His wings emerge first, huge and smoky. Then his horns with a deep glow that I never noticed before. His skin crackles with fire and changes to the red color I’m used to. Finally, his tail whips around and he rises to his full height.
Nai Nai claps.
Lacey gasps.
Ace screams.
“It’s okay! No one panic!” I yell, standing in front of Rhaz.
“What the fuck is that?” Ace shouts.
“Zixin! Manners!” Nai Nai chides.
Lacey looks like she’s about to start stabbing.
“He won’t hurt you,” I say, trying to use the slowness of my voice to calm everyone else down.
Well, Nai Nai is perfectly calm, if not a little excited. A grin is splitting her face from ear to ear. She’s looking Rhaz up and down as if she wishes she had a demon of her own.
Finally, my brother stops hyperventilating. “Where did he come from?”
I look at Rhazan since I’m not sure, either.
“That’s a long story,” he says, his voice soft, absent of the growling depth I’m accustomed to. “But right now, I reside in the Onyxian plane. It’s a mirror of Earth, and constructs here shape the world there.”
“I need to sit,” Lacey whispers.
I pull out a chair a little farther away from Rhaz. “Water? Coffee?”
“Martini?” she asks.
“We’ve got that champagne and some orange juice,” I offer.
She nods, her eyes distant.
“Me too,” Ace says, his voice cracking.
I shoot him a scowl and he smiles awkwardly.
“Fine, but it’s in celebration of opening the café, and you can only have one.”
And I’m going to put seltzer in it instead of champagne.
“Nai Nai? Rhaz—aul? Raul?” I ask, trying to clear my throat to cover the flub, which, why am I even trying to cover it? Of course a demon isn’t namedRaul. But he seemed to have anxiety around telling me his name before, so maybe it’s important for him to keep it to himself.
He shakes his head and takes his seat again. The chair whines in protest but accepts him. He wraps his tail across his lap and disappears his wings into somewhere. I’ll have to ask how he does that.
“I have some wine upstairs,” Nai Nai says. “I’ll be right back. Don’t start the story.”
“What story?” I ask as I move toward the bar.
“He’s going to tell us where he comes from!” Nai Nai shouts as she ascends the creaky stairs.
Ace moves closer to Lacey, then pulls out a chair.
I look helplessly at Rhaz, and he gives me a weak smile. He doesn’t know what he’s doing either, but we’re in it together, I guess.
“Champagne?” Lacey asks.
