Page 18 of Drawn to the Demon Duke
Holy shit. The demon duke puts the goblin king to shame.
He clears his throat.
My cheeks blazing now, I slip back into my seat and set down my fork.
“Well,” I begin, my voice sounding a little shaky with embarrassment for having been caught peeking at him under the table. “I’m here. The only human… but I’ve got a question.Whyam I here?”
I mean ‘in Sombra’. Haures interprets my question a little differently.
“I was not expected to be summoned. I was in a meeting when you called for me.” A frown, and then, “I am often meeting with my people. There has been many villagers coming to the capital to talk with me this cycle. I couldn’t risk them knowingyou are here. In your cell, I knew where you were and that you were safe.”
Oh. How nice.
Instead of putting me up in, like, a guest room inside of this massive palace-type place he’s living in, Haures’s genius plan was to take the human woman and lock her up without anything other than the possessive way he growled at me before disappearing for days.
You aremine…
It was Glaine, one of the green-eyed soldiers that explained I was in breach of the duke’s first law, and that’s why I was tossed in the dungeon to pee in a hole. And maybe that’s whathethought, but that feeling in my chest… it’s telling me that Haures means what he says.
He was hiding me to keep me safe all because I’m a human.
Hishuman.
“So I’m not a prisoner. Just a dirty, little secret.” Well,that’s nice. “I guess you don’t want to let anyone know that you let a human into your world on your watch. They might turn on you.”
It was more a grumpy tease than anything, but the way Haures places his elbows on the top of the table, steepling his claws… I get the feeling that I was way closer to the truth than I ever could’ve imagined.
Especially when he nods gravely. “There are those in Sombra that would take the opportunity to test my hold on the crown if they thought they could snatch it from me.”
I snort. Sorry, but I can’t help it. “Good luck.”
He cocks his head.
“What? You’re the biggest demon I’ve seen so far. And,” I add, waving my hand at him, “you definitely stand out. You just ooze power. They’d have to be morons to challenge you.”
His expression turns thoughtful. “And, yet, you have no trouble doing so. A mere mortal who’s been thrust into a new world. You have no fear of me.”
I don’t like the way he said that. “Should I?”
“No.”
It’s a simple response.
No.
Phew.
Haures lowers his hands to the table, leaning back into his seat again. “As you can obviously see for yourself, I am unlike most Sombra demons, Susanna.” Up. Back to Susanna again… almost as though he can read me the same way I can him, and he only used my nickname to prove that he can. “I told you before, but it’s because I’m a shadow demon born without any of his own. My essence is… different from my people. But my bonds are stronger because of it… and we share a bond.”
Well, when the demon duke puts it as bluntly as that, giving a name to that strange feeling inside of my chest… bond. Yeah. Duh, Su. Wasn’t that how that book described the relationship between Queen Alana and King Yelios? That they werebondedmates?
I called Haures my true love because that’s what theverus amorspell promised to bring me if I read the manifestation spell. But… is he mymate?
Is that why he becomes even more attractive to me, the longer I sit here? Why I dreamed of him, and why I would’ve gone searching for him if that bars hadn’t kept me trapped? Not because I wanted to tell him off, but because I’m drawn to him in a way I’ve never really been to another man before?
Is that why I’ve always equated cracking theGrimoire du Sombrawith my own happily-ever-after?
I need to hear him say it. “What does that mean? Am I… are you… are we true loves?”
