Page 8 of Drawn to the Demon Duke (Sombra Demons)

THE ASHBALM FLOWER

SUSANNA

I blink.

Okay. I can forgive the nickname, even though I only want close friends and family to shorten my name. Otherwise I’m Susanna, and since the demon duke doesn’t realize how awesome I’d be as a true love, he’s never going to be one of them. But how does he have any idea how old I am?

It’s rude enough that he aged me up to thirty.

Still, it’s a pretty close guess… and since his ‘older’ comment makes me think I might be dealing with a demon as old as Jesus Christ himself…

like he’s immortal, and as soon as I have that thought, something inside of me…

that same something… tells me that I’m right.

I’m looking at a pretty sexy Methuselah?—

Wait. Sexy? What the heck, Su? Don’t think that your demon jailer is sexy. Even if his sculpted cheekbones are sharp, and his hair looks super soft, and his bare chest is tempting because he never wears a shirt, though I get it. With a body like his, he should show it off?—

No .

Tusks, I remind myself. Horns.

Claws.

Giant .

It’s the true love spell. It has to be. When Haures left me in the dungeon, I could stew over how messed-up that was. Definitely not how any guy should go about making a good first impression on his true love.

Over an elaborate dinner, sitting on this surprisingly soft chair, the light softening his harsh features… Haures is undeniably handsome for a demon. I don’t look past his monstrous features. I actually embrace them because he’s not just some regular dude.

Though he is a demon duke , and while he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to try a nickname on for size, the confident way he called out my age and my chosen nickname while being careful not to answer anything about himself… oh, boy. I’m in trouble.

Just as I have that though, two very weird things happen.

First? That strange sensation in my chest, kind of like a thin wire inside of me that reaches out, connected to someone else…

connected to Haures … gives a sharp tug.

I gasp, rubbing my breastbone with the heel of my hand, but that doesn’t help.

If anything, it thrums , pulling me toward the demon duke at the same time as a sudden certainty hits me.

It tells me that I’m not imagining things, this demon is my true love, and that he has a sudden desire to sweep the mounds and mounds of food onto the floor so that he can use his claws to shred of my clothes and bury his face into my pussy to see if I taste as good as I smell.

Whoa .

So, yeah. That definitely didn’t come from me. And if it didn’t come from me…

My lips part, heat flooding to my face as I peer over in surprise at Haures’s suddenly impassive expression.

That was the first thing.

The second?

His expression is unreadable, but Haures’s brilliant blue eyes flare, going so bright, they’re almost as white as the rest of him as he darts out his tongue, toying with the tip of one of his tusks as his hand… instead of shoving the food away, he drops his hand to his lap.

I shift in my chair before he has any clue what I’m about to do. Rising up just enough that I can peek over, his fingers are curled around the very, very obvious bulge that his pants do nothing to hide.

Not for the first time, I’m reminded of Labyrinth . Marketed as a family-friendly film, I was in my mid-twenties when it came out and, while it’s quickly become one of my favorite movies, let’s just say that David Bowie’s bulge should’ve gotten its own listing in the credits.

Holy shit. The demon duke puts the goblin king to shame.

He clears his throat.

My cheeks blazing now, I slip back into my seat and set down my fork.

“Well,” I begin, my voice sounding a little shaky with embarrassment for having been caught peeking at him under the table. “I’m here. The only human… but I’ve got a question. Why am I here?”

I mean ‘in Sombra’. Haures interprets my question a little differently.

“I was not expected to be summoned. I was in a meeting when you called for me.” A frown, and then, “I am often meeting with my people. There has been many villagers coming to the capital to talk with me this cycle. I couldn’t risk them knowing you are here.

In your cell, I knew where you were and that you were safe. ”

Oh. How nice.

Instead of putting me up in, like, a guest room inside of this massive palace-type place he’s living in, Haures’s genius plan was to take the human woman and lock her up without anything other than the possessive way he growled at me before disappearing for days.

You are mine…

It was Glaine, one of the green-eyed soldiers that explained I was in breach of the duke’s first law, and that’s why I was tossed in the dungeon to pee in a hole. And maybe that’s what he thought, but that feeling in my chest… it’s telling me that Haures means what he says.

He was hiding me to keep me safe all because I’m a human.

His human.

“So I’m not a prisoner. Just a dirty, little secret.” Well, that ’s nice. “I guess you don’t want to let anyone know that you let a human into your world on your watch. They might turn on you.”

