Page 32 of Drawn to the Demon Duke
I glance around. Every time I’ve been in here since my arrival in Sombra, Haures has had guards and mages and visitors. Not now. It’s like they’ve all gone home for the night.
Shining down from the strange holes cut into the ceiling, a sliver of golden light mingles with the shade of blue overlaying everything in this space. You’d think it would create green. I mean, any kindergartner knows that’s what you get when you put shades of blue and yellow together. Not in Sombra. Not in Haures’s palace. The blue—the same color as his bright, glowing eyes—is so powerful that it takes over everything.
I thought it was because of the shimmering orbs dancing over crystal sconces that provide all of the light in the room. Nope. Because once Haures leads me across the room, tugging open a door I only just noticed with his free hand, I take one step outside and see that the blue light inside?
It’s out here, too.
And that’s not all…
Until Haures sent me into the shadow forest, I had no idea what Sombra looked like. I saw the fires in the distance, the ash made up of shades of black, white, and grey under my sneakers, and the way everything seemed to have a red tinge to it. Plus the heat. Can’t forget the heat. I broke into a slight sweat immediately, and not even the cooler temp of the inky-black woods did much to help.
My first impression of his demon world seemed to fit every preconceived notion I had about where true demons lived. Like, this is totally Hell, right? From the horns and the red skin to the fires glowing in the distance… that part, at least, made sense.
If he had let me out into the courtyard of his palace first? I would’ve been way more confused.
The sky is a deep navy color. Overhead, one moon is gold. The other glows bright blue, just like Haures. And if you think I’m weirded out by the fact that I’m looking up at two moons? You haven’t been paying attention. To me, that’s just another reminder that I’m in a demon realm, one I need desperately when I walk outside and a chilled breeze—maybe seventy degrees instead of, like,ninety—blows past me.
The air is sweet. Fragrant. A mix of something floral, but more perfume-y—which definitely makes sense when I let go of Haures, drifting forward, taking in the beautiful garden in front of me.
There are flowers everywhere. In a world of fire and ash, I believed that the ashbalm flower with its flame for petals was the only sort of flower that grew in Sombra. Wrong. White flowers. Soft purple. Pale pink.
And blue.
So many beautiful blue flowers.
There’s a fountain, too, with a trickle of water that tinkles as it hits the stone. I knew there had to be water somewhere. The strange sink on my cell provided drinking water, even if the weirdo toilet didn’t seem to flush at all. I get the feeling that rain isn’t really a thing in such a fiery realm, but water… all living creatures need water, even immortal ones.
I tiptoe toward the fountain, running my fingers beneath the gentle flow. It’s warm, like cranking up the temperature on the faucet when you’re about to wash dishes, but not uncomfortable. In fact, if Haures wasn’t standing right there, watching me take in the garden with a guarded expression on his rugged features, I might’ve stripped down and used the fountain to have my first bath in days.
But he is there, and when I glance over my shoulder at him, I notice that he’s gone still. Is he holding his breath? I don’t really get why immortal demons have tobreathein the first place, but since ‘immortal’ doesn’t quite mean that they can’t die—since I’ve gotten obvious proof that demons dyingisa thing—that must be why he does.
Only he isn’t, and when I reach deep inside of my chest, searching for our bond again, I actually find it. Maybe because Haures is right there, or because he’s not keeping me out, I don’t know… but I can sense how much he wants me to like the scene in front of me.
Luckily, I do.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper into the quiet garden.
“It’s yours.”
CHAPTER 11
START OVER
SUSANNA
“Me?” I whirl around, looking at Haures in surprise. His expression is flat, hands folded behind him as he watches me with intensity in his blazing blue eyes, though his lips are thinned, tusks rising up from the seam where they meet. “What do you mean, me?”
“Until you summoned me,” he says, his voice unusually soft, “I knew one thing about my mate. A pair of seers told me twenty centuries ago that my mate, when she summoned me, would be human.” A pause, and then a silent confession: “She would be born as a mortal.”
I don’t know what stuns me more: that he’s known for—I quickly do the mat—two thousandyears that, one day, he would have a human for mate, or that he doesn’t seem as disgusted by the thought.
“You knew?” I ask. “And you waited for me?”
He jerks his head. A nod. “That is what we Sombrans do. I would accept no less than my one true mate, and I waited. More than that, I built Mavro to protect her. I built this garden to giveher an oasis to enjoy… a place of beauty in a world of shadow. I built it with the promise of you in mind. And then?—”
I gulp, sudden nerves lodging in my throat. “Yes?”
Haures takes a few slow, steady steps toward me. At least, I thought it was me. He takes a slight detour when he reaches me, ducking around my body so that he can bend slightly, plucking a feather from those growing near the fountain. It’s blue. I get a fleeting glimpse of it as he lifts it up, and I swear the long, slender petals are the same shade of blue as Haures’s eyes.
