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“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“Do you have any idea what that felt like, waking up like that? For months, I even wondered if I had imagined you!”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, quiet but full of sincerity. “They urgently called me through the bond, and I couldn’t risk them getting me themselves. I had to go immediately.”

Naomi would have been in danger if the other demons had caught them together. Knowing he had put her safety first calmed her a little, but it still didn’t cancel out the distress of waking up and finding out he was gone, or the months—well, years—she had spent questioning her own mind and memories.

“Did you get in trouble? For killing that krampus?”

He shook his head. “They still don’t know I did it, but they didn’t care about him enough to want to find out what happened to him.”

Well, it was good because that meant it wouldn’t bite him in the ass, but it was also a reminder of how little his kind was respected or cared for in Hell.

His eyes softened, thumb still caressing her cheek. “I missed you.”

Oh, my poor heart is going to explode.

Naomi smiled, relaxing against his hold.

“Do you have time to stay? Or do you need to leave right away?”

“I have some time.”

They walked back to the chalet together, and she caught the small smile that appeared on his face when he stepped in. He looked at his surroundings, as if cataloging everything that had changed since his previous visit.

“You have a tree,” he said, pointing at the naked tree sitting in a corner of the living room.

That first year when they had met, the chalet hadn’t had Christmas decorations. She had only gone there for a brief holiday, and hadn’t planned on keeping it or making it feel like a home.

The year before, however, she brought a tree and decorations to keep herself busy and make the space cozier. She had brought the same stuff this year too, but hadn’t felt like decorating it yet. Maybe it had been a sign.

“Do you want to decorate it with me?”

He nodded, a small smile stretching his lips. The sight was comical: a huge beast, taller than the tree itself, picking up small decorations and carefully placing them on the tree, occasionally stepping back and tilting his head to check the composition. Kilean seemed to really enjoy the manual task, so much that Naomi stepped back, letting him decorate and happily watched him as she passed him the pieces.

The decorations she’d brought contained a mix of old family pieces and things she bought herself, making it a combination of odd items.

“We bought this group of decorations from a tiny shop in London, during a trip when I was young,” Naomi said, pointing to a colorful group of sparkly spirals with bells at the end. “They’re big, and heavy, and don’t really give the idea of Christmas with their neon colors or shapes. But they were from London, so my mom treated them like holy items anyway.”

Naomi hated the sight of those things, but they had been a constant since her mother got them years before. When Naomi and her siblings went to live on their own, their mother had even divided her collection and gave each of them one from the group, to make sure they could still use them. Naomi’s siblings didn’t care about the decorations and had given her some of theirs, so Naomi had ended up with more than she should have.

“This group is from gifts my late grandma made for my grandpa.” She pointed to an assortment of fabric decorations—some of which had Christmas themes, and some of which had nothing to do with it. “Each year she’d make one for him. She started with Christmas things like reindeers and candy-canes, and when the list ended, she started making fabric decorations of stuff he liked in general.”

She rummaged through the box, taking out a decoration of a T-Rex wearing a Christmas hat, riding a decorated tree.

She smiled cheekily at Kilean. “I got myself this one because it was funny.”

Naomi kept telling him the story of each decoration—and sometimes he’d curiously ask questions, but listened in silence for the most part. His silence, however, wasn’t uncomfortable. There was something about it that made her feel that he was really listening, and he often encouraged her to continue with his gaze, letting her ramble on and on for hours.

Once the tree decorating was done, Naomi dropped on the couch—tired from the talking more than the task—and admired their work. Kilean joined her, and as soon as he sat next to her, she pulled her legs up, pressing her knees against his leg, and leaned against him, enjoying the closeness and contact.

Instinctually, he rested his hand on her thigh, and she held back a smile.

“I like it,” he said, still staring at the tree. “That was fun. Humans really do that every year?”

“Many do, yes. Christmas is originally connected to a religion. Not everyone follows the same beliefs, but it’s become a commercial holiday too, so regardless, lots of people celebrate it.”

“Fascinating.”