Page 24 of The Demon’s Delight (The Demon Princes #3)

Chapter 23

Seir

“ C ome on!” I threaded my fingers through Hailon’s and pulled her with me through the crush of people.

“You’ve been hauling me through town all day!” she complained, but there was no bite to her tone. In fact, there was a wide smile on her mouth and wonder in her eyes as she looked at all the activity around us.

“Just a bit longer, I promise. And it was worth it, was it not? You have those lovely new boots, a whole bag full of treats. You got a nap, and?—”

“Yes, yes.” She laughed, and my heart soared.

Our nap had been longer than an hour but completely needed and well worth it. When I woke, it was to a peaceful Hailon tucked into my side, her head pillowed on my shoulder with my fingers tangled in her hair. I didn’t move until she stirred, taking the opportunity to memorize every tiny freckle across the bridge of her nose and sprinkled over her cheeks and the sound of her breathing as she dreamt.

After she opened those glorious eyes, my concentrated study was over, however. She blinked at me twice, like she was trying to decide whether or not she was still sleeping, then when I said nothing more offensive than hello, she bolted from the bed and disappeared into the little bathroom, her cheeks a rather intense shade of red. No matter. I’d been entirely present while she cuddled with me and would remember the quiet moments before she panicked.

After securing our most valued items in a hidden space next to the tub behind the locked attic door, we made our way back out to celebrate with the townspeople.

“Are you going to spend all the coin you traded those spoons for?” she teased as I stopped at yet another food stall, this time retrieving us some kind of meat skewer with roasted potatoes sliced in fancy spirals around the stick. We’d had stewed fowl and root vegetables in a bread bowl, fruit covered in a crunchy sugar shell, and I’d enjoyed a couple of tankards of local ale. I was beginning to feel very spoiled, given most of our journey so far.

“Not hardly.” The jeweler had been more than happy to buy the pieces, and my pockets were heavier than they had any right to be from our exchange. “Besides, the spoons were yours, Moonflower. What I traded them for belongs to you. Would you like to carry the coin? I should have offered straightaway.”

She finished her food and, with a shake of her head, tossed the thin stick into a nearby trash bin. “No. I don’t want it.”

“But—”

“I took the spoons and the jewelry for just this reason, so I would have money to travel on. So I could get back home. Spend the coin however you like, I’m just glad it didn’t stay in that horrible house or benefit those men. If there’s some left when we get back to Ravenglen, we can talk about it, but I don’t care. It’s not mine, even if it is part of what was owed to me for the time I was there.” Her somber expression left me regretting I’d even mentioned it as we wandered slowly past a few tables. “Come on.” She tugged at me this time, and I followed her willingly.

“Cosmetics?” I asked as she turned over a small tin of rouge in her hand.

“Can I help you, miss?” The heavily painted woman batted her eyes at me, though she addressed Hailon.

“Yes, I’m looking for some nail lacquer.”

“Ah! Yes, of course. We have these.” The woman displayed several tiny pots, the pigments all in reds and pinks.

“Anything darker?” she asked, subtly glancing at me.

“Darker?”

“Yes, like purple or black?”

The woman pulled a face. “No, we don’t carry such colors. No demand for them.” She turned a judgmental eye on Hailon, and when she looked back at me, I gave her a smile that included my teeth. She flinched.

“Shame. I’d have liked to get myself fixed up.” I wiggled my fingertips at her, the black now nearly all chipped away.

Her mouth dropped open, and she started to babble something apologetic, but Hailon was already halfway to another table.

“She was rude,” Hailon sighed as I jogged up to her side.

I was beaming. Hailon had just tried to do something nice for me. It hadn’t worked out, but I didn’t care, the intent was there, and I was awed by the gesture. In fact, I wasn’t sure anyone had taken any interest in how I kept my nails at all before now. The behavior of the stall woman had barely made an impression on me because of that, but I could see it had bothered Hailon.

“Would you like me to take care of her?” I asked, already reaching for my blades.

“What? No! Why would you think I wanted that?” She covered my hands with hers, glancing nervously over her shoulder to see if anyone else had noticed my threat.

I shrugged. “She offended you.”

“Seir.” This time I was the cause of her deep sigh. “People are rude sometimes. There’s no need to threaten someone’s life because they were more interested in impressing you than being polite. There’s a time and place for everything.”

