Page 12 of My Demon Desire
The magic I'm weaving into the lock slips. "Yeah. Why aren't you wearing anything on your feet?" I ask, changing the subject and trying the lock again.
"Someone took my socks and shoes. But believe me, if I'd known we were going to be traipsing through the woods at night and my toes getting frostbite, I'd have hunted for mine. But someone was in a hurry to yank me out of their home."
She rubs her wrist, her teeth chattering. I angle my body more away from hers to keep her face out of my line of vision while I work.
That's all I fucking need: feelings of sympathy over a human.
Finally, the lock clicks open and I open the gate. "Go," I motion for her into the cold darkness of the Unseelie lands. "Go!"
"Wait, you're not coming with me?" She shivers.
I laugh, then shake my head. "Why the fuck would I do that?"
"It's dark." She takes a step back, her eyes darting to the right and left. "I've no idea where I'm going."
For a moment, I stare at her, seeing the pink tint on her cheeks and the way it makes her grey eyes look blue. Her chest is heaving from her fear and I'm mesmerized by the rise and fall of her breasts. I shake my head, chiding myself for even delaying a second rather than getting her the hell out of our lives.
I point a clawed finger to the trees. "You go in a straight line and you'll reach the other side." Eventually and if nothing eats her.
Instead of fleeing, she bites at her lip, looking unsure. “What if I get lost?”
"You should have thought of that before you came through the rift," I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "You humans always think you can just waltz into our world without consequences. Well, now you see the reality of it. You are not welcome here. So go, before I change my mind and I devour you myself,” I snarl, showing my teeth. “I am getting hungry.”
I see the fear in her eyes and a part of me feels guilty for being so harsh, but I can't let her emotions sway me. I need to get rid of her as soon as possible.
"Please." She scrubs at the tears streaming down her face. "I have nowhere else to go. I don't even know how I got here. I just want to find my father and go home."
Her words tug at my heartstrings, but I push the feelings aside. I can't let myself get attached to a human. It's too risky.
“That’s your way home,” I lie. "You might never get another chance to leave," I warn. Cause if Reis finds out what I'm doing, he'll chain me up until the metal rusts.
With a hard swallow, she touches her fingers to the delicate skin of her throat and winces. Even in the dark, I can make out the blooming bruises from Thorne's hands. A desire to reach out and brush the pain away hits me and I growl. Healing her won't do any good. She needs to know how dangerous everything in this realm is. How everything here will want to kill her or fuck her or both.
Then she takes a step forward and another. When she passes the gate, the muscles between my shoulder blades unwind a fraction. I watch until the darkness swallows her up and I can no longer hear the sound of her footsteps.
I use my magic to pull the gate closed and lock it. My heart makes a desperate thud against my rib cage like it's struggling to get free. I stare at the gate for a long minute. Dangerous thoughts that I'm making a mistake, that I should go after her. That I should taste her lips, her flesh, her body.
The heaviness in my heart won't ease, but I shove it aside and head inside. When I pass the hallway where Thorne is now guarding an empty room, I chortle and wave at him before changing course to the kitchen.
She's on her own and away from here. Maybe she'll get lucky and find her father and the two of them can pray for a miracle to take them back to their world.
Reis won't figure out what I've done until he goes to check on her later.
In the meantime, I'm going to get drunk as fuck while I wait how long that will be and hope that it's not until fucking morning and she'll be dead by then.
CHAPTER5
ANNALISE
Flashes of lightning splinter across the darkening sky and I shiver as I put one foot in front of the other. I can’t believe they let me go— or rather one of the monsters did. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was safer back at their home than anywhere else in this strange land.
Which was so bizarre as they each looked like horned beasts and not creatures I should be at ease with.
A twig snaps behind me and I spin, my heart beating wildly in my throat, my eyes straining to see the dark.
Another flicker of lightning shows me it’s nothing and I let out a breath and try to convince myself it’s some cute, little animal. Like a squirrel awake at night.
Yeah, right. It is nearly pitch-black out here. Why did Kaden send me out here at this time of the night? It’s almost like he couldn’t wait to get rid of me.
