“I’m in charge of the laundry,” Mae softly said, not making eye contact.
“She’s quite the seamtressssas well,” Nina added, emphasizing like a serpent.
Mae nodded. “If any of your clothing needs mending, do let me know.”
“Will do. Thanks.” I motioned to the muffins. “Please help yourself.”
Good thing I’d thought to make several batches.
The demons poured cups of tea and piled their plates high with muffins and the take on omurice before sitting at a rectangular table along the opposite wall. Fane joined them, leaving me and Rowan beside the counter.
“Sssit, Evan,” Nina said with a toothy smile, then shook her head and lightly slapped both her cheeks. “Bad, Nina. Control your tongue.”
Was she self-conscious about emphasizing her ‘s’s? Poor girl. I thought it was cute.
“Here!” Cyan pulled out the empty chair beside her and patted the seat. “By me, by me.”
“Why you?” Mae quietly asked her. “The one beside me is closest to him.”
The blue-haired demon puffed out her cheeks in protest.
Nina grinned. “Evan can sit by me. I found him firssst.”
I wavered in place, a bit surprised. Couldn’t say I’d ever had ladies fight over me before.
Rowan quietly coughed into his fist.
“Not a word,” I mumbled at him.
“I’m sure Evan and his companion wish to return to their room first and wake the others,” Fane said, earning a huge pout from Cyan. “But perhaps you’ll see him again after.”
Nina grumbled something and picked at her food, but I caught the words “meanie, selfish humansss.”
Something about her reminded me of Kuya. A pressure enclosed my heart as I thought of him and all the friends left behind in Bremloc.
“You okay, little treasure?” Rowan gently gripped my wrist. He wasn’t big on hand holding, but I didn’t mind. This way felt as special; a thing he reserved just for me.
I nodded. “Better now that you and the others are here.”
Beyond the window, the sun broke across the horizon, flooding the distant mountains in shades of gold and darkorange. Another morning in the Shadow Realm, only now, my men were with me.
Men who would be waking up any moment and wondering where we’d wandered off to.
Chapter Six
Imprint of the Heart
Muffins calmed even the surliest of grumps. And luckily for me, I came armed with enough to feed a small army.
Leaving the room by myself without telling anyone where I was going normally would’ve found me in the hot seat, begging for mercy as I was tickled and lectured. But one look at the platters of food had my men forgetting to be mad.
“Tasty, huh?” I asked, watching them tear into their breakfast. They all mumbled and nodded between hearty bites. “Eat up. There’s plenty more where that came from.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Quincy scooped more rice onto his plate. The trio of knights had joined us shortly after I got to the room, lured by the smell of food.
Maddox reached for another banana muffin while still chewing the one he’d just shoved into his mouth. My sexy glutton. Callum grabbed his third one, earning a sneer from our captain, then shot me a dopey smile that had me giggling. His cheeks were stuffed like a chipmunk. The two of them sat with me on the bed.
“I’m sure we could have breakfast on the patio or somewhere bigger,” I said, glancing at everyone piled together in the room.
