Page 63 of Caught in the Devil’s Hand

Rosuke nodded lethargically, looking as though he’d fall asleep right there. “I will fade by morning. I could not find a woman between Houfu and here. All the villages are deserted, full of corpses, or too dangerous to approach. I knew I would die this time and I wanted to die here,” he said, voice raspy with fear. “Where you might find me.”

Shumei snuck a few steps closer, and oh dueling gods, the pain on Vallen’s face. How badly she wanted to hold him.

Vallen brushed a lock of hair from Rosuke’s cheek. “Don’t give up yet.”

She took another step, and the soft sweep of her foot alerted the two demons to her presence. Rosuke’s deep blue eyes flared with surprise. And Vallen’s expression was a wordless plea.

He didn’t… Did he? Did he seriously want her to…?

“Who’s this?” Rosuke asked.

“This is Shumei,” Vallen said, still beseeching her with his gaze.

Vallen knew what he silently begged for was a horrible thing to request from someone who had confessed her love only days before. She instantly figured out what his expression meant and flinched with pain. Without saying a word, she turned and walked away.

“You love her, don’t you?” Rosuke asked, face unreadable. Vallen nodded. “Then I shall not ask it of you. Just be with me when the time comes.” Rosuke looked as though he would take a nap right there.

“Don’t you fall asleep yet,” he said, shaking Rosuke until he opened his eyes again. “I’ll take you inside the house. We’ll see from there.”

“I’d rather walk in, though I may need you to steady me. Just pretend I’m drunk. You know, like old times?”

Vallen tried to smile and laugh at the joke, but the heavy press of sadness made it difficult even to breathe. After all this time, Rosuke had returned, but only to die at his feet.

When he and an exhausted Rosuke entered the sitting room a moment later, he saw only a shocked Oka sitting quietly at the table where Shumei had been studying. She was nowhere to be seen.

“Did your sister come through here?” Vallen asked.

Staring at Rosuke, who stared back, Oka nodded and pointed at the doors leading in. Vallen walked Rosuke through the room.

“Her brother is a blondie?” Rosuke asked as they turned right. Vallen headed toward Oka’s room with the intent to let Rosuke rest there while he spoke with Shumei. It was only midday. He still had time to convince her.

If only the guilt he felt would let him take a full breath…

“Yes,” he answered. “It amazed their village to no end that a crow woman had birthed a blonde child.” He helped Rosuke lie down.

“I haven’t slept somewhere so comfortable for months,” his friend moaned. His bright red hair spread across the white pillow like fresh blood.

“Try to stay awake. I’ll talk to her.” Vallen made a mental note to give Rosuke a new set of clothes. That is, should he survive the next twenty-four hours…

He left Oka’s room behind and started down what felt like the longest stretch of hallway in the world. Oka had remained in the sitting room, no doubt according to Shumei’s request. The door to the bedroom he’d shared with her the last few nights was open.

When he arrived, Shumei was staring at her reflection above the dressing table. He wondered what she was thinking. She looked at him in the mirror, then turned to face him.

“I know you love him,” she said unsteadily. “Even before the Incubus Curse, he was like a brother to you, and his companionship made the long years of your curse more bearable. You’ve known him longer than I’ve been alive—many times over—and I cannot begin to imagine the strength of your attachment. I only know it must be far more profound than what you and I mean to each other.”

“That’s not true,” he vowed, taking a step closer. “I love you so much I sometimes wonder how my heart hasn’t burst. You’ve saved my life more than once with the gift of your body. You risked yourself for that damned book and love me despite what I am. If you cannot do this, you need only say so. The decision is up to you.”

“How can you say that?” she asked, tearing up. Gods, he wanted to hold her. His feet carried him closer. “It would kill you to lose him, and you’d place that decision in my hands?”

“It is not I who can save him! It’s not my decision in the first place and so it is yours.”

“S-Sex demons cannot share energy among themselves, then?” she asked, hand pressed against her heaving chest.

He shook his head and searched for the right words. “I do not sense him as a source of energy the way I sense you,” he explained haltingly.

“Does he…have to be inside me?” She hugged herself protectively.

He nodded. She grimaced and stared at her feet, thinking. He dared not speak a word, knowing she might relent after she’d discounted every alternative—as he already had—but only if she came to the conclusion herself.