Chapter 6 #7
Her eyes moved from my flushed face, to my wrinkled dress, to my demon standing way too close beside me with one hand resting casually against my lower back.
Silence. Then, dramatically: “...Should we pretend we didn’t see that?” someone whispered from the far end of the hall.
“Oh my God.”
“That reaction feels judgmental,” I informed her.
“You disappeared into a bedroom with the Prince of Hell looking barely functional.”
“That narrows nothing down.”
Nina pointed aggressively at both of us. “You two look like you just survived a natural disaster.”
Behind her, the younger brother appeared carrying what were suspiciously like stolen pastries before freezing too. Then a slow grin spread across his face.
“Oh this is catastrophic.”
My demon remained deeply unimpressed. “You are all dramatic.”
“That,” the younger brother informed him calmly, “is the face of a man who absolutely ruined a girl against a wardrobe.”
The entire hallway went completely silent. One servant choked so hard it sounded painful. I covered my face while somewhere behind us, someone muttered, “We are all getting fired.”
Meanwhile my demon didn’t even deny it.
Nina screamed loud enough to echo through the palace. “HE DIDN’T DENY IT.”
“Please lower your voice,” Anderson said tiredly while appearing from farther down the hallway. Then his attention settled on us properly.
“…Oh no.”
“YOU TOO?” I demanded.
Anderson pinched the bridge of his nose. “The palace can already sense mood shifts through the bond.”
I blinked once.
“…The palace WHAT.”
Nobody answered fast enough. To be honest their silence told me enough already. Then all the lanterns lining the hallway burst brighter silver at the exact same moment. The servants collectively gasped.
One whispered dramatically, “The palace approves.”
“I need to leave this dimension,” I muttered.
My demon’s hand tightened slightly against my waist automatically.
“No.”
The answer came way too fast.The younger brother grinned instantly. “See? Possessive.”
“I am not possessive.”
At the exact same moment he pulled me slightly closer against his side..
Then Nina sighed dramatically. “That is literally possession with body language.”
For the first time all night, a faint flush of embarrassment touched my demon's features. Good. He deserved it.
Meanwhile the hallway had become more crowded while we were standing there. More servants appeared from nowhere pretending to work while openly staring at us.
One younger servant whispered loudly, “He touched her waist publicly.”
Another answered, “The mating odds just doubled.”
“The WHAT odds,” I asked in horror.
Anderson sounded exhausted beyond mortality. “The palace staff created betting pools.”
Nina bent over laughing.
“You people made supernatural relationship gambling.”
“We are a deeply ancient society,” one servant defended weakly.
“You are demonic Vegas.”
Meanwhile my demon had apparently stopped caring entirely because his thumb was now absentmindedly brushing slow circles against my waist through the fabric of my dress while he spoke quietly with Anderson. And his tiny touch was destroying my ability to think normally.
The younger brother leaned lazily toward Nina beside him. “See how she keeps leaning into him without realizing.”
“I noticed that before the disastrous wardrobe incident.”
“That is not what we’re calling it.”
“It absolutely is.”
I hated every single one of them. The worst part was that my demon didn’t look remotely apologetic about touching me anymore. The caution was gone, along with the hesitation. He was completely certain of himself, and that made him far more dangerous than before.
Like after tonight he’d finally decided keeping distance from me was pointless. God. That realization affected me way too much.
Then an older council member rounded the corner carrying a stack of black parchment, took one look at us more specifically at my demon’s hand resting on my waist and let out the most exhausted sigh I had ever heard.
“…He’s gone completely.”
My demon rolled his eyes. “I am standing right here.”
The older ruler ignored him completely while staring at me instead. “Did he finally stop pretending patience was achievable?”
Silence filled the hallway. My face went hot instantly while Nina collapsed against the wall laughing so hard she could barely stay standing.
The younger brother was genuinely impressed. “Wow. The council moves fast.”
“We have eyes,” the ruler answered calmly.
“Unfortunately,” Anderson added tiredly, “the entire palace has eyes.”
Meanwhile my demon had gone suspiciously quiet beside me. I turned slightly toward him. Big mistake. Because the second our eyes met, his attention dropped briefly toward my mouth before returning upward again. Still enough to make heat rush through me.
And apparently enough for the council member to notice too. The older ruler closed the stack of parchments in his hands before muttering:
“…The city is never recovering from this.”
