“But he loves you.” Fane grabbed the bread from the warming drawer and set the platter on the counter. “His mouth says one thing, but his eyes say another. Even when taunting you, his affection for you lights him up from the inside.”
Tiny flutters surrounded my heart.
After placing the bread in the stone oven, I found a pot for the green beans while he got to work on the pork chops. The potatoes were mashed, then mixed with butter and milk and seasoned with salt, pepper, and a touch of garlic.
“You said you’ve worked here for fifteen or so years?” I asked, doing mental math. He nodded. “How old are you?”
“I just celebrated my fifty-eighth name day.” He focused on the pork chops, basting them as they sizzled in the skillet. The aroma was mouthwatering.
“What?” I examined him closer. Smooth dark skin—not a single wrinkle in sight. “But you look so young.”
“Because I am.” Fane gave me a look, visibly confounded. “Nina and I are the youngest in the castle. She will celebrate her fiftieth name day come summer.”
“So, demons really don’t age?” I asked incredulously. “Lord Onyx said he’s three hundred years old.”
“We do age,” he answered. “Yet, it’s very slow compared to a human. The average demon lifespan is a thousand years or more.”
I couldn’t imagine living that long. Watching empires rise and fall. Watching the people I loved grow old while I stayed the same. Lupin had never revealed his age, but he’d dropped a few hints that he’d been around for a while. He had made his husband immortal to prevent him from aging. So they could be together forever.
Made me think of the men I loved. All were human apart from Lake. As far as I knew, he healed faster than humans but aged the same. But what if Lord Onyxdidjoin our family? He’d have to watch all of us grow old without him.
“Sounds kind of lonely,” I eventually said. “Living so long.”
“To some, I suppose.” Fane frowned at the skillet. “Especially if a demon were to make a friend who was human. It may feel… lonely once the earth reclaimed them. Perhaps even a little sad.”
“Ifyou made a human friend.” I lightly bumped his arm. “Guess it’s a good thing I’m just an annoying blabbermouth, huh?”
“A good thing, indeed.” He softly smiled. “Now, about the green beans. Must we truly add bacon?”
I laughed.
What the future had in store for me, I couldn’t say. But as Fane and I continued with dinner preparations and chatted about our favorite meals to cook, I felt I’d made a friend. One I’d miss the day we finally left the Shadow Realm.
Chapter Thirteen
A Gift of Cake
The dining room buzzed with the chatter of men who’d had a long, but exciting day. The knights spoke of their training, enthusiastically recounting their sparring matches with the demon warriors.
“Nearly sliced me in two, he did!” Duke drank from his mug, slammed it on the table, and wiped at his mouth. “I look forward to another match tomorrow.”
“Quite different than our training as knights,” Baden said, helping himself to another wedge of bread. “We often hold back when sparring with each other or use dulled blades to avoid serious injury.”
“Would you rather I have my warriors use sticks instead of axes and swords, then?” Lord Onyx sat at the head of the table and sipped his wine.
“No.” A grin crossed Baden’s face. “I quite like the challenge. It’s thrilling.”
“Aye,” Quincy said with his mouth full of pork. “You demons fight dirty, and I like it.”
Briar frowned at him. “If only you liked table manners as well.”
I laughed and almost choked on my bite of green beans.
“It’s the bacon,” Fane mumbled from beside Onyx. He refilled his goblet and moved over to Varys, tossing me an I-told-you-so look. “Adding it was an unforgivable crime.”
“Uh huh.” I wiped at my mouth. “Says the one who ate a big plate of them before we served the food.”
“Telling lies is unbecoming of you.” Fane turned away, his black tail flicking once. I caught the smirk he tried to hide though. “I did nothing of the sort.”
