Page 11 of Taken to the Deadlands (Stolen Demon Brides #1)

Chapter 11

Aris

“ I t looks… very appetizing,” Mia said with an obvious grimace. Sarcasm was heavy in her tone.

My smile fell, and the pride that had ballooned in my chest deflated.

The past couple days, I had taken food to her room for fear of her being around Thera. This was the first time I had Mia eat in the formal dining room on the first floor. I decided to mark the occasion by helping Thera prepare some of the human delicacies I had learned from her .

We didn’t have the same types of animals or vegetables they had in their realm, but they were easily substituted for low-level demon meat and whatever roots and vegetables we could find here.

This wasn’t the first time I had fed a human, but it was the first time I had been so openly insulted.

There were five dishes in front of her, all of them smelling good to my senses. They might have looked like piles of slop, but surely she would at least try them, right?

“It is,” I said, feeling my chest puff. It was good food. I knew that much. And when she finally got over herself and tried it, she would too.

She gave me a look before casting her gaze to the closest bowl. It was stewed demon meat in a bed of grains and a mix of the roots that we dug up here for flavor. All of it human-safe.

“It’s almost like you’re trying to woo me or something,” she muttered, waving her hand around and gesturing to the room. “First you invite me to eat with you in the dining room, and now you even prepare a feast?”

I shifted in my chair, casting my gaze to my own bowl. It was very different from hers. Broiled demon meat, though unlike hers, mine hadn’t come from the herbivores that roamed the realms where we purchased our meat. Mine came from carnivores. The tougher meat that would give me more sustenance to replace what I was missing by excluding humans from my diet.

Maybe she’s disgusted by my food?

Besides the point. Not sure about wooing, but I was trying to… thank her?

I wondered if she knew how much her words on the cliff meant to me. How the acceptance of my realm and me meant to me—to someone who had been relatively alone for centuries with no one to converse with.

No one to share this world with.

“Humans eat meals together,” I said. “And I was thinking we could start as well.”

When I peeked up at her, there was a delightful coloring to her cheeks and ears that caused my stomach to flip.

My mind kept trying to remind me that Mia was only here to reach her , something she had not done yet, and that all of this was going overboard.

But I couldn’t stop myself.

Especially not when she looks like that.

She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and lifted her fork. With hesitant movements, she picked up the tiniest bit of stewed meat and sniffed it.

“I can promise you it’s safe,” I vowed, my voice laced with just the slightest bit of annoyance.

She narrowed her eyes at me. When I motioned for her to take a bite, she took a deep breath, then shoveled the food into her mouth.

She froze for almost thirty seconds. Panic rose in me.

Does she hate it?

I followed the recipe I remembered. And the demons I chose were similar to the fluffy white herbivores they had in the Human Realm.

Then she began chewing. Wide eyes and a shocked expression met me.

“Wait, that’s… that’s not bad.”

Pride swelled so powerfully in my chest I was worried it might burst. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.

“I know,” I said and used my fingers to grab bits of meat from my bowl. She watched me eat with an intense gaze. The meat was tasty, but nothing compared to the memory of Mia’s taste on my tongue. “What?”

A small smile spread across her face.

“This is nice,” she said with a shrug. “I like eating with you instead of being locked in my room on my own.”

“You’re not locked ?—”

“Bad choice of words.” She raised her hands in a surrendering gesture. “I just mean it’s nice to have company. And I’m sure after so long you feel the same. Unless you usually eat with that other demon.”

I shook my head.

“We don’t eat together,” I said. “Like the others, we keep our distance. She does her job, and that’s it.”

She frowned and looked around the room. “Maybe you should invite her next time.”

“And have her eat you instead?” I asked, cocking my head. I didn’t mean for it to come out harsh, but the dip in her smile told me it did. “I just want to keep you safe,” I supplied hastily.

She nodded and returned her attention to her food.

“I thought that maybe if you find your time here lonely, she might as well,” she said. “It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

I nodded. If it were anyone else, I would have brushed them off. Maybe even fought them for even suggesting I was ever lonely in the first place.

But since the day she arrived, I found myself opening up to her in a way I hadn’t with anyone before.

Including the humans.

It was like I couldn’t stop myself. Like the words just flew out of me, and I only realized what I had said when she looked at me with that small smile of hers.

It means trouble .

And yet I wasn’t sure if I wanted to fight it.