Eva POV #4
“She is human.”
“I noticed.”
“She cannot survive hell's attachment permanently.”
The apartment went completely silent.
My stomach dropped hard at that question. This time my demon didn’t answer right away either, and the hesitation scared me more than anything else that had happened tonight.
Chapter 9
Eva POV
Nina recovered first, though she recovered badly. She grabbed a frying pan from the kitchen counter like she genuinely intended to fight supernatural royalty with cookware.
“Okay,” she announced shakily while pointing the pan toward the broken apartment door, “I’m saying this calmly.”
“You’re holding a frying pan,” I whispered.
“YOUR demon just got jealous.”
“He is not MY demon.”
The taller demon near the doorway studied the two of us before his eyes settled on my demon again.
Then his expression changed slightly.
“…You didn’t tell her?”
My demon was deeply unimpressed by the entire conversation. “There was no reason to.”
I stared at him. “No reason to tell me WHAT.”
Nina tightened her grip on the frying pan. “I think we should all start screaming.”
The taller demon folded his arms loosely across his chest while cold air continued spilling into the apartment through the cracked doorway behind him.
“You summoned one of the princes of Hell.”
I blinked once, then again.
“…What.”
Nina dropped the frying pan. The loud CLANG echoed through the apartment hard enough to make everybody flinch slightly except the demons.
My demon sounded mildly annoyed. “Titles are embarrassing.”
I turned toward him. “You are a WHAT.”
The taller demon blinked, clearly confused by my reaction. “One of the most dangerous beings currently in existence.”
I continued staring at my demon in complete disbelief while he stood there wearing my oversized hoodie beside my broken apartment door.
Then very slowly, I said, “You reorganized my spice cabinet yesterday.”
My demon frowned slightly. “It was stressful to look at.”
Nina made a weak uneasy noise somewhere near the kitchen floor.
I pointed at him accusingly. “You are apparently demon royalty and your biggest concern was alphabetical seasoning storage?”
“The paprika and cinnamon were beside each other.”
“That means NOTHING to me.”
“It means chaos.”
The taller demon's brow furrowed as his glowing eyes moved between the two of us, as though he genuinely could not process what he was seeing.
“…You cleaned her apartment?”
My demon answered. “Yes.”
There was a tiny pause before he answered more quietly.
“Obviously.”
Something uncomfortable twisted in my chest at the way he said it, which was deeply inappropriate considering the situation we were currently trapped in.
Nina noticed my face instantly. “Oh no,” she whispered tiredly. “She likes him now.”
“I do NOT.”
“You looked at him with hearts in your eyes.”
“I looked at him confused.”
“Those are becoming the same expression.”
“I hate this apartment.”
The taller demon near the doorway pinched the bridge of his nose as though personally offended by everything happening in front of him. His attention returned to my demon while cold air continued pouring into the room around him.
“You are aware this is humiliating.”
My demon was completely unbothered. “I am comfortable here.”
“You are living in a one-bedroom apartment.”
“There is cereal.”
“That is not a defense.”
“We also have strawberries.”
I covered my face instantly. “STOP brINGING UP THE STRAWBERRIES.”
Nina sounded beyond exhausted now. “I genuinely think fruit changed the course of this relationship.”
“There IS no relationship.”
My demon glanced toward me calmly. “That title would simplify several conversations.”
“You cannot keep saying things like that while I’m psychologically vulnerable.”
The taller demon stared at him for another long second before looking around the apartment again. His eyes landed briefly on the candles still scattered across the floor, then the coffee mugs, then the folded blankets on the couch.
Then he met my gaze.
“…You made him comfortable.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
My demon answered before I could continue panicking. “She did.”
The taller demon was more disturbed by that answer. “You hate comfort.”
“That is inaccurate.”
“You once set an entire palace wing on fire because somebody bought decorative pillows.”
“They were aggressively decorative.”
I stared at my demon in horror. “You burned down a palace over PILLOWS?”
“They had peppa pig printed on it .”
I couldn’t really blame him.
Nina fixed me with a look. “See? THIS is why you liking him concerns me.”
“I do not LIKE him.”
My demon quietly reached over and pulled the blanket from the back of the couch around my shoulders before I could continue yelling. The movement was so casual he barely seemed aware he was doing it.
