Maybe she feels the same, because she sighs and reaches for my hand. “Come on, then. Show yournoveltyinside the demon court, and we can figure out the rest later.”
It lifts my spirits, if only the slightest bit.
My mate still trusts me at least enough to have me lead her forward, to give me her hand and call a temporary truce.
Enough. Enough for now.
37
Seren
I’ve never been more frustrated with my demon.
I’ve also never felt more tenderness for him, and the confusion of it all is a hell of a thing to handle as I take his hand again and let him lead me toward the demon court.
Carved right into the side of the mountain, the gates soar above us, impressive and awe-inspiring.
Just outside them, two more armed sentries keep watch.
The younger of the pair narrows his eyes at Callum as we approach, looking at him like the two of them have met before.
“I know, I know,” Callum grumbles. “But if you’d just take a message to—”
“No need,” the older says, laying his hand on the stone. “The lordling Nighfall has already put in a word for you. You’re welcome in.”
The stone rumbles with magick at his touch. Groaning and shifting right before our eyes, a doorway parts in the middle of the gate, with a path sloping downward into the heart of the mountain.
“My thanks,” Callum says, not sounding all that thankful as he leads me forward.
As darkness closes over us, I pull my wide eyes from the unbelievable path ahead back to where the two guards are still at their posts.
“What was that all about?”
“They’re very particular about who they let into the court,” he grumbles.
“Keeping the troublemakers out?”
He glances at me, surprised, like he didn’t expect me to tease him, and the weary lines on his face ease a little.
“Something like that.”
I wish I could make the rest of them disappear.
What he told me earlier about his parents, their debts, everything he’s done and sacrificed to make sure his mom is taken care of, still echoes in my mind.
He said it like he was confessing his guilt on a witness stand, like he was on the block and I was the executioner holding the blade.
I don’t understand what the problem is.
He’s got a past, sure, and problems to figure out. But don’t we all?
Goddess knows I’m not exactly the prime example for having my life together.
So why he thinks he needs to beat himself up about it, why he thinks it would have changed the way I see him, I have no idea.
Besides, that’s not even the most important thing out of everything he told me.
You’re the other half of my soul, Seren, whether or not you feel it, too.
