Page 81 of Demon's Beauty

I can’t handle this.

Not at all.

Too many factors. Too many choices. Too many potential ways this all goes wrong and blows up in my face.

Like I’m on autopilot, I walk across the workroom and plunk back down at the desk which holds Ariana’s grimoire.

Something I can work on.

Something I can control.

Everything else is going to be playing in the back of my mind like low, annoying static, and maybe my hindbrain will haveprocessed and figured it all out by the time I pull my head out of this book.

Not likely, but a girl can dream, and the distraction is wonderful as always.

But I barely get lost in it at all before the workroom door is opening again.

I really need to find a quieter place to run away from my problems.

It’s Vayla, this time, and I’m surprised to see her back so soon.

“No bath for Emilia?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

“It’ll have to wait until later. She’s teaching a group of students this afternoon.”

During our conversations around camp, Vayla let me know Emilia—another former Crescent witch—has started offering rudimentary magick lessons to demon children who’ve shown an aptitude for wielding it. Demons don’t have the same natural affinity to magick that witches do, at least beyond their portalling abilities. But since witches have been coming to the demon realm for centuries as brides to seal the bargain, some of that DNA has trickled its way down family lines.

Maybe it’s not the only reason, either, that so many are now showing as magically sensitive. The bargain Allie struck with King Eren is still so new, and I’d bet we haven’t yet seen the full extent of what it will change for both our realms.

Vayla gets back to work preparing the rest of her supplies for travel tomorrow, and the same avoidant impulse whispers to me again.

Louder, this time, and insistent. Crowded even closer by the thought of leaving this realm so soon, of having to go back and face it all.

“I could come along if you need an extra set of hands for the final brew.”

“Yeah?” Vayla says. “That would actually be amazing.”

“You’re leaving first thing in the morning, right?”

“That’s right. Bright and early as always.”

“And if I wanted to bring… one more?”

“And by ‘one more,’ you mean a blond, handsome—”

“Yes, I mean Finn.”

She grins. “Sure. He can come along. I doubt you’d be able to leave him here, anyway, once he learns you’re going.”

I flush, but nod, and get up from my seat. “Great. I’ll… I’ll be back in a bit.”

“I won’t wait up,” she says with a careless wave, already back to packing.

Leaving the workshop, I start down the corridor before belatedly realizing I don’t actually know my way to the Nighfall rooms. This place is a labyrinth, and even though I’ve been there once before, there’s no way I could find my way back.

Maybe there’s another way I could find my demon, though.

I give the bond in my chest a tug.