Then he stepped away again like wrapping blankets around the disaster prone mortal was completely normal behavior for demon princes.
The apartment stayed still for a second before every expression in the room changed at once. Horror flashed across the taller demon's face, while Nina rubbed both hands over her face like her sanity had officially submitted its resignation.
And I stood there frozen with the blanket still around my shoulders while my brain completely stopped functioning again.
“…You are terrifying in deeply confusing ways,” I informed my demon quietly.
For the first time since the confrontation started, he almost smiled again.
Chapter 10
Eva POV
For the first time since the confrontation started, my demon was faintly amused again, and judging from the reactions around the apartment, that was apparently a very bad sign.
I was still standing there wrapped in the blanket he’d placed around my shoulders while the taller demon near the broken apartment door stared at both of us like he was witnessing something medically concerning.
Finally, I pointed at my demon carefully. “You’re a prince of Hell.”
“Technically.”
“There should not BE a technically.”
Nina was still sitting on the kitchen floor beside the fallen frying pan with the exhausted expression of somebody whose entire understanding of reality had been personally insulted. “I need holy water and a therapist.”
The taller demon dismissed the rest of us, his attention settling on my demon once more. “I don't care how comfortable you are here. You need to return.”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
The taller demon’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Hell is looking for you.”
My demon remained completely unfazed. “Hell can keep looking.”
The apartment went silent again.
I stared at him carefully while cold air still drifted through the cracked doorway behind the other demon. “...Why are you refusing to go back?”
For the first time since I’d summoned him, my demon hesitated, and the pause was small enough that I might have missed it if the taller demon hadn’t answered first.
“Because if he returns now, they’ll choose him.”
Nina blinked once from the floor. “Choose him for WHAT.”
An answer didn’t come right away, and that made the situation feel even worse. I tightened the blanket slightly around myself before looking between all of them.
“Okay. I officially hate this conversation.”
The taller demon stepped farther into the apartment now, his expression growing more serious. “If he becomes king, he cannot remain here.”
The tension in the room turned heavy enough to make my stomach drop before I could stop it, and judging from the way my demon’s attention snapped toward me, he noticed the reaction too.
“Don’t,” he said quietly.
I frowned. “Don’t what?”
His expression softened slightly in a way I'd only ever seen when his eyes found mine. “Look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
He hesitated again, and that frightened me more than the threats had before he finally said, much quieter this time, “Like leaving would hurt you,” and something in my chest tightened painfully at the way he said it.
Nina gaze bounced between the two of us with the exhausted expression of somebody realizing that the current situation had become worse than the supernatural one.
Meanwhile I just stood there staring at my demon while my chest tightened in one deeply inconvenient way after another.
Because the horrible part was, I didn’t actually know if he was wrong anymore.
The realization hit hard enough that I looked away from him on instinct, like avoiding eye contact might undo the entire situation. It didn’t help. Judging from the expression on my demon’s face, he noticed every second of it, which was rapidly becoming a problem for me.
The taller demon watched both of us in complete disbelief before rubbing one hand across his face. “This is exactly why attachments are forbidden.”
Nina lifted her head from the kitchen floor. “Okay, now that sounds deeply unhealthy.”
“It is survival,” the taller demon corrected calmly.
“Those should not be the same thing.”
My demon's expression tightened with annoyance, only to soften whenever his gaze found me. “You are upsetting her.”
The taller demon stared at him. “You are upsetting yourself.”
That shut the apartment up instantly. Even my demon didn’t answer right away.
The silence stretched long enough that I looked back at him despite myself. He was still standing near the broken apartment door wearing my oversized hoodie while freezing cold air curled around the room behind him.
And despite all the terrifying demon prince information, he felt more familiar than frightening to me now.
That felt downright irresponsible.
Nina pointed at both demons weakly from the kitchen floor. “I would just like everybody to remember this entire relationship started because Eva got drunk and bought decorative candles.”
“They were discounted,” I muttered automatically.
The taller demon blinked once. “…That is genuinely embarrassing.”
“It was a bad week.”
“You summoned royalty accidentally.”
“I KNOW.”
My demon glanced toward me quietly. “In fairness, your ritual technique was excellent.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Do not compliment my demon summoning skills.”
“That feels ungrateful.”
“You ruined my life.”
“You invited me romantically.”
“I BOUGHT CANDLES.”