This frail, tiny human had saved his life… he couldn’t believe it.
You need to leave.
He couldn’t. Not when her light eyes glistened in the dim light and looked at him as if he were…
Human.
Really, it should offend him with every ounce of his being. And maybe it would have had he not been running a heavy fever. As it was…
He wanted to feel her hands on his skin again.Yeah, I am burning a fever.He had to be out of his mind to want something like that. What he needed was to get back to his life. Back to the dimly lit realm he called home and fight in the war he dominated.
It was all he knew. What he understood.
“You should drink some water.”
He paused at her gentle voice. “What?”
“Water will help with your fever.” She handed him a small skin.
“Thank you.”
She smiled sweetly. “I should also let you know that my father said there are men searching for you.”
That caught his attention. “Are they?”
“Aye. But I didn’t see them on my way here. I think they’re looking elsewhere, but I wanted you to be careful.”
Malphas felt his injured wing twitch. He couldn’t fly home with that wing— at least not in this body. Using his powers, he changed into a raven.
Lilliana gasped.
Ignoring her, he tried to stretch his wounded wing. It was as useless in this form as when he’d been a demon.
Damn. Frustrated and angry, he returned back into his preferred form. He couldn’t even teleport.
“How do you do that?”
He blinked at her awed question. “Do what?”
“Change from one body to another?”
Malphas shrugged. “How do you not?”
“It’s not natural for us. I’d love to have that ability.”
He glanced down at the claws on his hands. “It’s not so impressive.” Then he met her wide-eyed gaze and confessed a truth he’d never told anyone else. “Neither one is my real form.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
He ran his tongue along his fangs. Over the centuries, he’d grown so used to them that he forgot at times this wasn’t the body he’d been born into. The real form he’d default to if he hadn’t made staying a demon his priority.
It’d taken him years to master remaining in his Daeve body, especially while he was sleeping.
Now, it was second nature.
But if he were to die, he’d revert to the form he’d held at birth. It was an image that he never showed to anyone.
Hehatedit.
