Page 29

LIKE NOBODY’S WATCHING

Ember

S everath hadn’t said one word about the night before.

When morning had come, Ember feared any mention of the thing that happened would spoil the peace of snuggling against him, so she too pretended it simply hadn’t.

But then that green demon woman, Elliran, visited to modify her perimeter cuff so Severath could take Ember out of the house for the first time, and before she knew it, the moon was high in the sky and she was surrounded by demons in the heart of Heck.

She couldn’t very well bring up the incident now.

And what the hells would she say anyway? Did you like watching me touch myself? His flicking tail and hungry gaze had already told her the answer, but there was a deeper question that gnawed at her: Would you watch again? That answer, she wasn’t so sure of because Severath’s demeanor had changed.

His stiffness was worse than ever—not the one she’d seen come to attention and felt rub against her side in the night, but the other whole-body one so evident in the way he walked and spoke.

His alertness was turned on the world around them.

Even with one eye, he was more vigilant than Ember could ever hope to be on her own.

But there was comfort in that. He’s watching , she reminded herself every time she felt overwhelmed by the colors, smells, and sounds of the festival. And even though they hadn’t breached what happened the night before, she gripped his elbow and let herself feel marginally at ease.

Ember had forgotten what it was like to enjoy things, but with a hulking demon at her side, she gave herself permission to taste food instead of rushing to swallow it down, and to slow her steps to truly take in the colorful tents and wares instead of searching the shadows for danger.

Even seeing another human had been a pleasant experience.

She’d said very little to Aofe, too nervous to know whether her offers were genuine, but to see one of her own kind so intimately acquainted with another demon made something in her chest stir.

She almost pointed out their friendliness to Severath but thought better of it. If he asked about their own tenuous human-demon relations, what would she say? And if he didn’t ask? Gods, that might be worse.

Thankfully the festival was the perfect distraction.

With fingers hooked around Severath’s elbow, she hurried the two closer to a raised platform in the park’s center.

Lanterns were strung up between the trees, and the whole area was aglow with yellow light.

A band plucked strings and thumped drums, and a group of demons danced in time, their movements coordinated not just in pairs but as an entire group.

They wore matching outfits of gauzy material that complimented their skin tones and flowed about their graceful limbs like spells that could be seen.

Ember watched the brilliant colors and mystifying movements as the music pulsed through her body, calling her to join. She discovered she was swaying with the rhythm when the music suddenly changed and half the dancers left the stage.

As the gathered demons around them cheered, Ember tugged on Severath’s elbow so that he would bend closer. “How do they know what to do? Is it sorc—er, magic?”

The demon’s brow raised over his good eye. “I believe they simply…practiced?”

Ember felt her face go almost as red as his. Of course, it wasn’t some spell they’d all been put under, it was only that it felt otherworldly. And she supposed she had never really witnessed a performance before, she had only heard about them.

As a new song swelled, a deeply green demon woman flitted around a group of jade-colored demons swaying in tandem.

Ember absently lifted her arm, feeling the cuff around her wrist. “Is that Elliran?” she asked, cocking her head at the elegant movements she would have never attributed to the nervous demon who shook when altering the runes on her cuff.

“I believe it is,” Severath said with equal surprise. “She normally follows Councilor Tarzul around like a mouse, but I suppose everyone has a little Ajath in them.”

Ember hummed a question though she couldn’t look away from Elliran’s dance as she floated from one demon to another, twirling around them as if inspecting each.

“This is the Aestival Dance,” he told her, the deep rumble of his voice tickling her ear as she watched. “It tells the story of Ajath who picked the first bronzeberry.”

“That vendor selling the wine said bronzeberries grow on vines in their orchard.”

Severath chuckled. “Well, yes, but this is sort of a…a legend? Ajath lived long ago when demons were first summoned to earth. She was mischievous and persistent, and once our kind was abandoned, she discovered how we could survive in this new world. We were quite different then. Darker. Primal.”

Ember watched Elliran bend herself backward, hands coming to the floor and then feet flitting gracefully overhead before touching down again.

