Page 113 of The Demon Prince

For a moment, it hurt. She stiffened, her face twisting with a wince that made Gluttony lunge forward.

But it wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t awful. It just was what it was. Pain was no stranger to a woman who lived in it for years now, though her hip was nothing compared to this pain. But she endured. She would survive it, if only so she knew that the spirit could live through her.

If anything was worth suffering for, it was for compassion.

And the moment she thought that, the pain eased. Gluttony held onto her shoulders a little too tightly, his grip so strong she had to blink and look up at him in surprise.

“You are well?” he asked, searching her gaze for the truth as though he thought she might lie to him. “What hurts?”

“My lungs,” she wheezed, tapping a finger to her rib cage before taking a slow, deep breath. “I think I’m all right, though.”

“It might take a few moments to start hurting.”

“It won’t.” She didn’t think, at least.

Katherine watched how worried he was and she reached up to trace a finger over the furrows between his brows. She didn’t want him to worry.

The thought was soon whisked away from her, the feeling pouring into the strange spirit that lived inside her. And strangely, it didn’t feel bad. It only made her smile and that compassion inside her bloom again, whisking to the spirit and feeding it.

“I think it just needs to feed,” she said.

“How is it doing that?”

“Every time I feel compassion, it seems to soak up that feeling.”

Gluttony shook his head, almost in disbelief. “Well. That’s something I wasn’t expecting you to say. What an experiment. I’ll have to share this with my brothers, you know. Just in case any of them find their...”

He stammered over what to call her, and Katherine realized they hadn’t had this conversation yet. The poor man was probably wondering what they were. Partner, wife, beloved? So many words for the same thing.

“We are what we are,” she said softly, tucking herself against his collarbone where she was most comfortable. Pressing her cheek to his shoulder, she breathed him in with a chuckle. “I don’t care what you call me, Gluttony, as long as I am the only person in your life.”

“I would never dare to even look at another.” His arms came around her tightly. “You are the moon in my sky and the stars on the horizon. One look at you and I forget that I’m a monster, Kat. One look at you, and I remember why life is so worth living.”

And oh, that made her heart bloom. She could feel the spirit lighting up inside her as well. This was what it had wanted to experience. To experience the feeling of love, true love, was so hard without a physical body.

Gluttony held her for a few moments, his nose pressed into her hair as he rocked them back and forth. Katherine soaked up every ounce of his attention as though she would never get it again.

“Do you want to spend a quiet day together?” he asked, his voice a low murmur. “I think, after all that, it would be rather nice to have a few moments with nothing but each other.”

“Isn’t that what we do every day?” she replied with a laugh.

“Perhaps. But that doesn’t mean I want it to change.”

He drew her from the laboratory with careful hands and a quiet countenance that made her wonder if he was watching her avidly to make sure she wasn’t about to fall apart at the seams.

She didn’t feel like herself. Katherine wouldn’t lie and say that everything was fine. There was another presence in her body, and though she didn’t think she would ever be able to converse with it, she was very aware that it was inside her.

Compassion wanted to experience life, but in a very quiet way. This was a tired spirit who had been used and abused and the mere idea of being Compassion terrified it. So many people could use compassion in the wrong way and that was so scary that it made the poor thing tremble in her chest.

She could literally feel it when she touched a hand to her ribs. The faintest vibration from the spirit inside her that shook her ribs. How strange it was to know that there was something living inside herself.

Not a child. Not a life that she would ever bring out into the world again. It was a spirit who now shared her body.

That was something she’d have to think about for a while yet, she had a feeling. How did one settle into realizing that there was... well. So much different. So much that she was now going to have to think through and realize that her life had changed yet again.

Gluttony twined their hands together and squeezed her fingers before drawing her into a room she’d not been in before. “Come on, pet. Let’s get your mind off of it.”

That would be lovely. She needed to stop thinking, perhaps. And this room was a perfect way to do it.

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