Page 24 of Demonic Affliction

I bite my lip to suppress my giggle. Meanwhile, Dravik just rolls his eyes and stomps toward the exit. “I am going to find Willow some breakfast. Willow, call me if this one gets too annoying for you.”

As soon as he disappears past the threshold, Cyprien turns to me with a conspiratorial grin. “He is very protective of you.”

“Maybe a little too much,” I say with a laugh. “I like it, though.”

“I saw.” He waggles his brows, and heat creeps up my neck when I remember the compromising position Cyprien caught us in.

When I look back at him, Cyprien's eyes go wide, and his mouth parts with a shocked gasp.

“What?” I ask. “What’s wrong?”

“Your… your eyes.” He blinks, leaning in close to inspect them. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Are they bleeding again?”

“Bleeding?” He shakes his head. “No, not bleeding—although I am concerned that was the first place your mind went.”

“Then what’s wrong with them?”

“They’re… glowing. The red ring is, at least.”

“Oh.” I reach up, prodding the space around my eyes, but nothing feels tender or painful. “They do that sometimes. None of us knows why.”

“Hmm.” His brows come together in a deep frown. “If something unexplainable were happening to me, I wouldn’t rest until I knew what it was.”

With a shrug, he turns and exits the room, leaving me to stew.

You know what? He’s fucking right. I’ve gone too damn long without any concrete answers about what’s happening to me.

It’s time to figure it out. And the first person on my list of interrogation is Cin.

8

Cin

Hunger.

It is all I know anymore. It is all I can think about. The horrible, aching, bottomless pit that refuses to rest, that keeps me up with its whispering pleas and gnashing jaws.

But it is not food that it wants. It is Willow.

Rather, it wants the being tied to her soul.

I do not know how I know this fact—only that it is true. Perhaps it’s because The Other is gaining power, letting its memories and thoughts slip into mine. Maybe it always has been, and I’ve only just now started to notice it.

At the end of the day, it does not matter. There is nothing I can do to stop it, nothing I can do to prevent the inevitable end of it all.

One way or another, this world as we know it will end.

I stretch out in the healing baths, trying to focus on the water's pleasant warmth rather than the sensation of thousands of creatures running beneath my skin.

It doesn’t help.

A patter of footsteps draws my attention to the far end of the room. I raise my head from the water and find Willow standing at the edge of the healing pools, staring down at me with a no-nonsense expression.

“Hello, little serafyn,” I say. “You look like you have something you want to say to me.”

For a moment, her eyes flash with surprise, then her mask snaps back in place, and she’s all business. “I do, actually. I have a lot to say.”