Page 45 of Fate & Monsters
Surely, he had someone else to bother.
“Lurk?” He purred in feigned offense. He leapt down with smoky grace and padded silently across the floor to the rug spread out before the fireplace. “Oh, my lady, I would never stoop so low as to lurk.”
“Spying then?”
His whiskers twitched. “Observing,” he corrected.
“Mavros would believe you, I’m sure.” I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. Domovoy remained sitting on the rug, head cocked, as he watched me. The silence caused a prickle along my neck.
“I have seen through the veil many times, my lady,” he said. My stomach twisted. “And I see what you are.”
My heart stopped.
“I am nothing and no one.”
He padded closer, fluffy tail swishing along behind him. The cat spoke plainly. “I am full Inferni, my lady. I can see through magic in a way our master cannot.” A revelation sat inthose words, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around anything more than my rising panic.
“You know nothing!” I tore myself from the chair. The leather-bound book thumped on the thick rug.
“I might not know everything,” he winced as if ashamed to admit it, “but I know this. I know you are—were—an air elemental. A rare spirit from Earth. A sylph. A myth, even to those of us in Infernus.”
“No. No, I’m not what you think.” I stumbled back, breath catching too fast and shallow.
“No use in lying. It doesn’t serve either of us.” He harrumphed. “You were changed by dark magic and now something has chased you right into our home.”
Domovoy was a nefarious little imp. A demon as tricky as the rest of them. If he knew I was hunted by the Crimson Mage, he might sell me out. The cat had wanted to send me to the dungeon upon arrival. He would betray me while Mavros was gone and doom me to a horrid fate.
The walls pressed in, and the edges of my vision blurred. No matter how hard I fought for breath, it felt as though I couldn’t get any air. My legs wobbled and if not for the chair pressed to the backs of my legs, I would have collapsed.
Sensing my rising panic. Domovoy approached. Slowly, warily. The glint of fire in his eyes softened to embers. “My lady, Iam not your enemy.”
“I don’t believe you.” I clawed at my chest, fighting against the creature bullying my heart.
Domovoy paused out of reach. His tail brushed over the rug as he sat looking up at me. “I promise I’m not here to get you carted off to the dungeon or exchanged to whatever beastie wants you. I’m here on behalf of my master.”
The knot in my stomach loosened.
“What about him?” My mind summoned images of his mouth on my skin and his body locked with mine. A poorly timed blush chased some of my anxiety away.
“He is my master.” It was the gentlest the shadow cat had ever sounded. “And he deserves to know the truth.”
I shook my head. “I can’t tell him.”
“He’s never been this way before, my lady. My master does not dabble in long-term dalliances. He is a Karsian prince, made of shadows and hunger, born to rule. Yet you come along, and you make him soft. Though I won’t hold it against you. It’s what his mother would have wanted.” If cats could offer a friendly smile, I might have believed he was.
“His mother?” I perked up.
The cat moved on. “My master has been lost for so long. You’ve found him.”
“But if he knew what I really was—”
“Remaining silent is worse than whatever outcome you imagine, I assure you.” His tail flicked. “My master would be accommodatingbecause, and I shudder to admit, but he cares. Truly. But a home cannot be built on a foundation of lies.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but a clamor down the hall shut me up. My jaw snapped closed. Domovoy’s ears twitched. A distant crash, shouts, and slamming doors echoed across the castle.
“Something’s happened.” Domovoy leapt into a formless cloud of black smoke and whisked toward the library doors. My heart jumped into my throat as I tore after him. Chest thumping, lungs heaving in air, I raced around corners and rushed to follow the unsettling noises.
Two goat-horned demons were dragging Mavros between them. Limp, head-lolling, blood dripping from his side and smearing across the floor.