“Impressing me?”

She stopped walking, mouth partly open as she stared at me, incredulous. “Are you being serious?”

I shrugged. “People do that eyelash batting thing to help sell whatever it is they’re peddling. Doesn’t mean I’ll buy it.”

“She definitely wasn’t just trying to get you to buy her rouge , demon.” Hailon huffed a little laugh.

“Oh, I’m well aware of that, Moonflower.” I winked at her and her cheeks colored, which made it all that much more entertaining. “But I’m here with you . I’m not buying anything she’s selling, now am I?”

The red color spread to her ears. “Do you threaten everyone who flirts with you?”

“Only the ones who do it in a way that displeases you. Though… perhaps it should be anyone who does it in front of you? Or at all? It’s quite disrespectful.”

“Should I feel murderous toward anyone who looks at you the way she was?”

I brightened, a light fizzy sensation careening through my veins. “Do you?”

Her mouth opened, then closed again, her eyes shifting away from my face. If that wasn’t confirmation, I didn’t know what was, though she didn’t address my question. “You don’t belong to me,” she argued.

“Yes, I do. I said as much the first night we met. Do you not recall?”

“That wasn’t— I didn’t—” She threw her hands up, faced flushed and normally composed demeanor flustered. I loved every second of watching her unravel, it put a particular kind of fire in my blood. “That’s not the point! There’s no need to draw attention to ourselves, remember? Besides, there will be other vendors,” she said with finality.

“Of course.” I grabbed her hand and threaded my fingers through hers, kissing the back of her hand for good measure. “But you do, right? I mean, you think my face is pretty, so naturally you feel a little possessive over other people looking at it? Murderous even?” I asked, earning myself another rough exhale and hidden smile.

It was worth it.

And there were more vendors. So many of them. There was no product I could think of missing from the tables and tents and storefronts. It bordered on overwhelming.

By the third cosmetics stand, Hailon had secured us a pot of both black and purple lacquer and brushes to use with them along with a fresh container of healing ointment and a lotion for her skin. Along the way, we’d picked up a variety of interesting foods as well, and she’d enjoyed sampling two different kinds of mead.

Having made a full circuit of the main town square and most of the streets spiraling off from it, we started to work our way back to the Rusted Rooster. Hailon’s giggle was free and easy as she drifted from table to table, admiring and complimenting the artisans, her face flushed and her eyes sparkling. She was more beautiful than anyone had a right to be.

I’d replaced the mead in her cup with water after the fourth one, but she was clearly still floating on the alcohol. I’d never been more aware of every eye drawn to her, nor my urge to remove so many men’s ability to see.

“Isn’t this nice, Seir? One day I want a bunch of these hanging from the roof of my porch, so when the wind blows, I get my own personal symphony.” She gently pushed on a glass rod, making it dance around. As it touched the other ones in the set, different tones rang out. She repeated the gesture with another one made from colorful stone slices.

“What are these called?”

“Wind chimes.” Her smile was rueful. “It’ll be a while though. Aunt Sal doesn’t really have a porch to speak of, it’s more of a stoop. So, I’ll need to get a house first.”

I reached out and touched some made of hollow wood tubes and another with various iron animals. I thought the glass ones sounded the best though. “They’re very nice.”

Hailon grabbed my hand for maybe the tenth time that evening. I loved that she’d gotten so comfortable. “Look! They have cake!”

I laughed at her but claimed one of the small iron tables outside the bakery for us as she purchased a special selection of little bites they’d designed just for the festival.

“I’ll get the drinks,” I offered after she sat.

“Mead?” she asked, an adorable begging expression on her face.

“No more mead. You need tea. I’m afraid you’re already headed for a dreadful headache in the morning.”

“You’re no fun,” she complained, sagging into her chair.

I leaned close to her ear, finger and thumb lightly holding her chin. She tried to hide the shiver, but I felt it run through her flesh. “Now that’s just completely untrue, Moonflower. Stay here. I have to go over there to get our tea.” I gestured back the way we’d come from, where the wind chime stand sat next to a teahouse.

“I’ll be right here,” she promised. Her eyes stuttered across someone in the crowd, her forehead pinching. I followed her eyes but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Hurrying, I placed my order at the teahouse, chatting with the chime vendor while I waited for it to brew so I could keep her in my sight.

When I returned to the table, she was patiently examining the pretty samples of cake she’d bought.