She stood as if the move had been only another step, and then on just one pointed toe, lifted a leg so that her foot grazed her own ear.

If that wasn’t magic, Ember would be shocked.

“How long ago,” she asked, her own voice sounding far away.

“Long enough.”

The dancer spun around one of the jade demons and mimicked plucking something from his raised hands. Another dancer leaped from behind his wide form dressed only in a few tight pieces of fabric that matched the lilac of her skin.

“That one’s the bronzeberry,” said Severath, and Ember shivered under the heat of his breath.

The female demons joined hands and plunged into a more intimate dance then, their bodies moving as one, the space between them nonexistent. Elliran dipped the lilac demon over her arm, pressed her face into her neck, and took a deep breath.

“Is she…is she going to eat her?” Ember asked, voice wavering.

“It’s only symbolic.” Severath hummed a questioning noise then. “But perhaps after the show, yes.”

Ember straightened, fingers still digging into his arm, and then the corner of her mouth twitched.

Was that…humor? Flirtation? She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the dancers as their movements grew more sensual, but she caressed the crease of Severath’s elbow.

She let her fingers trail down and then back up in a circular motion, similar enough to the night before that he would recognize it if he had been watching close enough.

And she knew he was watching.

The heat off Severath intensified, but then the music changed, and a troupe of blue demons rushed the stage.

The lanterns flickered, the crowd shouted, and Ember squeaked, burying her face into Severath’s arm.

Something wrapped around her waist and drew her against him, and when she peeked downward, his tail was squeezing her middle.

“It’s just part of the show,” he said, voice a steadying timbre in the shock of noise around them. “Do you want to leave?”

She lifted her head to find his face hovering just above her. “No, I want to find out how it ends.”

“Then we’ll stay,” he said, but his tail didn’t unravel itself from her waist.

That was an invitation to stay right where she was—it had to be—so Ember pressed herself against Severath’s warmth and continued to watch.

The dancers were like stars winking in and out through her private chamber’s window, and she let her body sink against him as if they were alone in bed.

It was an especially odd thing to feel so secure, but the surrounding demons barely noticed her small presence in the shadows and were entranced by the dance themselves.

By the time the show was over, she cheered along with the others as if she belonged.

The dark day had crept into even darker evening as the moon tucked itself behind the surrounding forest, and Severath again asked Ember what she wanted to explore.

“You’ve been asking me that all day. What do you want to do? ”

His brow narrowed. “Here?”

“Yes, here. What do you normally look forward to?”

“For the last ten years, I’ve patrolled the festival, so I suppose I look forward to the crowds dispersing.”

Ember laughed—of course Severath worked at something as wonderful as this. “There’s got to be something.”

He clicked his tongue. “Well, I’ve never watched the entire Aestival Dance before nor have I eaten more than one ball of Nagreth, and I certainly never indulged in any of the childish festival games.”

“That explains why you were so bad at them,” Ember said, poking his side and twisting her finger.

He didn’t flinch but did point to the patch over his eye. “No, I think this is why I was so bad.” But then he grinned, and it was so bright and wide that her heart squeezed.

Oh, good gods, he’s actually having a good time , she thought, biting her lip. And so am I.

A shriek cut through the fluttery feeling in Ember’s chest just like an arrow. She searched for some other raised platform and more dancers, but the tall figures all around were too like a wall.

Severath had spotted something though, his jaw set hard and his nostrils flaring.

“What’s wrong?” Her grip on his arm tightened without her permission.

“An altercation? A drunkard?” Severath sounded unsure, but his muscles tensed under her hands. The crowd around them changed, voices raised and tails flicked.

There were other demons on guard duty, surely, but Ember thought she’d seen human-colored skin moments before.

Would those guards care about a human among all the demons like Severath would?

A vision of the other women lying unmoving in the tipped carriage flashed in her mind, and then the craven memory of running away from them. “Go,” she said, releasing him.

Utter confusion flared on his face. “You are my priority.”