The older ruler disappeared down the corridor afterward still muttering to himself while palace servants continued openly staring at me and my demon like we’d personally invented romance.
My demon’s hand was still resting against my waist, like he’d finally stopped pretending he wanted distance between us. And I was already getting used to it far too quickly.
Nina noticed my blushing.
“Oh this is getting worse by the second.”
“What is.”
“You’re leaning into him.”
I looked down automatically.Traitorously, she was right. At some point during the hallway chaos I’d shifted closer against my demon without realizing it, and now his arm rested around me like the position belonged there naturally.
The younger brother was deeply entertained beside Nina. “The bond settled.”
“That sounds medically dangerous.”
“It usually is.”
Meanwhile palace servants had started pretending to reorganize nearby lanterns while very obviously eavesdropping on us.
One whispered dramatically, “They look mated already.”
“I am going to start throwing people off balconies,” my demon informed the hallway calmly.
Nobody even flinched. If anything, several servants seemed delighted by the possessiveness. What was wrong with this dimension?
Nina crossed her arms while staring at me suspiciously. “Okay no. I need details.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You disappeared into a bedroom looking mentally unstable and came back glowing.”
I blinked once. “…Glowing?”
The younger brother nodded thoughtfully. “Slightly.”
My demon remained unfazed. “You were touching her.”
“That sentence sounded illegal.”
“It was observational.”
Nina grabbed my arm dramatically. “Eva. Did the scary demon prince finally stop acting emotionally constipated.”
Nobody answered. Then my demon spoke before anyone else could.
“Yes.”
The hallway erupted instantly. One servant gasped. Another dropped papers everywhere. Somebody whispered: “I KNEW IT.”
I covered my face while Nina screamed loud enough to shake the lanterns overhead.
“OH MY GOD.”
Meanwhile my demon seemed deeply unimpressed by everyone’s reactions while absently pulling me slightly closer against his side again.
The younger brother eyed his brother. “There he goes again.”
“I am standing beside her.”
“You’re gripping her like someone might steal her.”
“That is because this kingdom lacks boundaries.”
One palace guard passing through the corridor stopped walking after noticing us. Then stared directly at my demon’s hand on my waist before whispering quietly toward another guard:
“He’s publicly attached now.”
The second guard was horrified. “The council is never surviving this.”
Neither, apparently, was the city. Because somewhere far below the palace another wave of cheering erupted from the streets outside.
Nina blinked toward the windows. “…Are they STILL out there?”
One servant nodded proudly. “The crowds have doubled.”
“DOUBLED?”
“There are food vendors now.”
I stared blankly into the distance.
“…Your kingdom made my relationship into a festival.”
“It’s actually very good for morale,” Anderson admitted tiredly while appearing again from the far corridor.
“That sentence made everything worse.”
Meanwhile the younger brother had started leaning lazily against Nina again while she stood between his arms without even noticing anymore. At this point both couples had apparently forgotten the concept of personal space entirely.
The younger brother stared at my demon thoughtfully. “You know what’s upsetting?”
“No,” my demon answered.
“You look happy.”
The entire hallway went quiet because he really did.
Not in an obvious way, and not because he smiled all the time, but there was something softer about him now.
The coldness around his edges kept fading whenever he looked at me, like the sharp, terrifying prince everyone feared only existed until his attention landed on me.
And judging by the silence spreading through the servants nearby, everyone else noticed too.
My demon frowned at the accusation. “I have always looked the same.”
One palace servant accidentally laughed out loud and then looked horrified remembering his own mistake. Too late. By that point even I was starting to laugh, quiet at first and then harder after watching the poor man desperately try to recover from publicly insulting Hell royalty.
And then my demon stopped talking entirely. I noticed it because his attention shifted completely into me again. Not the hallway, not the servants, not the chaos around us. Just me laughing. The expression on his face softened so visibly that even Nina paused mid sentence and stared at him.
Oh.
Oh that was bad.
A delighted grin spread across the younger brother's face. “There. THAT face.”
My demon didn’t even deny it this time.
Chapter 28
Eva POV
By the next morning, the palace had become worse. Not politically but socially. The second I walked into the enormous breakfast hall beside my demon, conversations lowered instantly before restarting louder two seconds later.
At this point, Hell wasn’t even pretending subtlety anymore.