Page 44 of Demon's Beauty

She covers that emotion with a smile that doesn’t do a damn thing to mask the pain still lingering in her eyes.

“It’s late,” she murmurs. “And I’m rambling. I should probably head to bed.”

An argument rises to my tongue immediately.

Bed?

It’s only… well, it’s only long past time both of us should have been abed. Soleil is right, but I’ll be damned if I don’t want to try to convince her to stay a little longer.

My witch doesn’t give me the chance, though, as she stands and stretches muscles stiff from hours seated on crude log benches.

She pauses before she leaves, looking down at me with a mix of emotions on her face. Too many for me to know what she’s really thinking.

“Good night, Finn.”

A little lurch in my chest, hearing my name on her lips.

“Good night, Soleil.”

She heads into her tent, and it leaves me alone at the fire. I watch the embers dance, replaying every moment of our conversation and wishing like anything it could have continued.

Hopefully tomorrow we can keep getting to know each other. I can regain a bit of my equilibrium and employ the charm that’s always come so readily to me.

With any luck, the morning will bring a day much less eventful and much more conducive to winning over my beautiful, enigmatic mate.

15

Soleil

Hours after I’ve laid down in the tent Vayla and I are sharing, I’m still wide awake.

I’m playing and replaying the conversations I had today. With Finn. With Vayla. With the rest of the demons at camp.

They’re something that’s plagued me for years, these circular nighttime thoughts.

It’s why I prefer the solitude of my work.

After a day bent over a cauldron, I don’t go to sleep wondering if I said something stupid, if I unintentionally offended someone, if I made an ass of myself and wasn’t even aware of it.

No, this only happens when I put myself out there and try tosocialize, and honestly, what’s even the point?

I roll over on my cot and let out a breath through my nose, already sick of my own shit.

Of course there’s a point, I know that, and generally I had a good time tonight.

It’s good to be with other people, to get out of my head for a while. It’s good to be social.

But maybe I said too much about the coven. Maybe everyone took my remark their king the wrong way. Maybe I shared too much with Finn. Maybe, maybe, maybe…

I roll over again, on my back this time, staring up at the tent’s canvas roof.

In the far corner, Vayla snores softly, obviously much better adjusted and more at peace with herself than I am.

Silent minutes tick by. I close my eyes, open them. I try my left side again, then my right, and when Vayla’s snoring stops and she lets out a half-asleep murmur, it’s clear I’m doing more to inconvenience her than I am to find sleep for myself.

As quietly as I can, I roll off the cot and get dressed.

A pair of jeans this time, and a heavy sweater to ward off the evening chill. I don’t know where I’m going, exactly, but I should at least stay out of the tent until I’m ready to sleep and stop bugging Vayla.