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Her heart did a funny thing then—a stupid thing, really, because there wasn’t time for it to flip flop around and go all mushy. “Someone probably just had too much wine, but you can help before it gets out of hand.” She gave him a gentle push.

“It could be dangerous, and you?—”

“I killed somebody, remember?” She puffed up her chest and crossed her arms over it, hiding the fact that without his arm in her hands, they clenched helplessly.

The blackness in Severath’s eye rolled, and as annoying as that was, now wasn’t the time to tell him off. “I do not see any other guards,” he admitted.

“Which is why you need to go.”

“You will be angry with me if I do not,” he observed quite correctly, and she utilized her anger in a useful way for once and shooed at him.

He was lucky she didn’t have a rock to throw, but the smirk she offered would have made her miss anyway.

Severath’s hands came up in defense, he hesitated only a moment longer, and then pushed his way through the crowd, single horn disappearing .

Ember pressed one of her hands to her heart, felt its harried thumping, then willed it to slow. I am a murderer , she thought, running her fingers up to her neck and feeling the raised brand. No reason to be nervous .

“You buyin’?”

Ember blinked up at an orange demon who had just appeared before her. Her mouth fell open, but no words came out.

He gestured to the cart she was blocking and tipped his head as if to politely say, Get the fuck out of the way .

She scurried to the side with a mumbled apology, and something hard came up against her back.

“Watch it.” Another demon was there, this one speaking before he turned, but then when his black eyes fell on her, the annoyance shifted to curiosity. “What are you doing here?”

Words ran through Ember’s head—angry ones, apologetic ones, frightened ones—but none of them the right choice. She had been so happy, and her bubbling fury had been so well quelled, but now it was fighting with a much more steeply rising panic.

Some kind of sound came out of her mouth, nothing intelligible though, and she turned. Maybe he would think humans spoke some other language and would forget about her, but she had to make herself invisible just in case.

There was only one place to go that wasn’t a sea of trippable tails: a gap too small for the average demon.

She made the decision before really thinking, slipping herself between a cart and a canvas tent.

Ember’s next steps into the dark were slick, and the ground slanted just enough to send her careening downward.

Curses would have spilled out if she could find her voice, but the chill of mud splattering up her back stole her breath.

She groaned, unable to believe how clumsy and stupid she had just been, and pushed back up to her feet.

Across a small ditch, there was a tight row of tents up on another embankment just like the row at her back.

They were illuminated from their insides, but no one had thought to hang lanterns in the unused space behind.

It was clear the vendors avoided the area because it was low lying and mucky, but of course Ember had found it with her backside.

She lifted her hands to her face but could only feel a layer of mud, eyesight failing in the lanternless dark.

A sound to her right stole her attention, and a shape moved inside the tent there.

“Severath?” Her voice came out as only a whisper, but when the form turned, it had two twisting horns silhouetted against the canvas.

Then the demon stepped through the tent’s flap.

Ember’s stomach flipped. She shouldn’t have called attention to herself, not like this, not here, not alone.

But it was fine. She was fine. This was fine .

The hulking, unfamiliar demon stepped toward her, and she scrambled to maintain the distance, but the wet earth was unkind, and she slid again. Ember yelped in spite of herself, and that was enough to make her run .

Mud splattered up her legs as sheer momentum kept her on her feet.

I didn’t mean to.

Well, I did, but he deserved it.

She slid again, shrieking as she fell forward, and when her hands hit the wet earth, she felt only blood under her fingers, cold and slippery like death.

What do you mean guilty? I was protecting her!

I was protecting myself!

She could see no one in the darkness, but she could feel something following, the presence urging her back to her feet.

Upward this time, she tried to climb the bank away from the ditch but slid.

Half a cry escaped before she bit down on her lip.

Her insides trembled, the need to scream pounding at her throat as she floundered.

There was a light ahead, up the bank, and she thrust herself after it.

Arms shaking, her fingers made purchase in the wet earth, and she crested the hill just as a hand clamped down on her wrist.

Ember would have screamed if it wasn’t the bronzeberry staring back at her.

Any chance for fury to flood into her veins was swept away by the sharp features of the purple demon, her black eyes alarmed, white hair a shock in the darkness.

“It’s one of the humans,” she said over her shoulder, and Elliran’s face popped up beside her.

