Page 75 of The Demon Prince

And he was trying so hard to do the right thing these days.

Folding his hand around hers, he drew her toward his study. “Come. We’ll want to be comfortable for this story, and I need a good few glasses of brandy before I say it.”

Katherine squeezed his hand back and followed him with a small limp. “Take all the time you need. I’m just proud of you for telling me the story at all.”

He wondered how long those feelings would last once she heard the truth.

ChapterTwenty-Seven

She wasn’t sure if she should be sick to her stomach with nerves or so shaky on her feet. Was this a normal reaction to a man agreeing to tell her how he murdered someone?

Katherine trailed him through the hallway, mourning the loss of his heat and wondering what had happened between them that would lead him here. Gluttony clearly thought that whatever he had to say would change her. That she would look at him like he was the monster everyone said he was.

Didn’t he know she was beyond that?

A resolve burned deep in her belly. She would prove to him that she was not the person he thought she was. She wasn’t some pawn who listened to the town’s whims. Katherine made her own decisions about him, and she’d already decided that he wasn’t a nightmarish beast.

Now, more than ever, she realized there were layers to people. Just as there were layers to Alexander who had fired her over something so silly as to think that she had been brainwashed by the man in front of her.

How could she be? He strode down the hallway, his back rounded in despair as he led her to his study. And she already knew the room was more comfortable for him than anywhere else. He would linger in his chair, cozying up next to the fire that never went out before he told her a story that he thought would rip them apart. What monster was this? A man who was willing to own his own actions?

No, he was no monster. But he needed someone to prove that to him.

As she walked into his office behind him, a plan was already formulating in her mind. First, she would woo him. Flowers were always a good option, and he looked like the kind of man who wouldn’t be insulted if she brought him handfuls of flowers. In fact, he might even appreciate the effort. Then she would tell him nice things about himself, all leading up to a quiet evening where she would kiss him again.

Because she wanted to kiss him. By all the gods and the seven kingdoms, she’d wanted to do it again since the first time they’d touched. She wanted to feel him arching against her, and moving at the same beat. She wanted...

He stood before the fire, his back to her and the red light turning him into a ghostly silhouette. The darkness that surrounded him was... eerily familiar.

“Spite,” she said with surprise. “There you are. I haven’t seen you in ages!”

The little spirit rolled out from underneath Gluttony’s desk, pulling its tendrils away from him and slowly moving toward her. But it wasn’t black anymore. Not at all. The little gray spirit looked like it was ill.

She gathered it up in her arms, holding it against her heartbeat as she looked it over. “What happened to you?”

The spirit didn’t seem capable of speech, and it was Gluttony who responded. “It’s changing.”

“It’s what?”

“Changing into something else.” He gave the spirit a wry grin, and she thought he looked rather sad as well. “At least one of us can change.”

She wanted to ask what he meant by that. Why would he need to change?

But he was already shaking his head again and turning away from her. “I killed her. You know that much.”

With the spirit still in her arms, she sank into the chair on the opposite side of his desk. “I think everyone knows that. We all saw you bring her body into the town.”

“She...” He took a deep breath. “She was the first person to walk into this castle and see me as something other than a demon. I still remember the first time she walked up that boardwalk. She was all confidence, Katherine. A swagger to her hips and a determined expression on her face. Larissa, she said her name was. And that she was going to be the first person to enter my castle in a hundred years.”

That was right. Larissa was her name. Katherine nodded and held Spite a little tighter. “She was beautiful, I remember. Her father used to say that everyone would want to marry his girl.”

“They all did.” He huffed out a chuckle. “That was part of her problem, you see. She didn’t want to get married. She wanted to leave this place, grow her own family in another kingdom, see what she could make of herself without her family name shadowing everything that she did.”

A dark, bitter silence followed after that. Katherine knew better than to push him, so she remained quiet while he meandered through his dark feelings.

“At first, I refused. I couldn’t stand to see such beauty wasted in a castle like this.” Gluttony cleared his throat, and then added, “On a man like me. But she was persistent, like you. She didn’t give me the opportunity to turn her away, and soon enough, she was joining me for dinner. She used to bring food up from the village, good bread and wine and cheese. Showing me everything that your town could offer, and then denying it to me if I did not comply.

“At the time, I was not feeding on anyone. I had tasted and devoured everything that I could and I’ll admit, the boredom was beginning to drive me mad. I am Gluttony, Katherine. My purpose in life is to consume and to devour. There is nothing else for me.”

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