Page 14

Finally, he noticed her, his eyes softening at her concern.

“My magic is all back,” he said. “Or at least, I have enough of it to be able to be reachable again for my superior.”

Then, had that been a state of communication?

“Do you have to go already?”

The regret on his expression was more than evident.

“I don’t have freedom, I can’t choose where to go or what to do,” he explained. “I have a bit more room when I’m in the human realm because they need us to act our own according to specific situations. But my time here is limited, and I don’t have the ability to move between worlds at my will. When they call us back, we have to go.”

She was almost scared to ask, but she needed to.

“And if you don’t go?”

“They hunt us down. Kill us as defective.”

Her stomach dropped.

She had known him for a day, she shouldn’t be this sad to hear he had to go, and yet she felt a strange connection to him. At first, it was fascination because he was new, a creature she had never encountered before and wanted to know more about. But she had been captivated by his genuine and blunt way of speaking, as well as his awkward but kind nature.

Sometimes you’d meet a person you clicked so well with, that they’d already feel like a close friend in little time. She felt like that with Kilean, now, and the intimacy they had just shared had only been the nail in the coffin that sealed her connection to him.

Kilean looked around the space, as if cataloging everything in his memory. Eventually his eyes fell on the fire, still sizzling and bright.

“I was starting to like this place,” he confessed, quietly.

“Only the place?”

There was hope in her voice, and she knew he hadn’t missed it. He glanced at her, her own sadness reflected in his eyes.

He shook his head. “Not only the place.”

“Wouldn’t you be able to come back?” she asked, desperate to find a solution. “Krampuses come back at the same time every year, don’t they?”

She knew from the legends it was on a very specific day, but considering how he had been here for longer, and he didn’t seem concerned about his kind coming to kill him for disobeying orders, Naomi guessed they had a bit more time at their disposal.

“I have no control over where they send me, or if they send me at all. Sometimes they don’t unleash all of us.”

Unleash.

Most of the time when he spoke about himself, it seemed like Kilean thought of himself as an animal. Naomi didn’t think he was purposefully being self-degrading, but that he spoke that way because that’s how he was considered in Hell: no more than a nameless, faceless beast in an army of demons just like him.

It looked like he wanted to stay, which didn’t surprise Naomi. He must long for being known for himself, as himself, too.

“Do you have to go now?”

She was ashamed at how small her voice sounded. It was ridiculous that she was so sad about this, so attached to this demon after only one day.

“Not now, but very soon.”

He didn’t specify how soon, but Naomi felt like it would be too soon either way.

“I’d like to spend my remaining time in this human world with you,” Kilean continued.

Hearing him say it outright felt nice, but bitter at the same time. Her heart fluttered just to ache right after.

Naomi had no idea what they could do. She thought that an activity like watching TV would be entertaining for Kilean who had probably never done it before, but it would result in her spending the whole time inside her own head. She needed something to keep her busy, too.