Page 122 of Quiet Burn

“Don’t go all ‘vive la révolution’ on me, Kit Kat. Keeping Hell from spilling onto the surface isn’t easy, either. Our families are assholes—no argument there—but they’re also quite capable of fucking up shit here so much worse than it already is. We keep the demons here for the same reason the deities and the Fae try to limit how much their people cross realms. Way more power and so much potential for extinction.”

Stopping in front of a pizza joint, I look at him seriously. “Seems like this trip is about finding out if some of the demons have decided they want to come out of the shadows.”

Oriel nods as he squeezes my shoulders. “The announcement of the Games is a precursor to bad things in our history, KK. Jasper’s right to worry, especially since Darkstar’s behaving so boldly. It’s more worrisome than he’s letting on.”

Great. We’re worried about dying in trials by fire, and if we lose, the ensuing war could spread to humanity—no pressure or anything.

Somebody Told Me

Salem

Kit Kat looks much better when he strolls in with Oriel, and my panda calms down significantly. It’s fucking weird that he was completely wired while they were gone; given our nature, that kind of hyperactivity is totally not a normal state. Slow and languid, that’s my speed and until my brother came back with that quirky little dude, I was the farthest thing from it.

And I onlybarelykissed him for like, a second.

I watch as he plops down on the floor, pulling Dottie out of his bag to let the tiny animal rest in his lap. Oriel calmed him down completely and it made me feel even better, so I dropped to my knees and crawled over so I could sit with him. It draws a scoff from Jasper-I assume—but I don’t give a hairy rat’s ass what that uptight dicklicker thinks. Right now, I’m happy to scoot over next to KK and pet the kinkajou until our hosts bring out the clothes.

“Did you get some food?” I ask with a grin. “You look less hangry, so I assume you did.”

Kit nods, his face bright with amusement as he cuts his eyes to the crow. “Oriel had a meat feast pizza with me and he was totally weirded out by human toppings. It was fun to see someone besides me experience odd food and make faces.”

Oriel glowers a little as he comes over to join us. “These fuckers are so damn strange. It had this… spicy yet processed taste that made me wonder if the beast was made of chemicals.”

“Well, there’s definitely a lot of those in food up here,” KK says with a shrug. “I noticed that stuff in Hell doesn’t, but since you guys didn’t have a frame of reference, I didn’t mention it. There’s more natural stuff, of course, but we didn’t have time to find a non-chain spot to eat.”

Jasper arches his brow as he looks at us. “Be careful, O. We have no idea what effect putting their garbage into our systems will have. If you did it all the time, it might not be a big deal, but we’re not used to the poison the demons who live up here are. It could make you sick as a hellhound.”

“Nice to see you worried about me getting sick onyourfood, knobhead,” my roomie mutters as he plays with his familiar. “And now I’m paranoid about every new thing you give me… great.”

“KK, calm down,” X says as they get up from their perch on the arm of Anton’s chair to come over and sit on the floor with the four of us. They smooth their palms over themselves automatically, then curse the disguise clothes. “I’m not a fan of this realm so far except for our new friends. But once we run around this party, we can head home and make a big cozy movie pile tomorrow. Sound good?”

“Ooh, I like that idea!” Kit bumps my shoulder, then Oriel’s as he grins. “We can make some tasty food, too, right, Salem?”

Be still my heart.

I love that he wants to cook with me—like for real, not just because Jasper assigned it to him. Nodding, I reach down and squeeze his knee gently. “But you’ll want to do your reading first, I bet. Annie brought those books…”

His eyes pop open and he claps his hand over his mouth for a second. The peacock winks at him from his chair, too fancy pants to come sit with us in his humanoid form. Jasper’s frown deepens as he watches us, tilting his head curiously.

“What books?”

“Study materials,” X says breezily. “You know Kit Kat is trying to catch up as fast as he can. He finishes stuff so quickly that we switch things out for him if we’re closer to the library or you know… confined to the damn dorms because we got hurt in a battle.”

“Ah. Well, that’s helpful, Anton. Good job,” the Prince says as he settles back in his seat. He looks at the shark shifter, arching his brow. “And you’re going to continue working with him on training and diet? He doesn’t look much bigger than before, Scrum.”

Slash glares at his best friend in a way I’ve not seen before—ever. “Bulking up is not a rapid thing for new demons, Prince. I cannot simply dump food into his mouth until he’s an appropriate weight. That is neither safe nor efficient if you want him to be like us.”

Holy shit, the big guy just told Jasper to fuck all the way off in the most Slash-like way possible.

Everyone is silent, even KK, as our leader’s face contorts through a range of emotions. Zav’s tails pop out, making him blush and press against the prince’s leg. Thank fuck, that gets Jas’ attention and he looks down at the kitsune with a sigh. “Sorry, Zav. I didn’t mean to make you panic. Put them away for me, mmm?”

Zavida nods, and the tails disappear as his posture calms. “I didn’t mean to. Having to be careful up here is a pain in the ass.”

“I can’t imagine how hard it is for all the different supernaturals who live up here all the time,” Kit says as he gives Zav a sympathetic look. “They’re hiding such big parts of themselves all the time. It has to be exhausting as fuck.”

Xerxes arches their brow and gives the dude a smirk. “Yeah, that’s gotta be really tiring. Having to pretend to be something I’m not for this short time is wearing me out, especially around the people I care about.”

What the hell does that even mean? X is even weirder than usual on the surface.

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