"One of my new flatmates is a demon."
"Ah. Well, yes. Here I am. Horns, tail, flame," I say, gesturing to my head where two small purple horns poke through my hair, and waving my tail again.
"Better than fairy wings," she responds.
"Your wings are beautiful. What type are they?"
"Emperor moth," she responds, stretching out her wings, presumably to give me a better look.
They don't look exactly like a replica of a moth's wings. Instead of four wings, she just has two, attached to her shoulder blades, higher up than either of my wings sprout from my back when I call on them. The top of her wings starts dark brown, and fades down until they're more of a burnt orange colour, with a series of black and brown eyes in a line down each edge of her wings.
"They're beautiful," I whisper without meaning to. I want to reach out and touch them, partly so that I can be close to her, but also because they are beautiful.
"Thanks." She snaps them shut. "So, the fire? Can you make it?"
"I can." I have no idea what she's getting at, but I'm interested to find out.
"Maybe you'll have to show me sometime. I'm sure you've heard what they say about moths being drawn to flames."
My heart constricts at her response, and the implication of what it could mean. "I guess I should do this, then." I click my fingers and summon a flickering flame.
Someone clears their throat, and I turn around to find a tall woman dressed in black and with a rather unimpressed expression on her face. "Not around the books, Your Highness," she says in a tone that makes it clear that I'm not exempt from the rules just because I'm a prince.
"Sorry." I let the flames subside.
She nods once and turns to walk away, but not without giving me the impression that she's going to be keeping an eye on me to make sure I don't do anything like it again.
I turn back to Lottie, finding her eyes wide. "You're a prince?"
"Oh, erm. Yes."
Understanding dawns on her. "You're Sophia's brother."
I chuckle. "Let's guess, your demon flatmate is my twin sister?"
She nods.
"Then you know that we're just normal people here." That's a relief, at least. It's never good to have the by the way, I'm royalty talk.
"Sure, normal."
"I'm serious. I'm just Archie," I promise.
"Just Archie," she repeats. "I've never spent any time with royalty before. It's going to take some getting used to."
"Don't think of me as royalty," I say quickly, pleased that she seems to have assumed we're going to spend more time with one another.
"And how is that going to work for me if I end up at the demon court?" she asks, a hint of a tease in her voice.
"Do you have any intention of going there?"
"How should I know? Maybe that's exactly where I'm going to end up." She brushes some of her hair away from her face, drawing my attention with every movement.
I swallow hard. If she can sense our potential mate bond, then her comment is somewhat indicative of her openness to it. Or she could just be flirting with me. Either of the options is good as far as I'm concerned.
The librarian comes back into view, seemingly checking that I'm behaving and not making more flames.
The woman gives me an unimpressed look, and I hold up my hands to prove that I'm not making any fire. She doesn't seem convinced, but moves on.
