Page 86 of The Demon Prince

Normally, she’d laugh with him. Normally, she would have the energy do something other than flop her head to the side to watch him.

When he turned and saw her, she knew how sick she must look. The plates in his hands clattered to the floor, and he lunged. Gluttony moved so quickly it was hard to track his movements. One moment he was at the door, the next he was frantically running his hands down her body.

“What happened, pet?” he asked, his eyes trying to see every part of her and his hands quickly following suit. “Where are you hurt?”

She must look terrible if he thought she was injured. She wasn’t, but... Maybe something else was wrong.

“Sick,” she muttered, and the single word emptied all the air in her lungs. She had to wheeze in a breath that rattled in her chest.

“You’re ill?” His eyes widened even more, his face turning pale and ghostly. “I don’t know how to help you.”

She did. There were certain things she’d want to check. Her temperature for one, but he wouldn’t know how humans normally felt. Then she’d want to pinch the skin on the back of her hand to make sure she wasn’t dehydrated. There were a thousand things to do, and maybe he could bring her to the almshouse.

But the word was too hard to form. It took every ounce of her energy just to keep her eyes open and watching him. And somehow, he seemed to understand that.

Gluttony gently moved her hair away from her face, touching each strand with reverence. “My poor pet. We’re going to fix this. I promise.”

He scooped his arms underneath her, turning her into his shoulder with such slight movements that she barely noticed the difference between the bed and him. And then he was moving from the room, carrying her as though she weighed nothing through the halls.

Everything blurred as they moved. She couldn’t quite guess where they were going, but then she noticed a small dent in the wall and thought they were heading to the kitchens.

Why there?

That made little sense. She wasn’t hungry. Not at all. This wasn’t hunger. It was a weakness that spread through every ounce of her form until she couldn’t think or breathe or stay awake.

“Katherine,” Gluttony murmured in her ear. “Stay with me.”

Of course. That was the smart thing to do. She had to stay with him and not move and let him take care of her because she certainly couldn’t do it herself right now. He would take care of her.

He always had.

Katherine blinked her eyes open. When had she closed them?

The warmth of the kitchen played across her icy skin. She hadn’t even realized how cold she’d been until she felt the blast of hot air from the furnace. And oh, it was so much better now that she was here. Now that she was actually warm.

Gluttony held her in his lap as he sank down beside the fire. Katherine wanted to protest. The stone floor must be so hard on his knees. He could just lay her down on the stones. She was more used to the discomfort of it than he was. Just a few moments of sleep and she would be better.

“Gluttony.” Envy’s voice sliced through her mind, forcing her out of that dream-like state and into the present. “What have you done to her?”

“She said she was sick.”

A hand picked up her wrist and let it flop back down against his chest. “Sick? That’s what she said? You’ve nearly drained her dry, you fucking idiot.”

But... No. That wasn’t right. That couldn’t be at all. She would have known if the dreams were real. If she’d actually whispered those words of pleasure and hope in his ears. She’d said too much in those dreams, about how she was so happy she’d chosen to stay here, and that if he knew how she really felt...

In what world did Katherine believe that was just a dream? Of course, he’d been coming into her room every night. After they’d spent the night together, after they’d tasted each other, why would he stay away?

She could pretend that she hadn’t known what was wrong with her because of the blood loss, but that wasn’t truthful. She had known. Why would he not come to her room and roll her into his arms?

Oh, she was a complete and utter fool. How could she forget that she was in the home of a demon king who only wanted to feed off of her? How could she ever think for a moment that she was in a normal castle with a normal prince who had somehow developed feelings for her?

Fluttering her eyelashes, trying to stay awake so she could hear more of this conversation, she looked up at Gluttony.

He was staring down at her. An expression of complete and utter loss marring his usually handsome features. Carefully, oh so carefully, he brushed her hair behind her ear. “It’s not blood loss,” he whispered, the words meant for only the two of them. “Is it?”

It was. She had seen it before in so many patients. They were cold and listless, struggling to stay awake. Sometimes it took every ounce of her strength to get food into them without watching them drown because they simply could not stay awake for it.

It would be a vicious fight for her to stay alive and well. But it would happen.

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