Eva POV #11
The change in his voice was immediate, colder and sharp enough to make the entire street tense at once as the air around us shifted violently, forcing nearby demons to step backward while even the silver flames lining the street flickered hard before finally settling again.
And I understood something terrifying. He was holding back constantly on Earth. Not because he was weak. Because he chose to be gentle there.
The head guard lowered his gaze carefully. “The council believes the bond is dangerous.”
Without thinking about it, I moved slightly closer toward my demon again, and his hand shifted behind my back in a protective gesture that was so automatic and familiar by now it made my chest ache despite the fact that I was still angry with him.
Nina caught it. She leaned toward me whispering, “…okay THAT was attractive. Tragically.”
“Please stop narrating my suffering.”
Anderson stepped forward before the situation could escalate further. “The bond was not formed intentionally.”
“That feels worse,” one guard muttered quietly.
The younger brother bristled. “Actually, I think it's kind of romantic.”
“Your standards are demonic,” Anderson informed him tiredly.
“They literally are.”
Meanwhile the head guard still hadn’t looked directly at me again. Every word he spoke stayed carefully aimed toward my demon instead.
“The council is already assembling.”
My demon’s expression hardened slightly. “Then the council should learn to mind its business.”
Every demon nearby froze instantly. Even the guards were alarmed now.
One of them quietly whispered, “…he’s serious.”
“No,” the younger brother muttered while staring at his brother with visible concern. “That’s actually the problem.”
For one dangerous second, silence spread across the entire street before massive bells began ringing somewhere deep within the city, their slow ancient sound rolling through Hell hard enough to make the ground beneath my feet vibrate.
The sound rolled across Hell like thunder while every demon nearby lowered their heads toward the distant black palace towering over the city bridges.
The younger brother went genuinely pale.
“Oh, that is BAD bad.”
My gaze snapped toward the palace as cold dread settled in my stomach. “What now?”
Nobody answered.
Then Anderson said quietly:
“The rulers just got involved.”
Chapter 20
Eva POV
Nobody moved for half a second after Anderson said it. Then everyone backed away at once.
The guards stepped aside while Anderson started walking down the center street without another word.
The younger brother grabbed Nina before she could wander in the wrong direction, and my demon stayed close enough beside me that the back of his hand brushed mine every few steps before pulling away again deliberately.
Like he kept catching himself before touching me now. Like every instinct he had was still pulling him closer while he forced himself to hold back anyway, and I hated how much that hurt.
The streets of Hell grew quieter the closer we got to the massive black palace towering above the city bridges. The buildings here were older, dark stone rising upward in impossible twisted shapes while enormous iron braziers burned with silver fire along the roads.
Every demon we passed moved aside the moment they noticed my demon approaching. Some lowered their heads respectfully while others seemed genuinely afraid to even stand too close to him, and judging from the slight shift in his expression, he noticed me noticing all of it.
“You’re staring,” he said quietly without looking at me.
“I’m processing.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“I just watched armed guards bow to the guy who reorganized my spice cabinet.”
“That shelf was upsetting.”
“That is not the point.”
For one brief second, the corner of his mouth almost lifted again before the expression disappeared completely.
The palace was even worse up close, impossibly massive beneath the crimson-black sky while dark towers climbed endlessly upward and enormous silver flames burned across the walls without consuming a single thing.
Nina stared upward in complete disbelief. “If I die here, somebody please clear my search history.”
“Too late,” the younger brother informed her helpfully. “Hell archives everything.”
“That is deeply violating.”
The enormous palace doors opened before we even reached them. Every demon inside bowed instantly the second my demon stepped through the entrance. Then their attention shifted toward me. And one by one, several of them straightened again looking deeply confused about the protocol.
“…Okay,” I muttered quietly, “I understand discrimination.”
“You are absolutely about to make this worse,” my demon said without even looking at me.
We walked deeper into the palace through massive hallways lined with black marble and silver fire. The ceilings stretched impossibly high overhead while shadows moved strangely across the walls like the palace itself was alive.
