Isaac settled back on the pillow. “Everything. What did you mean by ‘I get it?’ You get what?”
Shadrach braced himself. It was time for the big discussion. “The truth is, you’re mine.”
Isaac frowned. “You said that once before. You meant that literally? I thought that was just a kinky thing you said during sex.”
Shadrach snorted. “Well, yes, but I meant it literally, too. You remember me telling you this in your dream, right?”
“Yeah.” Isaac winced. “I kept telling myself it was all lies, though. A trick of some kind.”
Shadrach sighed. “Not at all. My life would be a lot easier if that were the case. All of the demons at the Rink, they felt drawn to their humans. Driven to be near them and protect them. As it turns out… you’re mine. My human. The one I feel drawn to. Up until now, I’d been on the outside looking in at the other demons and their strange relationships with their humans. It was frustrating at times. The demons I’d known for centuries no longer behaved in ways that made sense to me. How could they be so devoted to these humans they’d just met? Their choices, their behaviors, all of it changed after they met their humans.”
“And you?” Isaac asked, frowning up at him. “You’re saying you… feel this way now, too? About me?”
Shadrach’s face softened. “Yes, killer. If any other paladin had been in that room, their blood would have painted the floor before the end of the day. I took one look at you, and I was changed. I didn’t even realize it at first. The fight with Talon… made us all realize the truth. Ira said we’d come to blows over my human, and we did. I’d somehow convinced myself, even though the prophet told me it would happen, that it would be different for me. I’d be able to fight it or disregard it.” He blew out a gusty breath. “He’s going to say ‘I told you so’ at some point, and I’m gonna have tolistento it. They all will, probably.”
Isaac’s head tilted curiously. “Have Ira’s visions ever been wrong?”
“No. I’ve asked him that. And Wolf. Every vision he’s ever had has come to pass. The future is not as malleable as I thought.” It was somewhat concerning to think that every decision he’d made over the course of almost a thousand years had all been leading him to this moment, but, he thought as he looked at Isaac, maybe this wasn’t such a terrible outcome.
“But you still somehow thought you’d be able to fight whatever this is?”
Shadrach glowered halfheartedly. “You should know a thing or two about being stubborn.”
Isaac huffed out a weak laugh, curling an arm behind his head. “What does it mean, exactly, to be yours? What does it entail?”
“Ugh.” He turned away. Telling Isaac the whole truth would mean giving up all the power he wielded in this relationship. He wasn’t ready for the imbalance to swing out of his favor.
“Shadrach.” Isaac sat up, his brow furrowed seriously.
“Fine, fine,” he groused. “Based on what I’ve seen of the others, they claim their humans are theirs, but it’s really the other way around.”
“Other way around?” Isaac repeated.
“Yeah. You might be mine, but I’m also yours. I’m uniquely, acutely, completely devoted to you and only you. If you’d stayed with the guild, I would have been miserable, but nothing in the world could’ve made me harm you. I might’ve burned the whole guild down one day to reach you, and you would’ve been the only thing left standing in the wreckage. No matter what happens, no matter what you do, no matter what choices you make, I’ll be by your side.”
Isaac’s mossy green eyes flickered with emotion. “No one’s ever…” He stopped, his throat bobbing. “What if I don’t want to be?”
“Then I’ll be your shadow until the day you die. The moment I met you, there was no turning back for either of us.” He shrugged. There was nothing he could do to break the connection he felt toward Isaac, and he wasn’t sure he’d want to if he could. Before he’d felt it, he’d expected to be averse to being so wholly consumed by his feelings for another. Now, he couldn’t imagine going back to the empty existence he’d maintained before.
He hoped Isaac felt the same way. Why else would he have gone to the lengths he did tonight?
“Why did you come back?” he asked, desperate to know.
Isaac lowered his head, fingers fidgeting with the hem of the sheet that pooled around them. “I told Sloan almost everything. I told him about the Rink, about your questions, and about the way you made me feel. How you tempted me. How I wanted to let you touch me. He sent me to Father Hawley.”
Shadrach couldn’t stop the growl that pitched out of him, and Isaac glanced up briefly at him before lowering his gaze once more.
“I had a meeting with him tonight. A session, he always called it. But he didn’t get the usual whip when it was time for my punishment. He ordered me to get on my knees, and then he ordered me to take his belt off.”
Shadrach’s hand shot out, wrapping around Isaac’s wrist. “Did he…” He couldn’t bring himself to finish.
“No. I think he was planning to, though. He wanted to hurt me first. He liked hurting me. But when he hit me with the belt, it healed before his eyes.”
“Oh shit,” Shadrach said. That hadn’t occurred to him.
Isaac huffed. “Yeah. So I told him the truth. You’d given me your blood, and it healed me. He said that kind of healing would be a miracle, said it was impossible for demon blood to do such a thing.”
Shadrach snorted.
