Page 10 of Demon Seed

I watch Selene's face pale as she stares into the Forbidden Forest. Her fingers clutch the sill, knuckles whitening against the weathered wood.

"They're here," she whispers, not turning to face me.

I cross the room in three strides, careful to stay back from the glass. "Who?"

She nods, a barely perceptible movement. "My grandmother must have sent them. See the one with the silver hair? That's Ursula. She can track anything that bleeds. I don’t recognize the others.”

I peer cautiously around the edge of the curtain. Three women stand at the tree line, unnaturally still among the swaying branches. The silver-haired one tilts her face toward our window, as if she can sense us watching.

"They cannot enter the castle," I say, already gathering Selene into my arms. "No witch can breach the magic protecting it. Their only hope is to draw you outside."

Selene turns to me, biting her quivering bottom lip. "I don’t know how they found me so fast."

“It's entirely plausible to believe that your parents have always been aware that I was destined to be your mate. Why else would they go to such lengths to keep you confined like a virtual prisoner on the mountain? Many nymphs, witches, and elves possess the extraordinary gift of foresight, allowing them glimpses into the future. However, no one wants a demon in their family.”

Selene's eyes widen, then narrow as she processes my words. She steps back, fingers fiddling with the amulet around her neck."That can't be right," she says, but there's a waver in her voice. "My mother always said the mountain was for my protection."

"Protection from what, exactly?" I ask, turning from the window. The valley below stretches for miles, reminding her how isolated her life has been. "From the world? Or from me specifically?"

She shakes her head, dark waves catching the fading light. "They wouldn't?—"

"Wouldn't they?" My voice comes out harsher than intended. I soften it, reaching for her hand. "Think about it, Selene. The ancient texts speak of demon-nymph pairings as catastrophic. Your parents probably saw our bond in their divinations and panicked."

A tear slides down her cheek. "Eighty years. They’ve kept me away from you for eighty years. Why? "

"Because they knew what would happen if we met." I brush the tear away with my thumb, my skin dark against her luminous paleness. "The moment our eyes met in the woods, the bond snapped into place. They couldn't stop fate, only delay it."

Selene’s fingers tighten around mine. "And now?"

"Now we decide if we're the catastrophe they feared." I yank her closer, our bodies colliding with an electric intensity, the heat between us igniting into a blazing inferno. "Or something far greater than ourselves, something unstoppable."

Selene

His arms are still around me, solid and warm against the chill that's settled into my bones. Vesper lays me down on our bed with such tenderness that fresh tears spring to my eyes. I can't stop shaking, can't chase away the vision of being ripped from him, dragged back into darkness.

"I'm not going anywhere.” The mattress dips beneath Vesper’s weight as he settles beside me, one hand cupping my face, thumbs brushing away the wetness on my cheeks. "Look at me, Selene. Look at your mate. Nothing will tear us apart. Not your family—not the entire damned universe."

I force myself to meet his gaze. Those eyes—storm-dark and fierce—anchor me to the present when my mind wants to spiral.

"They can't take you away from me," Vesper says, each word a vow. "I won't let them."

"You don't know what they're capable of," I whisper. "You don't understand what they’ll do to take me back," I manage, my voice breaking. "I have a terrible feeling they’ll tear us apart."

He pulls me closer, his warmth enveloping me like a shield. "Then we change it. Whatever future you glimpse, we rewrite it. Together."

His certainty should comfort me, but the cold dread still coils in my stomach. The Council has ways of enforcing their will that even Vesper can't imagine. I've seen what they do to those who defy them.

"What if we can't?"

Vesper presses his forehead to mine, silencing my fears with his closeness. His fingers thread through my hair, and I feel his lips press against my head. "Then I'll obliterate anyone who stands in my way to get back to you."

His hand finds mine, our fingers interlacing like they were made to fit together. I focus on the rhythm of his breathing until mine matches it. Slowly, the panic recedes like a tide pulling back from shore.

"I can still feel them searching," I admit.

"Then we'll fight them at every corner," he says, with such certainty in his voice that I almost believe him.

His lips brush against mine, tentative at first, then with a hunger that weakens my knees. Vesper pulls me closer, one hand at the small of my back, the other tangled in my hair. The world around us blurs—the distant sound of music, the cool night air on the balcony, all of it fades away until there's only us.

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