Nobody seemed particularly happy to see me. Actually, that was underselling it. Several demons appeared personally offended by the fact that I existed at all, which felt rude considering the fact that their prince asked me to come get him.
Eventually the hallway opened into an enormous throne room filled with demons wearing dark ceremonial robes. The air itself was heavier here, like the room carried pressure inside it. The second we entered, every conversation stopped.
One council member stood from their seat. “You brought the human into the palace.”
My demon answered calmly, “Yes.”
Another stared directly toward my glowing wrist. “You bonded with her.”
I lowered my gaze. “Right. So we’re still treating me like a dangerous human.”
Nina leaned toward me whispering, “I think the matching soul tattoos are objectively dramatic.”
One older demon rose from the far side of the throne room. Definitely evil looking. Not cartoon evil either. Professional evil. The kind that probably destroyed civilizations and then discuss politics over dinner afterward.
“The human weakens you.”
Tension swept through the throne room after that before my demon laughed, the low dangerous sound echoing sharply across the chamber hard enough that several nearby demons lowered their eyes on instinct.
“You think THIS made me weaker?”
The entire room went still. And for the first time since meeting him, he was actually terrifying. Not the soft apartment version. Not the quiet man making coffee in my kitchen.
This was the Prince of Hell everyone feared. Dark power curled sharply through the air around him while silver fire along the walls flared violently brighter.
Then he looked at me deeply. And it felt even more dangerous. Because the terrifying expression softened instantly the second his eyes landed on me.
“You would risk Hell itself for her?”
My demon answered firmly.
“Yes.”
There wasn’t even a second of hesitation before he answered, and my heart genuinely forgot how to function for a moment after hearing it.
Behind me, Nina whispered softly, “Oh he is DOWN catastrophic.”
The room erupted into whispers the second he said it.
One council member was genuinely horrified while another stared at me with open fury before an older ruler seated near the throne finally spoke for the first time, his ancient cold voice cutting through the chamber hard enough to silence everyone else instantly.
“And yet,” they said while looking directly at me, “the human does not even know your true name.”
Silence slammed across the throne room hard enough to make my stomach drop as I turned toward my demon instinctively and saw genuine alarm break across his face for the first time since we entered the palace, not anger or cold calculation but actual alarm, and the ruler noticed too before a slow unpleasant smile spread across his face.
It was the kind of expression powerful creatures wore right before ruining someone for entertainment.
“You crossed dimensions for him,” the ruler continued calmly while the entire throne room stayed painfully silent around us. “You wear his mark willingly. You entered the capital beside him willingly.”
Their eyes shifted toward my demon. “And yet he has still kept himself hidden from you.”
Something uncomfortable twisted low in my stomach because beneath all the sarcasm and arguing, part of me still cared enough for this to hurt badly.
My demon stepped forward after that, his voice colder now. “Enough.”
The ruler ignored him completely.
“Do you even understand what it means,” they asked me quietly, “that a prince gave you his bond before his name?”
I opened my mouth to argue before the truth hit me hard enough to stop the words completely because I didn’t, and the silence that followed was painfully humiliating.
Around me, whispers moved quietly through the throne room while council members exchanged dark looks across the massive chamber.
Nina gasped in outrage on my behalf. “Okay, wow. We are NOT doing public humiliation right now.”
The younger brother nodded. “Actually I agree with humans.”
“That sentence still sounds illegal,” Anderson muttered tiredly.
Meanwhile I still couldn’t stop looking at my demon because I was starting to realize there were entire parts of him I still didn’t understand, not because I never wanted to know them, but because he never fully allowed anyone close enough to see them.
The ruler leaned back against the black throne behind them. “Humans truly are reckless creatures. You tied yourself to a prince whose true name you do not even know.”
I crossed my arms ready to defend myself. “Okay first of all, that sounded judgmental.”
“It was intended to.”
Rude.
But underneath the sarcasm, something sharper settled quietly into my chest. Because after everything that happened tonight, after the bond reveal and the secrecy and the hurt, this was worse in a completely different way.