The Prince gave a raspy laugh. “You’re very direct today, aren’t you, Lillia? Are you planning to do away with your big, bad warden once and for all?”
He spoke in a lighthearted tone, but never turned his back to me. His reaction suggested there was genuine fear in the question. Part of me still wanted to destroy him, to earn my freedom through violence and be rid of him, but I couldn’t. Not without creating complications I didn’t know how to resolve.
I forced myself to take a seat. Sitri’s shoulders slackened in response.
“No,” I said. “I need you, and I think you need me, too. Let’s find a way to heal you.”
“Easy. Sleep and food will do the trick.”
“Eat and sleep, then.”
Sitri stepped back into my view. His wounds had disappeared under the pristine white shirt he’d retrieved, and his steps had evened out. The injuries he bore were invisible, so well hidden I could scarcely detect them, even when I tried—but they still lurked beneath the surface, threatening to tear him apart from the inside out.
“I will entrust you with this, since you don’t stand to benefit from it,” Sitri said, though I saw the wariness in his eyes. “I’m maintaining an act, darling. Royalty isn’t born here. We’re forged in blood, crowned by magic. My untimely end would promote a new monarch. Every demon in my kingdom knows this to be true. Now tell me, what follows if my condition becomes common knowledge?”
“A bloodbath,” I answered, following Sitri’s logic. “That’s why there aren’t any servants, why you only keep a handful of legates around. They’re a liability. As a human, I have nothing to gain from your downfall. I’m safe.”
“Precisely. I wasn’t about to force the issue, but if you insist on nursing me back to health, perhaps we can help one another out.”
I bit my lip, unsure if I wanted to even entertain the Prince. After all he’d done for me, I had to hear him out. I owed Sitri that much. “What’s your proposition?”
A moment of silence hung between us.
“We share a room tonight. I could rest away from prying eyes, and you could watch my back.” Sitri looked me over from head to toe, devouring me with his gaze. “You offer a convenient alibi. I always have a reason to be in bed with a woman.”
A sinister, toothy grin spread across his face. The warmth on my cheeks had never died down, but now, it erupted into blazing heat. Mischief gleamed in his eyes, dancing with the firelight. My heart hammered so violently against my ribs that I feared Sitri would notice.
“Out of the question,” I said, failing to steady my wavering voice. “Don’t you have your own room, where you wouldn’t have to share with a human, and your servants couldn’t gain access?”
“Those chambers were never mine, darling. I couldn’t care less for them. My belongings are here, and unless you are accustomed to sleeping in chairs, it would be an uncomfortable night for us both.”
“That’s the reason you want to share my bedroom? Because you don’t like yours? Do you really expect me to believe there’s nowhere elsefor you to sleep?”
The fervor gathering in my body boiled my blood, turning embarrassment to rage. I balled my shaking hands into fists, crushing the dense fabric of my leggings in my fingers. The Prince didn’t seem to notice.
“It’s an act, darling. A carefully woven lie.” He took a seat in his tall leather chair. “You wanted to help. I told you how. Decline if you’d rather; I can manage on my own.”
With his light skin plastered against dark upholstery, he looked more like his usual self. Sitri produced a pot of fragrant powder from his desk, which emanated his signature ashy, sandalwood-like scent. He dusted his hands with the stuff and worked it into his hair, dulling its greasy sheen. Once he deemed his work sufficient, he kicked his feet over one of the chair’s armrests. He used his elbow to prop his chin up on the other. Sitri sat sideways on his throne. Waited for my answer.
Could I really afford to tell him no, to risk him weakening, falling apart, and letting our common enemy in?
The sobering truth suffocated my anger. I let it go with a sigh.
“I’ll help you, just… do your best to be decent about it. And leave your weapons on the desk, okay?”
“A fair compromise. If you’d like me to disarm, though, I need a favor from you,” he said. “Keep my legates entertained. Have them put you to work for a few hours while I settle in. And if they ask, you don’t know where I am. Understood?”
“Understood.”
With that, Sitri rose to his feet and stretched. He stalked around the desk, past me, and towards the door. I watched him go until he passed behind me. I stood, tracking the demon with my eyes, keeping him in my sight.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?”
I came up beside him. He turned to me, a smirk still plastered on hisface.
“Me? I’m off to prepare for bed,” he answered. “And as for you, Apollo is out front. I heard he’s running fortifications. He will need plenty of hands. Go on now, darling.”
Sitri opened the door. As if by habit, I stepped through it, and Sitri followed. I’d grown used to him shuffling me from room to room, locking doors behind me, controlling my movements in subtle ways. Exerting his power over me.
