No matter how much I wanted to, I didn’t hate him anymore. Sitri had saved me, and now I had returned the favor. His peaceful sleeping face was gone. All that remained was my warden, my guardian, my savior—and the tangled knot of feelings that surrounded him.
“I’m sorry, Sitri, I just… Whatever it is you want from me, please let it go. I’m not part of your world, and I don’t want to be one of your kind.”
“If you truly wanted to stand on your own, you’d jump at the chance to be ‘one of my kind,’” Sitri countered. His voice softened, though his eyes remained hard.
I drew a deep breath, my body still shaking. Emotions built like pressure in my chest, so intermingled that I couldn’t separate them anymore.
But there was something else he hinted at woven into his statement, something I couldn’t afford to ignore.
“There’s something you aren’t telling me. I can’t risk harming you as a human. You said so yourself; I have too much to lose. So, what is it you’re hiding? Why do you still want to bind me?”
Sitri stared at me blankly for a moment, then his face twisted with emotions of his own. Shock, anger, pain, and something that looked remarkably like fear. Eventually, he heaved a sigh and went stoic once more.
“There is. I didn’t wish to concern you with it, not while it is so uncertain, and the consequences of knowing would be so dire… but I will tell you, darling, if you wish to know.”
His admission made my blood run cold. The Prince of Lust and Lies had offered me a secret, along with the weight of carrying it. I almost didn’t believe it. All I had to do was ask; such a simple thing in theory, but I didn’t have the words.
A knock sounded across the room, and both of our heads turned. Sitri took a few steps towards it. Panic fluttered in my stomach, and I reached for his arm.
“Sitri, wait—”
But I was too slow. He pulled open the door, and before I composed myself, I was face-to-face with a demoness I’d never seen before.
She stood taller than Sitri, with lush, wavy hair the same shade of crimson as her eyes. Freckles dotted her pale, ashen skin. They were so dark they almost passed for splatters of dried blood. Form-fitting black leather armor wrapped her from neck to toe. She bore an impressive grimace that twisted her face into a snarl, betraying her foul temper.
Sitri didn’t seem too happy about their meeting, either. His scowl mirrored hers, and his eyes darkened. He straightened up, and soon his face blanked.
“My apologies, Bronwen. I hadn’t expected you today.”
The demoness shot a glare at me. I shrank under her appraisal.
“When you said you had a bound human soul in your clutches, this isn’t what I thought you meant.” Bronwen waved her hand towards me. “Old habits die hard, eh, Sitri?”
“Hardly. Lillia was worried sick about me, honest. I had no ill intentions.” Sitri held his hands up as if feigning innocence.
“We didn’t sleep together, if that’s what you’re implying,” I snapped.
But in the face of this beautiful demoness, for reasons I couldn’t quite grasp, I almost wished we had. The burning heat of rage came on so suddenly that it surprised me, settling uncomfortably on my cheeks and in my chest. It took a moment too long before I recognized it forwhat it was.
Jealousy, as unexpected as it was misplaced.
Sitri was my warden, not my friend, and certainly not my lover. He could have disappeared entirely, and I would have kept on as if nothing had happened. That’s what I’d believed, at least.
If that were true, though, then why did this burning jealousy choose now, of all times, to surface?
Only one answer remained. I was unwilling to entertain it further.
“This wicked enchantress is Bronwen,” Sitri said as he turned towards me. “She’s here to collect me, I’m sure. Her boss grows tired of my antics.”
Bronwen scoffed. “I worked my ass off convincing Haagenti she needed your protection, and the best you can do is ‘wicked enchantress?’ Please. I’ll leave you to play games with this transient human, if that’s what you want.”
She propped her hand on her hip and stared Sitri down, waiting for a response. My rage slowly shifted from my behalf to Sitri’s. I’d never seen another demon order him around. Bronwen wasn’t like Mara or Apollo. They were terrifying in their own right, but at least at face value, they both bowed to Sitri.
Bronwen made her disrespect of the Prince very clear.
“I’m going, I’m going,” Sitri muttered.
With his hands still raised, he shouldered past Bronwen and into the hall. The demoness and I exchanged a look of contempt. Then she turned to follow him.
