“I can definitely see why. You should come do this with my collection. Though, I warn you … I have an entire bookstore’s worth of books at my house.”
“What?” she gasped. “So many!”
I laughed and finished off my treat. “I’ve collected a lot of books over the years.”
She sat her own clean plate aside and hugged her legs to her chest while facing me and holding her coffee. “What’s your favorite book you’ve ever read?”
My eyes widened. I looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “There’s no way I could answer that! I’ve read so many, and they’re all so different, you know? Each is a different adventure,a different life, a different tale. Some are dark and others are meant to inspire and encourage. To me, a lot of them are priceless because of what they offer a person like me.”
I snapped my mouth shut, realizing I was babbling. That never happened, but I also never had someone to talk to about my love of the written word. The guys, my closest companions for the majority of my long life, weren’t readers. They all had other interests, which was fine. Books and reading were my thing, just as music was Zagan’s, ballet was Perseus’s, adventures was Xander’s, and killing was Coldin’s.
“I love that,” Serenity replied softly. Her lips lifted ever so slightly, and she rubbed mindlessly at a tattoo on her wrist. “Books really are a magic of their own. You can go anywhere, be anyone,doanything. I can live a thousand different lives in a thousand different stories, all with the flip of a page.”
Spying the design, I gently grabbed her left hand and pulled her arm closer to study the tattoo of an open book with magic bursting from its center. “It’s beautiful. Is that what this tattoo is about? The magic within the pages of a book?”
She watched my thumb trace the ink depicting sparkles soaring out of the tome. “Yeah,” she answered roughly. “It’s about the power of books.”
My thumb moved over the tattoo, and there was no missing the slightly raised flesh beneath the design. She pulled her arm back before I could really feel what it was, though I suspected the cause of the hidden mark.
I sensed her nerves as she tucked that hand between her bent knees and torso. She guarded it, or rather, guarded the secret it hid. I studied her and quickly gathered that my star harbored a darkness of her own. Questions filled my head. What plagued her mind on those dark days? Did she, too, find peace through books?
The thoughts furrowed my brow. I didn’t want to relate to Serenity. I didn’t want to see something in her that called out to me, because that wasn’t what I was doing here. This was a play to belittle and dethrone a man who’d put himself on a pedestal. This wasn’t an actual search for a friend who understood me and my fucked-up heart.
She cleared her throat and found my eyes again. “Okay so you don’t know your favorite book ever. What about your favorite book thisyear?”
Thankful for the redirection in conversation, I leaned back. “That’s easy.Ice and Brimstoneby SC Draven.”
Her jaw dropped, and those gray eyes sparkled like twin stars. “R-Really?”
“Yeah. By the way, I finished book two last night. Can I just say … What the fuck? That cliffhanger is unacceptable.”
Serenity laughed, and I hated the way the sound warmed my blood. I hated how I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her bruised smile.
“I warned you,” she teased. “Thankfully, book three is almost out.”
“Don’t forget. We’re still going to the author’s signing on release day,” I told her. “I’d like to give SC Draven a piece of my mind. I mean, really? You’re going to leave us hanging with Ember being kidnapped by the very kingdom she’d managed to escape from? Brutal, man. I can’t wait for Krail to kill all of them for taking her. You don’t fuck with the morally gray man’s lover. It’s a death sentence if you do.”
“I’m definitely a fan of the villain getting the girl,” Serenity sighed dreamily. “They deserve love, too.”
I tried not to let her words get to me. I tried reminding myself that she was talking about fiction, not me. She didn’t know I was one of those “villains” of the world, here to encourage sin and to lure people to the darkside. If she did know that—if she knewwhat I was actually trying to do by being here with her—would she still think that? Would she still believe a demon like me deserved the happy ending that Zagan and Perseus seemed to be striving for?
Remember your place, demon, the haunting voice from my past snarled.You’re only good for mankind when you’re in chains or in someone’s bed. A demon like you will never understand happiness or love.
I blew out a breath and jumped up to cross the room to Serenity’s bookshelves. I needed to put some distance between us and the flashes of memories. Talking to her was proving to be terrible for me. Doing so sparked questions and feelings I’d long had buried and didn’t need to dig up.
I knew who I was.
I knew what I was.
I knew what humans were really like.
Getting close to them was never a good idea, and I’dnevermake that mistake again.
My gaze traced the many books, taking in the perfectly arranged spines and covers. “I meant it. I want you to help me do this at my place.”
She appeared at my side and scanned the many titles with me. “I’d love to. I just …” she pursed her lips and began picking at her thumb with her middle finger as it hung by her side. “I’ll have to make sure Bradley’s okay with it.”
That name leaving her lips had my face evening out and my mood darkening. I already hated the human, but Ireallyhated her saying his goddamn name. It was a waste of her precious breath, especially when she could be using that voice to call outmyname.
