“Hey, now—” Then those two words hit me with the force of a hurricane.
Hell.Mouth.
Hellmouth.The portal between here and there.Where Dad lived.
“There’s a hellmouth?Here?”I pointed at the floor, which had been painted to look like a Ouija board.I quickly shifted to the side.
Just in case.
“Nothere,” Selina said, sounding as if she were mocking my tone.“It’s down at the end of the street.”
I flung around to face Asmoday.“I thought this place was protected.Warded.Safe!”
He lifted both hands, palms facing out, as if he worried I might attack him.And not the sort of attack that my body wanted to do, even now, when I was suddenly very, very afraid dear daddy would figure out where I was hiding.
“It is all of those things,” Asmoday said.“Gal opened the hellmouth, but then she closed it again.”
“Mostly,” Selina added.
“It’s fine,” Asmoday stressed.“You are safe here.I promise.”
No idea how he could promise such a thing when this town had been built over top of an actual hellmouth, but I kept myself in check because Mom swore this was the safest place for me.And Mom knew her stuff.She hadn’t let me down for my entire life, except when she died, of course.But that hadn’t been her fault, so, yeah, she’d never let me down.
I trusted her judgment.
“What kind of coffee do you want, Daruka?”Asmoday asked, as if the subject were closed and he was ready to move on.
I supposed I was too.Or, more realistically, I now needed a jolt of caffeine more than ever.
Glancing at the menu board on the wall behind the counter, I noted that it was all the standard coffee drinks, with silly witch-centric names like Witch’s Cold Brew (the specialty), Salem’s Lot Latte, Cinnamon Coven Cappuccino, and Black Magic Macchiato, which was the one I opted for, along with a heart-shaped scone drizzled with pink icing.
Asmoday went with the Witch’s Cold Brew, which Selina took an absurdly long time making while I tried to tell myself I had no reason to be jealous of the attention she paid to him.Didn’t matter that she was the only other person in this town who seemed remotely attracted to him.
He wasn’t mine.I didn’t want him.My attraction was entirely the result of him being a lust demon.
And yet, the moment we stepped out onto the sidewalk—after I took a sip and grudgingly admitted Selina the Bad Witch made damn delicious coffee—I blurted, “Why are she and I the only people in this town who are attracted to you?”
Asmoday shrugged.
“Because I’m pretty sure you’re my fated mate.”
ChapterFive
Asmoday
Shit.I was usually much smoother than that.Something about Daruka turned me into a bumbling idiot.It probably wasn’t that bad, but it felt like it to me.I was a king of seduction.I was a literal lust demon.
“No one else is tripping over themselves to try to get in your pants,” she said, flapping her hand at a passing harpy, who gave us both once-overs before crossing the street and then increasing her speed for good measure.
“You want to get in my pants?”I asked hopefully.
Her response was a glare that could cut down a lesser man.
“You’re definitely a lust demon,” she snapped.“What gives?”
Her plan was to ignore the whole fated mates proclamation, apparently.
I took a sip of my cold brew.Selina had a fair number of really annoying traits.Making really excellent coffee was not one of them.
