At that Amma clicked her tongue. “And I suppose your lifelong goal is realm domination or something?”
Damien tipped his head to the side. “Actually, yes.”
“Whoa.” She laughed. “How do you even…I mean, what makes you think you can control the entire realm?”
“I can control you, can’t I?”
Amma gnawed on her bottom lip, making a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat.
“Sanguinisui, agree.”
A tingle ran up the back of Amma’s neck, compelling her head to nod, then she sat very straight and groused, “I’m just one person, hardly the whole realm. Why would you evenwantto have power over so many people? Doesn’t it seem exhausting?”
“Why does anyone want to do anything?” Damien shrugged at the path ahead. “It is simply what I am meant to do.”
“Oh, right, there’s some prophecy you’re following that you still haven’t really told me about.” She looked at him, brows raised, and he said nothing. “And I suppose it was some, what, blood seer in Aszath Koth that gave it to you?”
“It was the Denonfy Oracle, of course: blood seers aren’t a thing.”
Amma blinked, recognizing the name. “You’ve been to the Denonfy Oracle?”
“When I was about fifteen, yes.” He shrugged again as if it were nothing.
The Denonfy Oracle couldn’t be visited by just anyone. There were others who claimed to have the power of divination, but only one was blessed by the god of fortune and destiny, Denonfy, and there had yet to be anyone who claimed their visions untrue. But Denonfy was a god who had not been cast into the Abyss, and it was said the oracle only showed themselves to the worthy. Amma didn’t know evil beings could be worthy, not that she was about to say something like that to Sir Self-Important. “What did you ask them? How many questions did you get? What’s an oracle evenlikein person?”
Damien thought a moment. “My destiny, just one, and…strange.”
“Well, that’s only a little different than when I was fifteen.” She laughed. “My friend Laurel and I would stay up late and talk about what we would ask the Denonfy Oracle, not that we could go traversing across the realm and hike Ashrein Ridge to find them like you, apparently. We almost always agreed discovering who we were going to marry was of the utmost importance, though I realize now that might be a huge waste of the oracle’s time.” Amma’s wistful smile at thinking of Laurel fell away—now, she wouldn’t want the answer to that question at all.
Damien snorted. “Honestly, they probably would be delighted for such frivolous conversation. I imagine answeringwhat is my fategets tiresome very quickly despite how many fathers insist their sons ask it.”
Amma’s interest pricked right back up at that. “Your father sent you to the oracle?”
He hesitated. “In a way.”
“Whatareyour parents like?”
At this Damien’s jaw hardened. Uh oh, too deep. She wanted to take the question back, but before she could stammer for something else, he cut in, “What areyourparents like?”
Hands on the knoggelvi’s reins, Amma tightened her fists, chest filling up suddenly at the thought of them. “My mother is talented and charming and sort of perfect. And my father is warm and respected but he’s always making jokes and laughing and, of course, telling my mother how much he loves her.” She chuckled, seeing the two in her mind, arm-in-arm, strolling through the orchard.
Damien made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat. “Interesting. I would have guessed they were awful to you. Or dead. Maybe both.”
Amma’s heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach, an imagined vision of the two with throats cut swimming through her mind for the hundredth time—a fear she was working hard to assuage. “Why?”
“You were wandering the streets of Aszath Koth all alone—most humans who do that have been quite unfortunate and typically orphaned. Even grown women can rely on their parents if they are truly as wonderful as you claim yours to be. And then there’s your behavior.” He scrunched his nose like the coming words were offensive to his senses. “You’re quite docile considering your current situation, and you apologize at the slightest inconvenience like a beaten pet, so I can only assume someone has been quite cruel to you.”
Amma’s mouth fell open. She wasn’tdocile, she waspolite, for goodness’s sake, and hadn’t she just yelled at him but a few days ago? She hadneveryelled at anyone like that. “That’s not…I don’t…you know, that’s none of your business, and I asked you first anyway.”
“And I prefer not to answer.”
Damien opened his book again. She was thankful he had dropped the whole thing, not liking the thoughts it inspired. Damien didn’t really know anything about her, but she did know one thing about him for certain. One thing that he didn’t let her forget: one of his parents was a demon, and that meanttheyhad to be awful.
She ventured a peek at him, his brow knit all over again in irritation that was significantly less amusing than the first time she’d purposefully annoyed him. “I’m sorry I asked,” she said with as much care as she could muster.
“Do not—” Damien’s voice raised, but then he cut himself off. Eyes flicking skyward, he took a breath and blew it out. “It is fine. Now, have you had your fill of conversing, so that I may go back to my research?”
She knew the question wasn’t sincere—he would do his best to ignore her regardless, but at least he was feigning politeness, so she nodded and feigned giving him permission. “For now, I suppose.”