It was more a grumpy tease than anything, but the way Haures places his elbows on the top of the table, steepling his claws… I get the feeling that I was way closer to the truth than I ever could’ve imagined.

Especially when he nods gravely. “There are those in Sombra that would take the opportunity to test my hold on the crown if they thought they could snatch it from me.”

I snort. Sorry, but I can’t help it. “Good luck.”

He cocks his head.

“What? You’re the biggest demon I’ve seen so far. And,” I add, waving my hand at him, “you definitely stand out. You just ooze power. They’d have to be morons to challenge you.”

His expression turns thoughtful. “And, yet, you have no trouble doing so. A mere mortal who’s been thrust into a new world. You have no fear of me.”

I don’t like the way he said that. “Should I?”

“No.”

It’s a simple response.

No .

Phew.

Haures lowers his hands to the table, leaning back into his seat again.

“As you can obviously see for yourself, I am unlike most Sombra demons, Susanna.” Up.

Back to Susanna again… almost as though he can read me the same way I can him, and he only used my nickname to prove that he can.

“I told you before, but it’s because I’m a shadow demon born without any of his own.

My essence is… different from my people.

But my bonds are stronger because of it… and we share a bond.”

Well, when the demon duke puts it as bluntly as that, giving a name to that strange feeling inside of my chest… bond. Yeah. Duh, Su. Wasn’t that how that book described the relationship between Queen Alana and King Yelios? That they were bonded mates?

I called Haures my true love because that’s what the verus amor spell promised to bring me if I read the manifestation spell. But… is he my mate ?

Is that why he becomes even more attractive to me, the longer I sit here? Why I dreamed of him, and why I would’ve gone searching for him if that bars hadn’t kept me trapped? Not because I wanted to tell him off, but because I’m drawn to him in a way I’ve never really been to another man before?

Is that why I’ve always equated cracking the Grimoire du Sombra with my own happily-ever-after?

I need to hear him say it. “What does that mean? Am I… are you… are we true loves?”

He doesn’t answer me right away. Large and imposing and smelling of smoke and a spicy musk that calls to me over the lure of the food… Haures stares at me unblinkingly for a moment before he finally admits, “The gods say that we are.”

Okay. Bringing religion into it. Not what I expected from a demon, but okay.

I bite down on the corner of my mouth. I still have the image in my head of me being sprawled out on the table, Haures feasting on me instead of the meal. If that’s what comes along with being a true love… we can work our way up to that bulge, but for now?—

Hang on.

The gods say.

“What do you say?”

“There is a flower that grows in the darkest shadows at the edge of Sombra. The ashbalm flower. This is a realm of fire. Of ash. But with that, comes the dark. If one braves the shadows and retrieves the ashbalm, it can snap any bond in the hands of a bondmaster.” He pauses for a moment before dropping the bomb: “I told you I was unlike the other Sombra demons. I have no shadows of my own, but I know we have a bond because I am a bondmaster.”

I blink. Is he saying what I think he’s saying…

He’s a bondmaster. He can sense our bond, but with this ashbalm flower thing, he can get rid of it, easy as that.

He can erase the fact that we’re true loves with, like, the snap of his fingers.

Claws.

Whatever.

“And you’re going to go get?”

His lips just enough to match the fleeting flash of amusement skittering down this very obvious. Bond.

“No, mortal. You are.”

If I wanted you eliminated, I’d send you to the shadows…

That’s what he said before. Don’t think I haven’t forgotten. So, either I’m dead, or I lose my true love. Depending on how generous my demon duke is, I could be booted back to Connecticut, my adventure over, or tossed into the dungeon again because, then, I really would be breaking the first law.

It’s a lose-lose for me either way.

Wonderful.

I wish I had a flashlight.

To be honest, I’m wishing a lot of things at the moment, but that one is at the top of my list.

Haures wasn’t whistlin’ dixie when he said that his demon realm was made of fire and ash and shadows.

After he sat there, watching me eat enough food under slight protest that he considered his pet human—for now—full, he brought me to the throne room again.

As though this was all planned, the purple-eyed demon who put me in chains was waiting by the throne.

His name is Sammael, and I now know that he is Haures’s personal mage. I’d thought that what he did was magic, and I was right. He can cast spells of his own, and that includes something Haures called a travel spell.