Maybe you’re in danger of Stockholm syndrome after all.
“Shut up,” she said aloud, just to hear what it was like to talk to herself as Murmur did. She laughed. Honestly, it felt kinda good.
MORBIDCURIOSITY
DAYS PASSED—IT WAS ALWAYS DIFFICULT TO SAY HOWmany in Hell—and the time for the next attempt of the spell was fast approaching. Surely having Suyin’s willing sacrifice would be the extra boost Murmur needed to finally break through. It had to be.
Yet strangely, he found his usual driving urgency was lacking.
Currently, he leaned back in his chair, drumming his claws on the desk, watching Suyin work from the corner of his eye. The fire had been fed and burned brightly, permeating the library with a comfortable warmth.
After discovering the clothing his minions had procured for her, Suyin had come to the library and, instead of thanking him, spent an hour cleaning years of soot and grime off the window.
He’d pretended not to notice, but instead of focusing on his work, he’d watched her, strangely transfixed by the sight of her diminutive form scrubbing at the glass, lithe muscles shifting along her back and shoulders.
Afterward, the glow of the red sky entered the room and actually managed to brighten it. Suddenly, he could read his messy writing a little easier, and he found he enjoyed looking out the window while he tried to organize his thoughts.
So, after Suyin had returned to her rooms, he’d cleared off one of the tables for her to use. Not to express gratitude, he assured himself, but as an exchange of favors. So they were even.
He’d made it clear she wasn’t to encroach on his workspace, but that table was being used mostly to store scraps of disorganized paper, and seeing her hunched over on the floor all day was distracting in its own right. It couldn’t be good for her spine to have it bent like that.
Not that he cared. He just didn’t want her distracting him.
Now, Suyin sat at her new worktable—for which she’d thanked him with a surprised look that made him uncomfortable—her nose buried in a book. And he watched her.
It seemed she hadn’t lied when she’d told him she was hungry for knowledge. At first, he’d been convinced her desire to access his library was part of a foolhardy plan to soften him up.
But every time he came here, he found her diligently studying. She never said a word to him except to bid him good morning or night before she retired to her chambers—though he was sure she’d lost all sense of the time.
When Murmur had cleaned off the table, he’d left an empty notebook for Suyin to use for note-taking, and she’d already filled half of it. He wondered what she was working so determinedly on.
She’s probably searching every single book for the easiest way to kill you.
He scoffed at the notion of a tiny thing like her causing him harm, but then his eyes narrowed suddenly. Whatwasshe up to?
She couldn’t actually try to kill him, as per the terms oftheir bargain, so he wasn’t particularly concerned about mutiny. But she was in his library, reading his books, sitting at his table. He had every right to know what she was doing.
He rose from his desk suddenly, and she didn’t so much as blink, remaining engrossed in her work. Silently, he stalked across the room and came up behind her.
Her thick hair cascaded down her back. It was pure black, no hints of brown. A good color as far as human hair went, he decided. His gaze moved to her tiny hands. She was currently copying a sigil into her book. The page opposite was filled with notes.
He leaned over to see what she was doing, and his lips curved slightly.
Anti-demon wards.
After he was done with her, she’d probably be even more paranoid than he was. Of course she’d want to learn ways to protect herself.
He nodded with approval at her careful but succinct note-taking. She was smart to copy down what she had. She wouldn’t be taking any of his grimoires back to Earth, and this was a good way to ensure her memory stayed sharp.
Unfortunately, the book she’d chosen was elementary at best. He straightened and stroked his chin with a foreclaw.
He crossed the room to the furthest corner, left of the doors. Gripping the ladder, he rolled it over several feet and then climbed to the second-highest shelf. Trailing his claws along the spines, he scanned each faded title until he found the one he sought. He pulled it out and descended the ladder.
Coming up behind Suyin, he dropped the grimoire with a heavy thud onto the desk in front of her.
She jumped and her head snapped up. Twisting around, her eyes flared when she saw him standing behind her.
“If you want wards to keep out demons, you won’t find a better book than that,” he said, pointing at the volume.
