He didn’t know how he knew, but his feeling was only confirmed when the other demon met his gaze and stopped moving, too, their eyes wide with a similar disbelief.
Saint glanced desperately at Joy. The moment Knight had spotted who Saint assumed was Joy’s demon partner—which, how the fuck was this his life, meetingotherpeople with demon partners—he’d frozen. And Joy’s partner had frozen, too.
“What’s happening?” Saint asked.Knight?
“I don’t know,” Joy said, glancing between the two demons, her eyebrows raised questioningly. Then her expression cleared, and her eyes seemed to widen with realisation. “Wait, Malachi, is this—?”
“Yes,” the demon called Malachi said, sounding weirdly choked up.
Knight?Saint prompted again.
I think—this is my—
“Brother?” Malachi said tentatively, like he was finishing Knight’s thoughts.
“Yes,” Knight said, sounding just as gruff as he did.
Brother?Saint’s eyes nearly bugged out.I didn’t know you had siblings!
Sibling, Knight replied.Just one.
He and Malachi reached out at the same time, grasping each other’s arms, pressing their foreheads together. Before they closed their eyes, Saint saw them shining with mirroring emotion.
“Come on,” Joy leaned over to Saint to whisper. “Let’s give them some space.”
They moved away, closer to the refreshments table. Knight and Malachi were still gripping each other’s arms, eyes closed, foreheads pressed together.
Despite himself, Saint’s throat felt thick with emotion for his lover. He had so many questions. What had happened? How had they been separated? Had it been from birth, before Knight had become a slave for his sect?
“Chapman?” Joy offered.
Saint tore his eyes away, offering her a smile. “Yes, please. Thank you. Did you know Malachi had a sibling?”
“Yes,” Joy said. When her eyes landed on the demon, they were incredibly soft, her lips curved into a private smile. Saint’s heart thumped. He wondered if that was how he looked when he was looking at Knight. “They’d been separated at birth, apparently. Malachi has always wondered where they were. Who knew they’d end up in fucking Arehjia?” she said with a short laugh. She held her drink up in a mock toast. “Small world, eh?”
Knight and Malachi had stopped pressing their foreheads together. Instead, arms still clasped, they were now talking in low tones, Knight more excited, Malachi more reserved.
Saint smiled. When he took a sip from his drink, it was refreshingly cool and sweet. Small world indeed.
“So,” Saint said a few hours later. Their hands were tangled, and they were walking through the forest to the main road. They’d had to walk a bit to get past Malachi’s wards—turned out Knight’s brother was the owner of the castle and lived there with Joy—and Knight could have teleported them home, but they both wanted to stroll. Walk off all the food and drink and laughter.
He was full, both in his belly and in his heart. For the first time in his life, could see his future with almost perfect clarity; him and Saint coming here to hang out with the other demons and their human friends and partners—throwing parties, having a picnic or simply welcoming any newcomers. Building a real community, with no conditions at all, his lover by his side. He wanted it so badly it almost felt impossible that he might actually get to have it.
His phone now had ten more contacts in it apart from Saint and Teresa. He’d felt a strange swell of belonging at the sight of all those names, especially that of his brother, even though they’d only just met.
He’d never let himself think about his sibling, about that all-consuming love he’d felt when he’d first been brought to life, afraid he’d spend an eternity endlessly chasing that warmth only to never find it.
But he’d gotten all that and more. He hadn’t asked the demons about how he could find Pink, not wanting his tentative new friends to think he was just here to use them, but he had a feeling they wouldn’t think that at all. When the time came, he knew they would do all they could to help.
The sun was setting, the hues of purples, oranges, and pinks making Saint look slightly ethereal. Or perhaps that was just Knight’s happiness talking.
“What do you think? Beats your “community” in Hell by a mile, am I right?” Saint asked with a grin.
Knight had to feel that smile against his mouth.
“Yes,” he whispered after the kiss, pressing their foreheads together. “It was pretty much perfect.”
One Year Later
