Swallowing hard, I reach for her. Even if I’m not going to actively pursue her, doesn’t mean I can’t touch her, hold her, flirt with her. If she gives any indication she wants me to back off, I can do that too.
“Mari, we have to get going. Time’s of the essence and all that,” I murmur softly.
She swings around, wonder still hanging in her eyes. “Huh? I thought…Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I wish I could let you stay here as long as you want, but time works differently in your world. I don’t want you to go missing.”
Her face screws up, and she glances away. I open my mouth to ask her what I said, to ask her what’s wrong. I snap it shut when she gazes out once more at the field of flowers.
“Okay, let’s go.” She marches along the perimeter in the wrong direction, then freezes. “Can we take a picture? Where’s my phone?”
She pats along her hips, and my mouth waters. When she gazes over her shoulder, my eyes snap up. No reason she needsto know I’m ogling her. Then again…No. Flirting, fine. Touching when necessary. Or when I get the urge. Ogling is off the table.
“I don’t have any pockets,” she snaps.
“Um, okay? I don’t think I do either. Do you really need pockets?”
“Always. A girlalwaysneeds pockets. We have so few joys in life, at least let us have that.”
I narrow my gaze. “Why do I get the feeling you’re fucking with me?”
She gives me a deadpan stare. “I never joke about pockets, sir.”
A shiver rolls down my spine. Nope. Not going to say anything about her calling me sir. I snap my fingers, adding pockets to her outfit. She huffs as the fabric puffs from her hips. I wince, then snap again. At least she doesn’t look like she’s wearing clouds around her waist.
“Better. Thank you.”
“You shouldn’t thank a demon, spitfire.”
“Why’s that?”
“They’ll get the wrong idea. Also, you’re going the wrong way. It’s over the next hill.”
After walking a few minutes, she clears her throat. “You haven’t told me what to expect.”
“Can’t really explain it. Not in ways you’d understand,” I say, wishing I could just fly there, though I doubt she’d appreciate that. She makes a face. “Wasn’t meant to be insulting, spitfire. You just haven’t been to the dimensions I have.”
“Like where?”
I launch into the harrowing tale of Omen battling chickens with her interjecting questions the entire time. It’s nice not to bicker with her for once. The longer she’s here, the more relaxed she becomes. Maybe it’s the scent in the air. The lava flowers don’t smell like anything else I’ve encountered. Sweet, yetcalming. It’s part of the reason the dragons chose this particular world to nest. It could be impacting Mari’s mood, which I’m not going to complain about. As much as I enjoy her fire, having a calm conversation with her is…nice. Plus, she hasn’t told me to get to the point once, despite my rambling with inconsequential details.
“How many other worlds are there?” she asks softly just as we crest the hill.
“Millions, I suppose. I doubt anyone’s counted. When I was younger, I had the grand plan of visiting every single one of them. Like a fucked-up bucket list.” I laugh lightly as I gaze at the fortress laid out at the bottom of the hill. “Gave up on that pretty quickly.”
“You talk like a human. Or maybe just a demon who’s spent a lot of time in my world.”
“Well, the food’s excellent there. Kept bringing me back. Plus, there’s only a few other beings so contradictory, yet resilient. Humans as a whole are a lot like phoenixes. Only difference is they’re the ones burning shit down. Yet they always rise from the ashes, mostly stronger and wiser than before. Still got some shitheads running around, but then they come to Hell and we have a grand old time making them suffer.” I grin and her eyes widen.
“What type of shitheads?”
“Oh, you know, the real bad ones. Not really the time to talk about them. Dragons don’t particularly like them. Sometimes we send the dragons a little gift, let them play around with the dictators and murderers. Triton thought we could have demons come and watch for sport. Dragons nixed that one pretty quickly. Said we’d get queasy. And if a dragon’s telling you ademonwill get sick? Yeah, you don’t argue with them.”
Her mouth parts, then closes as she works through everything. I probably shouldn’t throw random information ather. I’m sure it’s disconcerting. Shutting it off would be like turning off my brain, though. And Mari hasn’t complained.
“Who’s Triton?”
“A demon. I work with him sometimes, training new demons coming up in the ranks. He’s the one who pulled me away last time. Actually, I should figure out what the fuck he was doing, because if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was using a summoning circle.”
