Page 20 of Demon's Beauty

Arms folded over her chest, one brow raised in challenge, she waits silently for me to say something.

“Is Finn… alright?”

Goddess, why did I ask that?

It doesn’t matter to me if Finn is alright.

He’s just some guy I met once. And not even reallymet, if I’m being honest.

He’s just some… some…

“Finn is just fine,” Seren says.

I sit down at the worktable and slump over my arms. “I don’t understand how this happened.”

“Did no one ever give you the demonic version of the birds and the bees talk?”

I groan and lay my head down, burying my face so I don’t have to look at her.

“Sometimes,” Seren continues, “when the Goddess thinks a demon and a witch will like each other very much, she gives them a mating bond that makes them want to—”

“Stop,” I plead, not bothering to raise my head. “I get it.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I ran away from Callum the first time I met him, too.”

I look up at her. “You did?”

“Well, first I cursed him, but yeah, after that I ran away.”

“Why?”

“Why’d you run from Finn?”

The question could almost be flippant, but she doesn’t sound like she’s trying to be rude or making a joke.

She’s looking at me like she always looks at me.

Like we’re twins and she knows all of me, for better or worse.

Even after all the years we’ve spent apart, that look hasn’t changed.

It probably never will.

“But you… came around?” I ask instead of answering. “Eventually, I mean. The two of you seem happy.”

She snorts a laugh. “Yeah, I came around. And so did he. Doesn’t mean everything’s perfect, though. Mate bond or not, relationships still take work.”

I laugh, too, but there’s no humor in it. “I’m in no position to eventhinkabout a relationship right now.”

I’ve barely belonged to myself for the last two decades I’ve spent training with the Crescent Coven. My time, my magick, my responsibilities have all been in the coven’s service.

This is the first time in as long as I can remember that I’ve rebelled and really did something for myself.

I can’t imagine running straight from that into belonging to someone else.

Even if I wanted to, it doesn’t matter. The coven will be my entire life once I Ascend, with no room for anyone else.

And in the meantime…