Chapter Two #3
Seraphina was a badass female warrior who took no shit.
She and another demon named Borus had been assigned to oversee Maddox and the knights during our stay.
Mainly because demons and humans had such a violent history, and many demons in the Shadow Realm still had their doubts about us. It would take more time to build trust.
“Be careful,” I told him.
“Always am.” He caressed my cheek. Though his expression remained stoic, tenderness shone in the blue depths of his eyes. It gave me butterflies. Amazing how Maddox could still have such an effect on me after all the time we’d spent together.
“My turn.” Callum drew me into his arms and feathered kisses along my cheek before, finally, landing on my lips. He tasted like vanilla bean, along with traces of the coffee he’d drank. “Stay safe until we return, milord.”
My heart skipped a beat when he lifted his hand and ruffled my hair in the way I adored. “You’re the one I’m worried about, Mister ‘I got mauled by a Fenrir and still wanted to train the very next day.’ Don’t think I forgot about that.”
Callum responded with a dimpled grin. He and the other knights then left to train, leaving only me, Lake, and Briar in the kitchen.
Despite the rain having cleared, the ground was still wet. As I stood at the sink washing dishes from breakfast, I looked outside just in time to see Quincy slip in the mud on his way to the field and fall on his ass. A chorus of bellowing laughter followed, trickling in through the open window.
Silly boys. But they were my silly boys.
Lake grabbed the soapy plate I’d just scrubbed clean, ran it under the water, and set it on the drying rack.
He offered me a small smile and waited on the next dish to rinse off.
We fell into a familiar routine as the minutes ticked by.
That, too, reminded me of home: the two of us washing dishes together in a comfortable silence.
Fane returned to the kitchen and set the serving platter on the counter. Barely any of the food had been touched.
Hmm. That was odd. Maybe Lord Onyx wasn’t hungry this morning.
“Phantasia will hunt me down if I don’t leave soon,” Briar said as he stood from his chair. Seemed Fane wasn’t the only stickler for time; the demon physician was the same. “Today, she’s instructing me on rare healing magic and elements, starting with the tears of a phoenix.”
“Be mindful of Salem,” Fane cautioned him. “He’s fond of biting.”
Briar breathed out a short laugh and rubbed at his bicep. “I’m well aware.”
“You should bite him back,” Lake said. “Exert dominance.”
I snorted. Such a wolfy thing to say.
“I’d, uh, rather not do that.” Briar offered him a tight smile.
Salem was the buzzard-sized bird I’d met the time I’d visited Phantasia’s clinic.
Though, the place seemed to be more of a torture chamber than a physician’s clinic.
Monstrous teeth, sharp claws, and chicken feet had lined shelves in glass jars, along with jagged blades hanging on the wall and bone-chilling handsaws with, what I feared, had been specks of dried blood and flesh still on the blade.
Or it could’ve just been my imagination.
Hopefully.
“Take care, love.” Briar hugged me and turned his face against my temple—his favorite spot to kiss. “If you need anything, anything at all, you know where to find me.”
“In Phantasia’s House of Terrors,” I muttered, bringing to mind that awful handsaw. “Who wouldn’t want to visit such a lovely, not scary at all place?”
Briar laughed again, this one ringing of a deep affection. After kissing me softly on the lips, he patted Lake’s fluffy wolf ears, then excused himself from the room.
Fane emptied the food from the serving platter, shifting the scraps to a large bowl, probably to give to the outside animals, and stepped over to the stove, putting on a kettle.
“Are you making more tea for Lord Onyx?” I bounded over to the stove, hands behind my back. Feeling antsy at the thought of demon lord.
“I am,” the black-horned demon answered. “Along with some toast and fruit.”
“He already wants a snack?” I asked. “But he just ate breakfast.”
Well, kind of. My gaze trailed back to the mostly-full tray.
“Milord hasn’t much of an appetite this morning and barely ate what I brought him.” Fane sliced a bright red apple and arranged it with an assortment of raspberries and grapes. “I insisted that he eat something though, even if it’s small. I won’t allow him to be malnourished.”
No appetite, huh? That explained why he’d mostly pecked at his breakfast instead of eating it.
“What’s wrong with him?” I fiddled with my hands, a knot forming in my chest. “Did he say anything?”
Fane’s brow drew tight, and his mouth settled into a grim line. “He said very little. When I pressed him on the matter, he simply requested that he not be disturbed for the rest of the day.”
Isolated in his lonely tower once again.
A pang hit my heart.
Could Onyx’s mood be related to the incident in the throne room?
My fingertips tingled at the memory of the blue sparks.
Sparks Onyx had stared at with a knowing gleam in his eyes.
I was like ninety-nine percent sure he’d figured out my saintly secret.
And considering how the former saint helped kill his dad, I bet it had come as quite the shock to him.
I leaned against the counter and propped my cheek on my hand. “Maybe I should try talking to him.”
“I’d caution against that.” Fane hesitated before adding, “His mood was very… turbulent when I spoke with him.”
“How so?” I asked.
The furrow in Fane’s brow deepened. “Well. I hoped to lift his mood and mentioned that you asked that he join you for breakfast next time. I thought it would please him to know he was on your mind.”
“I take it he wasn’t pleased?” A sinking feeling wormed its way through my gut.
“I regret to say that he wasn’t.” Fane offered me a tight smile. “The moment I spoke your name, he gripped his teacup so tightly that it shattered.”
“Oh.” I blinked. “That’s… um. Unfortunate.”
Fane situated a pot of green tea and a matching teacup on a tray. “Worry not. I’m sure this mood of his will pass. Much like the rain.”
I huffed again. “More like a squall line.”
Intense straight-line winds and heavy rain preceding a cold front. That was Onyx in a nutshell. I was no stranger to his mood swings. He could be fiery hot one second and then icy like the Arctic within the same breath. It was giving me whiplash.
Sure, if he was upset with me, I totally understood why. I had kept a secret from him. But instead of talking to me like an adult, he had locked himself in his room and decided to ignore me. Like a child.
A poor innocent teacup had even met its end by his hand.
Once the tea was ready, Fane grabbed the tray, bowed his head to me and Lake, and left the kitchen.
I stared at the arched doorway. Thinking. Weighing my options. Upset or not, Lord Onyx couldn’t avoid me forever. We were fated mates. A pull that went both ways and would eventually draw us together again. But how long would that pesky demon lord keep me waiting?
I might be a saint, but I certainly didn’t have the patience of one.
“Why do I have the sudden feeling that you’re plotting something?” Lake asked with a soft sigh.
“Me? Plot something? Pfft. Don’t be silly.” I flicked my fingers at him. “But let’s say, just out of curiosity’s sake, that I was planning a little something.”
Lake’s eyes narrowed. “I’m listening.”
“How would you feel about joining me on another top secret mission?” I smiled at the memory of our past adventures through the castle. “I’ll call this one, Operation: Storming the Demon Lord’s Lair.”