Page 30 of Demon's Bane

“I also want to thank you,” Eren says. “For helping my mate when she came to visit you.”

“That was all Allie,” I say, smiling at my friend.

“Regardless,” Eren says. “We’re both grateful. And I hope you’ll visit us in our court one day.”

I glance to the Veil, where the ether is still swirling a deep demon red.

“Maybe someday,” I murmur.

“Someday… like today?” Allie says slyly.

Like I knew she would, my best friend sees right through the weak smile I offer in response. Frowning, she glances up at Eren.

“Give us a minute to talk?”

“Whenever you’re ready to cross back,” Eren says, leaning down to kiss the top of her head, “you know where to find me.”

She watches as he turns to go, at least until her knowing eyes land right back on me.

“Not coming through the Veil tonight then, I take it?” she asks, and I don’t miss the hint of disappointment in the question.

“Nope,” I say, offering what I hope is a more genuine smile this time. “Only here to see you. Gotta take the chances I can, you know, since you’re busy living in a different realm and being the queen of it and all that.”

She laughs, a bit of the tension between us loosens, and she spends the next few minutes filling me in on her life in the demon realm.

It sounds… wonderful. A brand new life she’s building with Eren. New powers she got when she recast the bargain that she’s just beginning to develop. A whole new realm to explore.

Her whole face lights up when she talks about it. Listening to her makes me smile, too, even if a small, sharp pain has also taken up residence somewhere near the center of my chest.

Part of it is knowing she’s gone on to bigger and better things than the little life she had in Beech Bay before the Tithe. Part of it is just how damn much I miss her. Part of it’s the weight of the last few days pressing down on my shoulders. And all of it together has me feeling tender and breakable by the time one of the demons who came through with Allie and Eren appears to tap her on the shoulder and let her know they’re about to head back.

She nods, the demon goes, and it hits me like a ton of bricks that our short time together is up.

Allie seems to realize it too as she wraps me up in another quick hug. “I can’t tempt you to come through?”

When she releases me, I look behind her at the demon who just spoke to her. He’s a bit taller than Eren, and leaner, with deep brown skin and black hair that’s shaved on the sides, with the top woven into locs that hang down his back. He winks at mewhen he catches me looking, and I turn back to Allie with a blush and a laugh.

“Maybe someday. Right now, things are a little crazy here.”

“What do you mean?”

The way she asks—completely innocently, without a hint of suspicion in her voice—puts an immediate pulse of unease in the bottom of my gut.

She… has to know, right? About the thefts. About Rhett being here. About what Esme’s been up to.

But she doesn’t look irritated, like I know she would if she was reminded about anything to do with her mother, or concerned, like she most likely would be if she knew I was shacking up with a demon.

Is it possible she doesn’t know?

Reflexively, my eyes dart over her shoulder to where Esme is standing with the rest of the council.

Only to find her looking right back at me.

Esme’s mouth is turned down in a sharp frown, and she gives her head the barest shake in an unmistakable command to hold my tongue.

Allie glances over her shoulder to see what I’m looking at, Esme averts her gaze, and I feel like my feet are rooted to the ground below me. I don’t know what to say, how to answer her without starting some kind of inter-realm incident or inciting the High Priestess’s wrath, or to admit just how badly I might have fucked up in all of this.

Where do I even begin?