17. Willow #2
My eyes trail up to the strange mask covering its flat face. It’s strangely humanoid in shape with soulless pits where the eyes and nose should be, and the sight of it causes a shiver to run down my spine.
Creepy… I wonder if Kevin will grow one of those.
Deciding I’ve had enough of the sculptures, I move my attention to the other treasures littering the workshop, marveling at the craftsmanship.
The whole time I explore, I sense a pair of eyes on me, heating my skin as they move from place to place—but every time I glance at Cin, he’s deeply focused on his work.
Hmm… I wonder what’s got him so focused.
Unable to deny my curiosity any longer, I sneak up behind Cin, rising on my tiptoes to try to see what he’s working on. Even sitting, he’s far too tall for me to see, and all I end up doing is bumping my nose against his shoulder.
Cin turns his head, the corners of his eye creased in the barest of smiles. “Can I help you?”
“Ah… no. I’m just being nosy.” I lower to my heels, my face flaming. “Sorry for booping you.”
“Booping. Nosey.” His chest shakes with a soundless chuckle. “Human phrasings are truly marvelous.” With a wave of his clawed hand, Cin beckons me closer. “Come. I’ll show you what I’m working on.”
The lucidity in his eyes, his voice, causes me to pause. This demon is so much different from the one I met in the tunnels the other night. This Cin is sane. Hell, he seems downright pleasant.
Deciding to trust him, I walk to the side of his massive body, craning my neck in an attempt to see, but it’s not much better than before. “Um…”
With a grunt, Cin’s arm snakes around my waist, and I’m hoisted off the ground and into his lap in one smooth movement. I shift on his thigh, my face flaming as I feel the toned muscles quiver beneath me.
Oh god…
“Can you see now?” he asks, his voice a low rasp.
I nod, not trusting my voice to speak. Cin’s chest shakes with a chuckle as his hands move back to the surface of the work table.
“Watch closely.” His breath tickles the shell of my ear, and I swallow hard, trying to focus past the erratic beating of my heart.
Cin stretches his hand out flat, his palm hovering a few inches above the solid block of ice-rock.
A stunning blue light pulses from his palm, coloring the stone an even darker hue.
Magic energy hums from his skin as his hand rocks, moving around the circumference of the block in a beautiful dance.
Every couple of seconds, a small piece breaks off, joining the thousands of other bits of ice-rock that cover the table.
“What are you making?” I ask, utterly fascinated.
“I don’t know yet. Any requests?”
I turn my head to face him, finding his eyes creased in a smile. “How about a hairbrush? I’d kill to get some of these knots out.” I reach up to the tangled mess, cringing when I realize my tryst with Rhune and Nyx has put even more knots into my hair.
Cin laughs, the sound low and strangely melodic. “I’ll see what I can do.”
We stay there in peaceful silence for a while, and my mind eventually travels back to Rhune and Nyx. Even now, my soul aches for Rhune, but I have to stay strong.
How could he not prepare me? Was he hoping this would happen? Probably, considering the way he looked at me, held me.
A wave of longing crests in my veins, and I sigh, closing my eyes tight. This sucks….
“Want to talk about it?”
I turn my head, looking into Cin’s inquisitive eyes. “Talk about what?”
“What it is that’s bothering you. Causing you to hide from Rhune and Nyx.”
I wriggle uncomfortably in his lap. “I just… I needed to be away from them for a bit.”
He gazes at me out of the corner of his eye, still hard at work. “I find that I, too, need a break from them every now and then.”
I laugh, and some of my nerves dissipate. “How long have you all known each other?”
Cin thinks for a moment. “Well, I suppose the correct answer to that would be five hundred and thirty-three years. But as separate entities, we have been alive for several decades.”
“Holy shit,” I whisper. “You’re ancient.”
“Careful, little human.” His voice is serious, but he has an amused twinkle in his eye that says otherwise. “Best not to piss off this ancient monster. Not when I know exactly how to make you break.”
His eyes flare wide, glinting with a predatory light, and I can’t help but let out a frightened gasp.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” Only, the way he’s looking at me tells another story. “You don’t have to be scared.”
“I’m not,” I say. It’s true, too. I’m not scared of Cin. I am horribly, inexplicably intrigued by him. Plus, a little turned on. But that’s probably just because he’s forcing me to sit on his lap. Yeah, that’s it…
I look into his eyes—so different from his brothers’—and I wonder why.
“I hope this isn’t rude but… your eyes…”
“What about them?”
“They’re… different.”
He smirks. “Yours are quite strange to me as well, you know.”
“I meant, different from your ‘brothers’,” I say, putting air quotes around the last word. “They look—”
“Like a snake?”
“Yes…”
He shrugs. “Truthfully, I don’t know. It’s just how I was made. Incomplete. Unholy.”
My mind flashes to Rhune again, and I’m filled with an awful pang of want, plus guilt for the things I’m feeling for Cin. It’s strange, but so powerful it’s impossible to ignore.
“You are sure you do not want to talk?” Cin's voice loses its flirtatious edge, replaced with genuine concern. “You seem… troubled.”
Do I want to talk? Am I ready to deal with it all so soon? Would it be better or worse to stew?
I sigh, hanging my head. “Rhune and I… we bonded.” My face heats when I think about what came after the bonding, and I readjust on Cin’s knee as a wave of desire courses through me.
“I didn’t know that was even a thing that could happen.
But apparently, he did, and was probably hoping it would.
Now, I’m stuck here for God knows how long.
And it’s not like I dislike Rhune. I probably could be happy with him in another time, another life.
But right now…” I drop my eyes, my chest clenching with grief.
“Right before Rhune brought me here, I found out that my fiancé cheated on me with my best friend. It was the morning of my wedding.”
I swallow hard as I recall the horrible scene, but strangely, my chest doesn’t clench with sadness like all the times it did before.
“I’m not even sad about it, though. I was, but as soon as I bonded with Rhune…
It’s like all my emotions tied to him died.
” I shake my head, focusing all my attention on my twisting fingers.
“It’s not normal to be ready to move on so quickly.
I should be gorging myself on ice cream and crying into my pillow—not worrying about how I’m going to survive in this crazy world or what it means to be soul bonded to a demon.
My heart has been pulled in a million different directions, and I feel more out of control than I have in my entire life.
It’s scary, and hard to accept that I didn’t even… that I didn’t get a choice.”
Cin’s arm slowly curls around my stomach, and he wraps me in a warm, comforting hug. His dark wings curl around my tiny frame, bathing me in darkness and providing a sense of safety and warmth.
“I am so very sorry those terrible things happened to someone so lovely,” he says, his voice a low rasp.
“They did not deserve you, sweet serafyn. They lost a great treasure.” His wings unfurl slightly as the weight of his embrace loosens.
“I wish I could offer you more than sympathies. But I am only a male. A grizzly one, at that.”
My lips curl in the barest of smiles, and I find his own mirrored in his serpentine eyes. “As for the other part…” He gazes down at me, his expression intent. “I realize this may not give you all the comfort you need, but… if you soul bonded with Rhune, then you did choose him.”
My eyes go wide. “What do you mean?”
“If it is a real soul bond, fated by the stars, then you two were always meant to be.” His expression changes, morphing into one of sympathy. “Rather, you and Slaine were fated. Now, you are stuck with the four of us.”
I gasp softly. “You mean… I can bond to all four of you?”
“I’m afraid so,” he says. “Only when you are ready, though. In demon culture, the female always initiates the bond. If she does not desire it within her soul, it simply would not happen.”
“That’s… a little relieving, honestly. I kind of assumed that Rhune did this. That he somehow… set it off.”