Page 80 of Demons of Eden

“It hasn’t exactly stopped long enough for us to ask,” Torrin replies, and as if just to spite him, the sprite immediately falls silent.

It flutters over to land on my old desk and stares unnervingly at me; their too-big-for-its-face eyes are as buglike as I remember them being. Its long, thin ears are just as oversized for their roughly twelve-inch height and are twitching with blatant displeasure. Despite being almost entirely naked, barring the small blue cloth tied about their waist, it’s impossible to tell their gender thanks to all sprites looking fairly similar regardless of their sex.

“What’s the problem?” I demand, hoping that this one can speak English.

“Intruders!” It screeches in a high-pitched voice, confirming it can, all while pointing its sharp nails at me in a threatening-looking gesture.

“Look, I know you all hate me. The dirt thrown in my hair and digging up practically everything I ever planted made that pretty clear,” I reply with a roll of my eyes, way too grumpy for this shit. “But this is my family’s house. I amnotan intruder.”

“Are you sure they’re talking about you?” Ash asks, taking me by surprise. “They’re normally very loyal to the families who share their lands with them. They also find our tongues quite challenging, so I doubt it would waste its effort speaking to an intruder rather than trying to scare them off directly.”

“It’s pointing right at me,” I reply with a shrug, wondering when a sex demon had become an expert on sprites, considering most are known to only share space with witches or with their distant fae cousins. “What else am I supposed to assume?”

The sprite hisses, baring its sharp little teeth, before throwing itself back into the air and right at my face. Thankfully, it stops before collision, although only inches away. I glance around, noticing all of the guys have moved closer, only stopping when the sprite did.

“Intruders!” they repeat insistently in the same high, screechy voice. “Intruders…in f-fields!”

“What about the outer barrier?” Torrin demands, stepping closer.

The sprite turns to hiss at him, like it’s trying to warn him off now too. Yet it quickly swivels back to me, grabbing a strand of my hair and tugging on it. “Intruders! Intruders!”

“Ow!” I object, trying to detangle myself from its grip on my hair. However, it’s very insistent, and my brother and parents would kill me if I swat at it and accidentally hurt them by mistake. “A little help here would be nice, oh fierce defenders?” I call in a sarcastic voice when none of the guys intervene.

“I think we might have bigger problems than the sprite trying to lead you to safety,” Ash says, his voice coming from over by the window now.

“It’s doing what?” Why the hell would a field sprite want to leadmeto safety?

“You’re a part of the family it lives with. I’m guessing this clan of sprites has been here for a long time?”

“I think they’re the same ones that lived here with my grandparents before they passed the house onto my parents,” I answer with a shrug, not really seeing the relevance.

“Then they likely consider your family as an extended part of that clan. When under attack, their instinct is to lead all children and those who are pregnant to a safe burrow.”

“You know a lot about sprites,” Rio comments, voicing the same thought I’d had.

“Sprites don’t have the same distaste for demons that most witches do,” Ash replies dryly. “The more important issue is that the sprites consider the land under attack. We should check on the barrier immediately. I haven’t felt it fall, and it still seems as if it’s in place, but I’m certain they wouldn’t act this way for nothing.”

“Where’s my brother?” I question, slowly beginning to panic. The last I’d seen him was around lunch. “And Suvi and Kit, too?”

“He and Kit are out in one of the fields. Planting stuff, I think. Suvi was attempting to cleanse one of the guest rooms into an acceptable birthing space,” Daion answers.

“Go get her,” I tell him before focusing back on the sprite who has given up attempting to drag me by my hair and is now just fluttering in the air beside me looking pissed at my noncompliance. “Did you see them out there?” I demand.

“Intruders?” it says, more questioningly this time, head tilting.

“No. Have you seen Forrest and Kit? Are they in danger?”

It hisses again. Less aggressively than before, I think.

“I don’t know what that means.” I rub my forehead with my fingers, both stressed and frustrated.

“If I may,” Ash says gently, pulling me into his side as he places himself between me and the disgruntled sprite.“Sssshhhtsssskahhwitch,kksssfox-man?”

“You speak fucking field sprite?” I stare at my demon in disbelief, wondering what insane dimension I've slipped into this time.

“It’s actually the language of southern hemisphere water sprites, but I’m hoping?—”

“Ssssshtissssk!”the sprite exclaims, interrupting him. Ash holds out his hand, and it lands delicately on his palm, its green skin seeming to brighten considerably as it continues to rambleon unintelligibly at him in a mixture of hisses and clicks. It’s all incomprehensible to my ears, anyway.

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