Together, the demon women hauled Ember to her feet, and for a moment she thought she might be propelled right over the massive tent they stood behind by their strength.

The jolt of being placed upright by two lithe- looking but powerful women shook Ember of the fear of pursuit, one on either side of her, hemming her in from an attack that may have only been hunting her in her mind.

“What happened?” snapped the purple demon, glare piercing into the darkness from which Ember had been rescued.

“I…I think I just fell…” She took a shaking breath as Elliran used her costume’s excess gauzy fabric to wipe mud off Ember’s face.

“I’ll find Severath,” Elliran said. “Will you stay with her, Zaiya?”

“Of course.” The purple demon put clawed hands on Ember’s arm and guided her through a back flap of the tent as Elliran scurried off.

The light inside was dim even compared to the darkness of the ditch, clothes hung on crisscrossing lines throughout the tent blotting out the harshest lanterns.

Crates smelling of rosewood were stacked here and there, and Ember was sat on one, the feel of wood smooth and cool under her hands as she gripped the edge. It was safe here— she was safe.

Zaiya knelt before her, dark, curling horns tipping to one side. “Did you really fall, or did someone push you?”

“It was my fault,” Ember said with more conviction as the demon eyed her, half disbelieving.

“That seems to be what humans always say…” She curled her lip and ran claws through her silvery-white hair.

Ember took a long breath through her nose, not wanting anymore questions about her absurdity. “You know the other humans?”

“Not really. Elli just says.” Zaiya slipped her arm back into the sleeve of her outfit, though how it had come free, Ember didn’t know.

They sat in silence for a moment while Ember got her bearings.

“I liked your dance,” she finally said, and because that sounded sort of stupid on its own, kept going.

“It was impressive when you did that twirling thing with your leg in the air. And the flip over Elliran’s shoulders?

She could have dropped you. You two must be good friends. ”

A slight smile had been hinting at the corners of Zaiya’s lips as Ember attempted to compliment her, but then it fell starkly off. “I hope we’re still friends,” she said quietly, and before Ember could ask what that meant, Severath’s voice broke into the tent.

“Ember?” One spiraling horn emerged from behind a line of clothes. The purple demon was quickly replaced by a red one, and then hands cupped her face. “What happened? Are you all right?”

Severath’s warm touch overcame Ember’s other senses, and though fear laced his voice, her own dripped away. She went limp in his hold, leaning toward the demon as he knelt before her like he had done so many times at home. Home .

“Ember?” This time he was calmer, but his eye was locked onto hers, a dark red flicker deep within the blackness.

Oh, that’s right, I haven’t said anything . But Ember had let her heart fall into rhythm with the thumping up against her face through his palms. “I just slipped,” she finally said.

“I shouldn’t have left you.” His voice was just a rumble as he brought his forehead to touch hers. “Are you injured?”

She would have shaken her head, but she didn’t want to break away from his touch. “No. I just panicked. It’s all right.” And then she smiled because it was true—it was all right. With him. “But I think I’m ready to leave now.”

Severath kept a protective hand on her back as they walked home, tips of his claws occasionally grazing her but never a pain, only a comfort. Even though she knew she’d lost her senses, she’d found them again, and Severath’s presence had only solidified what she knew—she was safe.

When they reached the stone fence that circled his home, though, he came to a stop. Across the road, an elderly orange demon sat on her porch. Severath waved, calling out, “Apologies, Elder Zaretha, I’ve completely forgotten your pouch of bronzeberry confections.”

“Don’t worry,” called a scratchy voice from the stoop. “I can see you’re busy.”

Severath heaved a sigh and guided Ember inside.

She could only infer that he was meant to bring his neighbor something back from the festival, but her own trouble had resulted in him returning empty-handed.

She chewed on that guilt and kept her mouth shut as she climbed the stairs with him at her side, but it was soon chased away by the safety she felt within Severath’s walls.

It was a rare thing to feel, safety, and yet she somehow had it on their walk, within his home, even in her bedchamber when he had shut himself outside of it and left her alone within.

Ember wasn’t sure what she expected, but she knew what she hoped as she continued to stare at the door.

She considered faking a nightmare when so much time had gone by and there wasn’t even the sound of him pacing on the other side, but that felt too duplicitous.

Eventually, she lay down, wondering if she should go to him, but with the weight of the day, that wonder turned to sleep.