Page 107 of Sent To A Fantasy World and Now All the Men Want Me 7

The dining parlor was lively for dinner as usual. Varys and Koga joined us, sitting beside Lake and Briar as they spoke of herbs, vegetables, and mana particles, all of which had my eyes glazing over. The trio of knights sat with Nina and Cyan and told the female demons about my café in Bremloc.

“Nina wantsss to go,” the snake demon said with a sense of wonder in her yellow, serpent-like eyes. She flipped around to me, her tail swishing faster behind her. “Evan can build a new café here! Then Nina can come eat all the yummiesss.”

Lake offered me a sad smile from across the table. Until I fulfilled my destiny as the Hallowed Saint, life couldn’t return to how it used to be. Days when my biggest worry after waking in the morning was whether the humidity would affect how the bread dough rose and baked.

“Maybe someday,” I told Nina, keeping a smidgeon of hope alive. “Until then, I can bake you all the yummy things here in the castle.”

That appeased her. She flashed a toothy grin, then ate more of the chicken casserole, washing it down with the tea Fane had steeped with oranges and honey.

Onyx didn’t join us for dinner. Not that I expected him too. We were going on four days without seeing each other. The longest we’d been apart since I first came to the Shadow Realm.

“Who’s ready for dessert?” I asked, standing from the table. I needed a distraction from those achy thoughts. “I made honey cake with a caramel glaze.”

“Honey cake?” Fane glanced toward the hall beyond the parlor. “You should take milord a piece. It’s his favorite, you know.”

If only I could. But I couldn’t tell him the reason why I couldn’t. Although Fane knew about me being the Hallowed Saint, he didn’t know about Onyx’s curse. Only Phantasia and Koga seemed to know about it.

“It might do him some good if you visited him, lad,” Varys added with a frown. “Lord Onyx has barely left his quarters in the past four days, not even for our scheduled meeting to discuss the state of the realm. I worry over him.”

Rowan met my gaze from the corner of the room before looking away.

He’d been awfully tight-lipped about his nightly lessons with Onyx other than to tell me he was gradually improving his shadow skills. I got the feeling he wanted to keep me from knowing how Onyx was really doing. Which didn’t seem to be that well judging by all the concerned expressions around the table.

Taking him a slice of cake wouldn’t hurt anything, right?

“I don’t like this, sweetheart,” Maddox said as he and the others trailed behind me later that evening, having insisted on accompanying me.

“It’s just cake, Maddox. I’m gonna set it outside his door and leave. What could go wrong?”

He sighed. A sound echoed by Callum. They didn’t fight me on it though. Both had remained firm on their stance against me trying to break Onyx’s curse, but they also understood the intensity of a fated mate bond.

However, when we reached Onyx’s room, the door was wide open.

Rowan stepped in front of me and poked his head into the room, then glanced at me over his shoulder. “He’s gone.”

“Where would he go?” I asked right before an idea stirred. A gut feeling told me exactly where the demon lord had wandered off to.

The greenhouse.

With my men trailing behind me, I took off back down the corridor and descended the stairs to the ground floor. Before stepping through the doors, I turned to them.

“Wait for me here,” I said. A protest was on Maddox’s lips, but before he could voice it, I softly added, “Please, big guy. Just trust me. If anything happens, Rowan will be nearby.”

Maddox regarded me with a heavy brow and clenched jaw before, subtly, exhaling and giving me a tight nod. Callum took his captain’s lead and accepted my decision as well. Briar and Lake weren’t as reluctant as the knights but still seemed apprehensive. Knowing Rowan would be concealed within the shadows seemed to ease their concern though.

After tossing them one final glance and what I hope was a reassuring smile, I stepped into the greenhouse, closing the doors behind me.

It was quiet apart from the gentle rush of the small waterfall cascading down the rocky wall and into the pool of crystal clear water. Moonlight cast everything in a silver glow, shining on the stones embedded in the pathway and glimmering off the surrounding leaves and flower petals. Like the trees and plants beyond the castle, some of them glowed in shades of blue, purple, green, and pink.

I moved farther into the greenhouse, taking the path Onyx and I’d walked several days ago. Various scents wafted around me. Floral notes, along with traces of pine and soil. Black cardamom lingered in the air as well, a sign my redhead was with me, hiding within the shadows of the ferns and trees.

Cheep.

I glanced up to find Pumpkin sprawled across a low-hanging branch.

“You little turd,” I said, smile growing. “Have you been in here this whole time?”

He responded with another chirp before leaping on top of my head and scurrying down my body, his toe beans landing a cute thud on the path as he rushed toward the stream.