I twisted the ring, ever so slowly, trying to slide it with the least amount of friction up to his knuckle. It stuck there, and my racing heart felt like it might explode. I wasn’t cut out for this. My gaze flicked to his to make sure he was still asleep.
Daziel stared back at me unblinking.
I yelped and stumbled back. Surprise and sharp dismay burnedthrough me. He was, after all, a demon, and I didn’t know how he would react.
He sat up in one sinuous twist. “If you’re so desperate for a ring from me, yonati, you have only to ask.”
“I—no,” I said, my mortification edged with fear. While Daziel during the day was friendly and wide-eyed, Daziel angry was the deepest shadows of night.
He pulled the ring off his finger and offered it to me in one smooth movement. His eyes were almost more red than black, his voice low and hard, and I remembered demons were creatures of fire and ash. “Put it on if you want it so badly. We can say the vows right here. I’m sure there’s no other reason you’d attempt to take my seal from my hand.”
Something crackled through me, making my hairs stand straight. I recognized embarrassment and discomfort and maybe a hint of alarm, but something else too, a distinct awareness of how intensely he’d focused on me. In the soft moonlight he looked unnervingly beautiful, and a hot and heady current swirled through my body. I swallowed and straightened, stuttering slightly. “N-no. I don’t want that. I just don’t know how to make you leave!”
At my outburst, he nodded and leaned back a bit, putting more space between us as he slid his ring back on. Then he tossed a ball of light into the air, which increased in brightness until it illuminated the room as well as any lamp. For a minute we regarded each other in a troubled détente, him in his rumpled nightshirt and with an unruly mess of curls, me in an overlarge sweater, my hair unbraided.
Finally, Daziel spoke, much calmer than before, though he managed to sound both wounded and offended. Not unlike mysister Adina when I’d told her she had to do the same number of chores as everyone else. “I don’t know why you’re so set on banishment. You’ve been telling everyone about me for weeks, but now that I’m here, you’re mad.”
I couldn’t believe I had to explain this. “You’re not supposed to exist. Theideaof you existing made my life easier. You actually existing doesn’t.”
He frowned. “How did the idea of me make your life easier?”
My head fell back against the sofa. I felt exhausted now, the rush of fear and heat draining away. “Government School boys kept asking me out, hoping to meet my aunt. A fake betrothed stopped them.”
“A real betrothed will be even more effective, then.”
I made a face. “Having a demon infesting my rooms isn’t the right trade-off for peace.”
He perked up. “You’d like to negotiate a different trade?”
“Nope.” I drew back, wary. “You’re not supposed to make deals with demons.”
“Why not? You ‘invented’ me to make your life easier. Let me. I can keep unwanted suitors at bay. I can even help with your schoolwork. You study languages, yes? I might not understand the scrolls, but I understand living languages. You study those as well.”
The offer was surprisingly good. I’d done study sessions with my classmates, but since none of us truly grasped the languages we were learning, we often ended as confused as we’d started. A fluent Keft or Tzorybia speaker would make an excellent tutor.
Still. He was a stranger and a demon. “No bargains. No deals. I’m no fool.”
“No fun, either,” he muttered, sounding aggrieved. He blew out a breath, twisting the rings on his fingers. When he caught me watching, he separated his hands quickly. I wondered if he’d been chastised as a child for hand-wringing. “Look. Did you always know you’d attend the Lyceum?”
Growing up, I’d dreamed of leaving home the way a human in the desert dreams of water, the way a trapped bird dreams of the open sky. But I hadn’t expected anything. I shook my head. “If I hadn’t gotten my scholarship, I doubt I’d have left.” My father was a courier, my mother a seamstress, and my grandmother harvested saffron from crocuses. I’d probably have wound up helping one of them.
He nodded. “I always wanted to travel—I thought I would. My father said he’d take me with him. My father…” Daziel tensed slightly, and when he continued it was with a lightness I suspected was false. “Always said more than he meant, I think. It took me a while to realize that.”
I didn’t want to feel any sympathy for him, but my chest twisted. My parents had never fallen short of my expectations. I’d been lucky.
“Anyway.” Daziel shook off any low spirits. “I decided I’d explore on my own. Especially when my parents made noises about me taking on more of the family business.”
“Rocks?”
He smiled wryly. “Rocks. A more tedious responsibility than I’m keen on.”
Who’d have thought I’d have fellow feeling for a demon? Apparently growing up had some universals. “I get it. But…why not stay at inns? Why drag me into this?”
He blinked as though confused. “They’d find me.”
I was equally confused. “How is staying with me any different? You think they wouldn’t look for you in a girls’ dorm?”
Understanding dawned on Daziel’s face. “Shedim can sense the location of those they’re connected to,” he explained. “If someone has a claim on your location—as a parent does on a child’s—you can only be shielded by someone with an equal claim. Like a betrothed. According to the treaty rules, shedim can’t track humans without permission. Since I am betrothed to you, I am hidden from them.”
