Shame she’s not more clever, or I might have been genuinely interested.
She came to herself with a gasp. Returning to her own body, she felt like she was plunged into icy water. She gripped the table to tether herself back to reality. The wood was solid—real. Was that … Did she imagine all of that?
Were thosehisthoughts? Did he really think her to be stuck-up and simple-minded?
How cruel.
He hadn’t even tried to get to know her.
Heat flooded her cheeks—not from embarrassment but fury. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep her expression even. She couldn’t let him see that his thoughts had wounded her—or worse, that she’d somehow been able to hear them at all.
“Elizabeth, are you alright?” Caspian asked her again.
She took a moment to regain her composure. “My apologies, Caspian. I seem to have choked on my water.” The lie came easily, but her voice sounded strained to her ears.
Caspian raised a brow, then turned and continued his conversation with Asmodeus. Cold, uncaring. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised. He sipped from his goblet, his teeth becoming tinged with red.
Simple, indeed.
Quiet didn’t mean simple. Intelligence was quiet, more often than it was loud.
“And you, Elizabeth? How have you been settling in?” Finnigan asked, his mustached face serious and unsmiling.
“I’m settling in quite nicely, thank you. How was your trip?” she inquired.
“Good. I had some business in the Winterlands.”
“How nice. It sounds like a lovely place to visit.” She forced herself to nod.
“An icy hellhole, you mean,” Asmodeus quipped from across the table.
Finnigan smirked. “It certainly is an icy wasteland, but my trip was certainly illuminating. Worth the cold, I would say.”
“Oh? Illuminating how?”
“I am searching for something. I heard a rumor it had been seen there.”
She smiled. “It must be a precious item indeed to justify travelling so far. What were you looking for?”
Finnigan gave her an annoyed look. “A rare and precious artefact. Something that mortals need not concern themselves with. It is an item of immense power, sought by witches and demons alike for centuries.”
“I see. Well, I hope you find whatever it is you’re searching for.”
He inclined his head to her.
Elizabeth studied Finnigan’s sharp features, trying to distract herself from what had just happened with Caspian. The older-looking demon’s eyes had a calculating gleam that made her skin crawl. He had been with Caspian for some time and seemed abrupt, bordering on rude, and spent most of his time travelling the realm. She tried to see herself through his eyes: a young, untried, untested girl who had not seen much of this world and knew nothing of his. Despite his rude nature, she sympathized with him in that moment.
As she watched Finnigan, that strange tingling sensation she had with Caspian returned behind her eyes. She tried to stop it, but the world was already shifting, and she was falling into someone else’s thoughts.
She saw herself through his eyes and felt an intense wave of dislike. There was distrust and a deep bitterness that coated everything in his mind.
Can’t tell the girl, must keep it secret. Don’t trust her.
The witch I found told me the same thing they all do. The amulet is long gone, and there isn’t a witch alive who remembers where it was hidden.
Wait, why is the girl lookingat me?
“Yes?” he asked sharply.