“It’s very hot,” I warned. “Be careful.”

“Okay.” Hailon blew over the top of her cup, steam curling toward her nose.

I knew I’d made the right choice as I watched the false energy slowly drain from her. The longer we sipped the hot floral brew and worked our way through the little samples of different cakes, the further she sagged into her seat.

“Which do you like best?” she asked.

“This one,” I pointed the little wooden fork at the spiced cake with apples. I liked how the cinnamon danced on my tongue and the apples were just the right amount of sweet.

“Really? The apples are kind of mushy. I think the chocolate.”

I traded her the remaining bites so we could each enjoy what we liked more. “Have you had enough?”

She nodded. “Yes. I’m worn out all of a sudden.”

“It’s been a busy day.”

Before we could get very far out of the city square, the music had picked up, and we found ourselves pressed together as everyone around us danced.

I gave her a querying look and she shrugged, offering her hand. I spun her in a very rough version of the dance everyone else was doing, soaking in her smile, her laugh, her light. This was a version of Hailon I wanted her to be able to hold on to. She carried responsibility like a warrior, but I very much enjoyed being able to see her when she was allowed to set it all down and just live .

She was perfect in every way. I was surer of it the more time we spent together. Though I would admit, the version of her that I saw wielding my blade at that terrible house would always hold a special part of my heart.

The second song was far slower than the first, but the crush of people was no lighter. I marveled at my luck, smiling as I held her in my arms, her face turned up to the moonlight.

“Oh!” She stumbled backwards, tripping on an uneven stone in the street. I stepped into her fall, catching her in time to keep her head from hitting the bricks of the nearest building. My body pressed against hers, my palm on the bricks keeping us both upright.

“Careful.”

She nodded, both of us breathing heavy. Time stopped as she scanned my face, those fascinating eyes lingering on my mouth.

I gave her ample opportunity to pull away, to speak her dissent, to change anything and everything about our situation as I slowly lowered my face. It was like a vice clamped around my heart when my lips met hers. The softness there plus the sweet little gasp of breath as she leaned into me plucked at every bit of tension in my body.

My hand pulled away from her lower back and gripped along the slender column of her neck instead, my thumb tracing her jawline as I mapped her mouth with mine. She tasted like chocolate and cinnamon, her eagerness matching my own as I tangled my tongue with hers. Her fingers gripped the fabric of my shirt along my waist, twisting as she pulled me into her. I sank into her embrace. Our bodies lined up perfectly, like matched pieces of a puzzle. She made the tiniest moan, and I responded in kind, consuming every bit of her I could get as I pressed against her.

I released Hailon on a gasp, my lungs burning for more than air as my body roared, demanding more. She blinked up at me, eyes wide and round, but neither of us could speak a word.

Sound suddenly rushed back in, the whole world appearing from behind the veil that had kept us inside a little peaceful bubble for that moment. Couples spun and stepped just an arm’s length away, the music loud, their laughter and raucous energy no longer separate from us.

After several slow breaths between us and an unmentionable struggle inside my own head where I imagined pinning her to the wall and repeating our interlude and then some, I pulled her back to the street. There was a big conversation we had to have before that happened. I had been too much of a coward to discuss it the other night, but now it was necessary.

We waltzed through the crowd again, and I directed us away from the square, only stopping the slow measured spins when we were well enough away to not get caught up in the dance again.

“That was something,” she sighed, gazing up at the full moon and sprinkling of stars.

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have?—”

Her head snapped to the side so she could look at me. “Did you want to?” The flash of hurt in her eyes was too much to bear.

“Yes. I did. Very much.”

“Then you should have.” She looked away, palm rubbing at her breastbone.

“Did you want me to?” I asked, flipping the question around, getting a softened look for my efforts.

“Could you not tell?” she asked quietly after a torturous few seconds of silence. I smiled wide, glad for the enthusiastic confirmation. “Thank you for today,” she added hastily. “All of it.”

“You’re more than welcome, Hailon. It was truly my pleasure.”

My heart pounded hot and heavy in my chest. I wanted to ask her a dozen questions about what she was feeling, whether I’d guessed correctly or not. Whether she recognized me like I did her. If she even knew what a mate bond was, what that meant for us.

But I kept my mouth shut, content to have kissed her at all, to have her hand in mine and her taste still on my lips.