Page 99 of Demon's Bane

Every time I even think about leaving, a pit of dread opens up in my stomach. It makes me shove the thought aside, regardless of the fact that eventually I’m going to have to head back to my realm.

And maybe that’s… fine.

If Rhett were any other guy I’d only known for a couple of weeks and only been… well, only been doing whatever it is we’re doing for the past few days, it would make perfect sense to put a bit of distance between us, for us both to have some breathing room.

But he’s not any other guy, and even during the hours we’re apart while he’s working, I feel his absence like a physical tug in the center of my chest. I can’t imagine what it would be like if we were in two separate realms.

It still doesn’t change the fact that there’s no place for me here, that my whole life is waiting for me back in Beech Bay, but every time I think about bringing it up with Rhett, the words stick in my throat.

Would he even consider a life in the human realm? Everything he knows is here, and he can be himself—his unglamoured self—here. My realm must be as strange to him as his is to me.

And then there’s everything else. His guilt and grief, all the complicated reasons he feels so tied to this place that we haven’t really talked about.

Like a coward, I swallow all those worries down again as Rhett and I make our way from the square back to his cabin. It’s long-past nightfall and he’s finished his work for the day, ready for a bath and a few hours of rest before he has to be up and back at it.

“Sometimes I forget how much I hate those Goddess-damned tunnels,” Rhett mutters, taking off his dusty boots and leaving them next to the door.

Chest aching, I hold out my hand to him. “Come on.”

With hooded eyes and his mouth set into a knowing smirk, Rhett takes it and lets me lead him from the front room, through the bedroom and into the bathroom. He lets me strip him bare and run him a tub. He lets me direct him to sit down in the hot, steaming water, but when I grab a washcloth and some soap from the cupboard at the side of the room and return to the tub, he grabs my wrist, warm intent written all over his face.

“Bathe with me,” he murmurs, and I’m not sure if it’s an invitation or an order, but I’m not about to question it as I strip off my own clothing.

I take each piece off slowly, watching his gaze grow darker, sharper, hungrier, listening to the rumble in his chest lower tosomething that shivers down my spine and makes my core damp and aching.

The tub is big, but it’s still a bit of a tight fit for a demon and his witch. We somehow make it work with sloshing water and a couple of elbows to the ribs, laughing and gasping as I find my seat straddling his lap.

Rhett’s hands brace my hips, and instead of leaning in and taking my mouth in a deep kiss like I might have expected, he settles back and watches me with still-hooded eyes. Steam rises in lazy spirals as he looks and looks.

I don’t know what he’s thinking. I don’t know him well enough yet to understand his silences and his expressions, the unspoken language of lovers that springs up as months and years unfold.

But I do know today couldn’t have been easy for him. I do know his body must be aching and his heart must be heavy after everything that’s happened.

So I reach to the side of the tub and take the cloth and soap. I run it over his chest, his shoulders. I wrap my arms around him, tugging him forward so I can wash his back, careful of his wings where they drape over the back edge of the tub.

“Tell me about these?” I ask, running the tips of my fingers over his tattoos.

Rhett takes me by the wrist and gently directs my touch to a line of runes across his pec. “From the first place I lived after I left the village. A city called Ouras on the southern tip of the continent.” Another tug, and I’m touching more swooping lines of black ink trailing down his bicep. “On my twenty-fifth birthday, when a demon is considered a fully grown adult.” One more, and my fingers rest just above his heart. “For my father, after his passing.”

“Your life’s story,” I murmur, and Rhett nods.

“In the old language, one that’s more symbolic than made of actual words.”

He points out a few more—ink that honors his mother and sister, more travels and milestones, the grief of losing friends and relatives.

When he falls silent, lost in those memories, I continue tending to him. Soft strokes of the cloth over his neck and chest, his powerful shoulders, water lapping around us.

“Thank you, Joan.”

Startling slightly, I lean back so I can get a better look at him. “For what?”

“For everything. For being here when you could have stayed in the court or returned to your realm. It hasn’t been… easy. Being back here. But it’s been easier since you’ve been with me.”

My heart sinks and lifts at once, a strange buoyant weight in my chest.

I want to be the person who can make this easier for him. I want to be here with him… for now. When everything is still such a mess, when we haven’t finished what we started, when there still might be danger lurking out there somewhere, I want to be here for him.

Even if I also know it can’t last forever.

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