t volunteer the information.
“This is how we stay together.No more hiding,” Neyu whispered.“Please.”
The plea cut him to the quick, and Saer swallowed past a tightness in his throat.
The way she looked at him, gaze entreating, unraveled his resolve like snowflakes disintegrated on the tip of one’s tongue.He inhaled deeply.
The one time he’d denied her, he’d been separated from his love for decades.
He couldn’t refuse her.
Saer offered a stiff nod and her shoulders slumped with relief.Hand lifting, he curled one of his fingers around Neyu’s right silver crescent, tugging gently down to its tip.
She allowed a soft growl to escape, warm rather than angry.Her eyes fluttered shut, frown deepening.“Stop that.”
“No.”The word he wanted to say in response to her returning on her own, but he repurposed it.His fingers slid along Neyu’s collarbone and to the back of her neck.She shivered against him, and it sped his heart as he slid his other hand behind her waist.Pulling her around, he half-lifted, half turned her until she sat with her thighs straddling his lap.
“Your wounds…”
He shook his head and touched a finger to her lips, tilting his head to her face.Opening his palm to curl it against her cheek, Saer coaxed her to lean down to him, to meet him halfway.
She didn’t resist.
Sunrise came, and Saer waited until its warmth wiped away the chill of night before making his move.
His ebony form soared several feet over the tallest head of the villagers gathered around the decrepit platform.Half-burnt and collapsed, only a corner remained untouched.
The chill of the desert night persuaded villagers to don extra layers for the meeting with their reestablished leader.Women clutched woven shawls around their shoulders while most men donned their long-sleeved linen shirts.Hundreds of humans, each ensouled body of the settlement, gathered to surround the broken stage, and Saer took them all in as he circled around.
Passing over the stage then curving back with an effortless angle of his wings and shift in weight, Saer landed on hoofed hind legs and one flat palm to balance his forward momentum on the last sturdy piece of the stage.Silver horns, claws, and hooves caught the light of the sun, reflecting gleaming white and rich ochre.He exhaled, stood to his full height, and scrutinized the humans staring with a mix of awe, respect, and fear.Baring his maw of razor-sharp teeth at the villagers provoked a collective tremble.
No one pointed out Neyu’s presence until she stood next to Saer, still in her human form and dressed in a flowing but simple gown befitting the first lady of the Hells.She touched her pale hand to his elbow.A dark robe lined with silver thread draped over the bend in her other arm.The demon’s head jerked down, but he hid his teeth and growled questionably to his female counterpart.She smiled in turn, and though her lower face remained veiled, it reached her eyes for the audience to see.
The crowd didn’t make a sound.
A sighing growl left Saer as his coal-colored flesh faded to alabaster, wings melting into his back.By the end of it, Saer’s naked body stood before all of them, and Neyu wrapped the robe about his shoulders.The demon-turned-human shrugged into it with ease, unharmed and healthy.
Securing the robe around his waist, Saer beckoned to the opposite side of the stage.Kalia, dressed just as lovely as Neyu, stepped onto the charred platform to join them.Saer took a turn looking at each demoness, then faced forward.
“Where is your god?”
Thunderous silence met his inquiry.
