Page 45 of The Demon Prince

Relief made him a little light-headed. With a clawed finger—when had those come out again?—he pointed to another table that was mostly empty of dangerous substances. “You can start there. I can already see you’re much better at organizing than I am.”

“I’d rather see if I can make something blow up.”

The strange spell she’d weaved around him shattered. Chuckling, he shook his head and turned back to his own project. “I imagine you would, pet. I imagine you would.”

And so they spent the rest of the afternoon in relative silence. But he could hear her. Humming underneath her breath as she tackled the arduous and rather impossible task of organizing his laboratory.

For an afternoon, he didn’t feel quite so alone. Gluttony feared he could get used to this.

ChapterSeventeen

The first day she came to him and said she was going back to the clinic, Gluttony had no issues with it. He knew there wasn’t enough to do here, and they had made no progress in his laboratory. Of course, she wanted to do something with herself.

He’d paced beside the front door for hours at a time, waiting for that knock that made his soul ease, but he had not argued. He’d let her go, and then she’d returned. Just as she promised.

The relief he’d felt when she walked through those doors again? Ah, it was better than anything he’d ever imagined.

And yet, the more she did it, the worse he felt. He didn’t want her leaving the castle. He didn’t want her returning with the scents of so many people on her. He wanted her to stay here, and he wanted to rub himself over her entire body so he could forget that she’d spent hours with others.

Gluttony knew those thoughts made him almost like Greed. But he wanted every part of her, every ounce of her time and attention as well. He wanted to swallow up all those hours with her and consume them until there was nothing but him and her and the rest of the world was gone.

And then the madness set in.

He could feel it even now, crawling up his throat and gripping him by the neck. She didn’t know that when she left, he could do nothing but sit on the floor beside the door. At first, he’d tried to busy himself with work or with cleaning. Katherine deserved a castle that was built for a queen and he wanted to be the one who gave that to her.

But he couldn’t. He’d tried to force his limp body up, but all he could do was sit in the shadows, waiting until she knocked on the door.

Tonight, she was late. So late that it made his heart thud harder in his chest. Should he go and get her? No, that was an overreaction. No one in the town wanted to see him, anyway. They’d run from him screaming if they realized their demon king was in their town. She was a capable woman. She’d lived there her entire life and hadn’t fallen into the swamps yet.

But what if she had? What if she had fallen, and some creature had snatched her up? He could help her. He could save her from that situation like no other mortal could.

A black mass coalesced beside his hip and he knew the little spirit was only going to make this worse. It did every single day, and yet he couldn’t care less.

Gluttony almost wanted to feel its words digging into him like sharp knives. He was not and never would be, what she needed.

Spite sat down beside him and hissed out a long breath. “She’s not coming back this time.”

“She’ll be back,” he replied, although there was no certainty in his words. “She promised.”

“Promises mean nothing to her kind.”

“She has come back every day. She won’t leave us here alone.”

“Why wouldn’t she?” The dark spirit rolled in front of him, rising a little taller. It hadn’t been feeding off Katherine, Gluttony was relieved to see. The spirit was still rather small. “She has nothing here, and no reason to return. You haven’t convinced yourself that she feels something for you, have you? That girl has a life outside of you.”

“I have given her so much here.” Gluttony had to believe that. He had to believe that she would return, because otherwise he was just the monster in the castle who hadn’t changed. Who hadn’t proven to anyone that he could change.

“What? A comfortable bed and food?” Spite snorted. “You do not know humans if you believe that will satisfy her for very long. She does not care if you are a king, Gluttony. She wants a life and people to be in it. You’ve asked her to rot here in this castle with you.”

Had he?

Gluttony had thought they’d started a rather decent life together. She worked with him in the laboratory most days, cleaning up everything that he’d made a mess of. And then she’d head off to the clinic, after which he would unfortunately sit frozen in this same spot. Once she returned, he made sure she had dinner and then popped her off to bed.

Then, once he returned to his lab and realized he needed to feed, he would...

Spite hissed. “Do you really think she wanted to be your blood donor forever? Gluttony, you fool. She doesn’t care for you, or me, or this place at all. This is a transaction and you haven’t given her any reason to stay. She’s going to remain in that village just like the rest of them. She’s no different from any other woman who came here and asked for something.”

A stuttering breath escaped him. He couldn’t... He couldn’t believe that. She would return. She always had, and there was no reason for him to question her integrity.

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