Page 41 of Boyfriend From Hell
I rolled my eyes. “Lest I forget the all-powerful spawn of the big Underworlder himself can read minds.”
He bit into his burger, eyes still sizing me up.
“This is our first date,” I said, as I wiped the corner of my mouth.
His eyes glittered. “Oh, so you didn’t count me abducting you and dragging you to Hell as our first date? Not even the nightmare of a dinner with my parents? Shocking.”
I kicked him lightly under the table, grateful the new shoes I’d gotten were extremely comfortable. I glanced down, making sure I hadn’t scuffed them from the kick. “No, Raios. Taking me from my home andlickingmy tears did not count as a first date, nor did your mother verbally attacking me.”
“What was I supposed to do? Invite you to Hell? Much more memorable to be dragged here instead.”
“Yea, much moredramatic.”
“Are you implying you would have come with me freely if I had just invited you?”
“No,” I barked out. “I would have called you crazy and told you to fuck off.”
“Exactly, so—” He grabbed the ornate glass of water in front of him and raised it for a toast. “To first dates, sans abduction, and shitty mothers!”
I grinned and huffed a laugh, raising my burger in the air. “To first dates, sans licking each other’s tears!”
With a stomach full of the best burger I’d ever eaten and a new wardrobe, it was safe to say that had been the best date of my life—which, come to think of it, was kind of pitiful.
We entered Pride district and the lack of Underworlders was peculiar, but to be expected. Raios explained to me that his family and him were essentially royalty, hence why Cam and Mal and so many others referred to him asPrince. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen them since I’d arrived.
“Cam and Mal don’t live here with you?” I asked, as he linked his arm with mine while we walked to his estate. “Do they live nearby?”
He tilted his head at me, scanning my face.
“Cam and Mal? Why are you curious about them? They’re essentially, nothing.”
Well, that was rude.He grinned and shook his head, raising his free hand.
I watched as smoke formed in the center of his palm.
“I can control shadow, it’s weaker right now, believe it or not. It will be stronger when I take over as leader—King.”He winked at the word. “Look.”
I eyed his palm skeptically as the ball of shadow writhed against his hand and split, reshaping into two small figuresthat materialized as miniature versions of Cam and Mal, and gasped.
Ah, I’d seen him do this before. I felt a flush of embarrassment for asking—if I’d just given the thought an ounce of effort, I would have remembered that he’d made them appear out of thin air before. Raios abruptly stopped walking, causing me to stumble over my own feet.
“Don’t think like that. Your curiosity is valid. You’ll have many questions about things here as our time together continues, don’t ever feel like you can’t or shouldn’t ask me things.”
He brought his hand down to my eye level. “I created them when I was a kid—I was lonely. Not many demons or others here want to be friends with the son of… well,” he gestured around us. “It has a certain stigma to it.”
“But everyone we saw today was so friendly toward you, I can’t imagine they would have treated you any differently as a kid?”
“Deer, they’rerespectfultoward me. They fear me.”
I was quiet for a moment, watching Cam and Mal walk along their creator’s palm. My mind spun with hundreds of questions about the tiny figures.
“They’re sentient in the sense that they’re tiny pieces of me, but don’t worry. They feel no pain unless I feel it, so there's no way to harm them. They’ve kept me company for years, I honestly don’t know how I would have survived by myself if I hadn’t created them.”
I looked up at the devil who was wrapped around my arm, spilling bits of his insecurities to me. Pain colored his eyes as he stared down at his not so imaginary-imaginary friends.
“Honestly, they were theonlything I had until now.”
Then it struck me, he had been inconceivably lonely.
