Page 52 of The Demon King's Destiny

Her heart fluttered, feeling genuinely connected to him in thismoment. Marrok was fighting a dangerous battle, fixing his world not just for his demons, but also for her.

She prayed he could make it happen before she aged into an old crow. The mates of wolves, vampires, and demons, once fully bonded, could live as long as their other halves did.

Evelyn had heard of a handful of Gwydions who had mated with demons. Allegedly, these elementals lived extremely long lives. Having shared blood in the dreamworld, she wasn’t sure her aging would be halted.

She didn’t want to give power to her concern so she focused on the details of Marrok’s task. “Did you make any progress?” she asked.

“We have had much success. Logistically, I mean. We have what we want in place and are beginning introductions.”

“Introductions?”

“Not in the traditional sense. We’ll be providing exposure, allowing rogues to sense other demons, one by one. They’ll be in a containment space and be able to see the visiting demons as they pass by. If we bring enough of them together, we think there’s a good chance at mates finding one another.”

Summons had gone out to unmated demons to appear in designated holding stations around the kingdom to begin these introductions. The idea was to exposeeach demon to as many other demons as they could, rogue or not. The more saatus bonds they could identify, the fewer demons who could fall prey to madness.

With any luck, they’d be able to match rogues with their fated mates and start the healing process on site. Marrok knew thiswould take years, especially if a rogue demon’s saatus was very young or had yet to be born. At least it was a start.

“And the rogues who find theirmates will return to normal?”

“That ismy hope, yes. You’ll be happy to know Petr, one of my soldiers—a friend, actually—stumbled across his own saatus. I sent him to a village he would never have gone to otherwise. He was there to communicate my plan with the local magistrate, who happened to be female—and his mate.”

Evelyn smiled. “That’s wonderful.”

“It is. The first of many bonds, we hope.”

Marrok explained some of what he and Favin had enacted, dividing Sundari into sections on a map and assigning those he trusted to command each sector. He’d spent too much time in the past trying to be everywhere at once. It was time to allocate his resources and move things along quickly.

“I need to wake soon,” he told her, burying his head in her neck.

“When will I see you again?”

His tongue dipped into her ear and she squirmed, giggling.

“Another month.”

“I hate that it has to be so long.”

“I know, but I need to sleep light when I’m not in the fortress. It’s difficult for anyone to wake me when I’m dreamwalking with you.”

Brazenly, Evelyn reached down and took his hardened length in her hand. “Can’t you stay, just a little longer?”

Marrok’s amber irises brightened to the point he could see the golden sheen reflecting off her hair. His response to Evelyn was so intense, he contemplated holding onto her as he woke, possibly pulling her into his bed.

When she lovingly caressed him as he’d shown her how to do, he rolled atop her. “Maybe just a little longer.”

Evelyn’s giggles died when Marrok slunk down lower and put his mouth to her center once more.

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