“Don’t worry, I’ll get rid of her fast,” Asterim mutters. “I’ll tell them you’re a new mireborn I have to babysit.” She steps aside for a moment to greet the demon, leaving Syrus and me alone.
“Are you going to dance?”he asks, clearly noticing the way my gaze follows the moving bodies over by the band. I wonder if he can sense the trace of longing that coils around me as I watch them. It looks…well…fun, and it occurs to me that’s a feeling I haven’t properly explored for a long time.
“Not with you here,”I shoot back. As if I’d ever be able to relax with him squatting in my head.
“Well, hello.”
I snap my gaze around to find a male demon looking down at me. He’s tall, though not as tall as Syrus, and leaner too. His eyes are black, his skin a dark purple like Asterim’s, with fangs glinting at the corners of his smile. The presence in my head stiffens, alert like a wolf catching an unfamiliar scent.
The purple-skinned demon says something else then. It’s more than a greeting, and I shouldn’t fully understand it because it’s in Cyrax—just like his hello, I realize—and yet I can parse parts of it. Something about him not having seen me around here before, I think.
“Er, hello,” I reply with an awkward smile.
The demon tilts his head, confused.
“Looks like a Stratan, talks like a Stratan,” he says in the common tongue, dragging his eyes over me. “Is roleplay something you’re into?” he asks. “Because I could be into that too, you know.” He leans forward and winks.
The presence in my head actuallygrowls.
“What a sad, slimy excuse for a demon,”Syrus drawls in a tone much more casual than his pacing about in my mind would suggest.
Luckily, instead of having to answer either male, Asterim comes to my rescue. “I see you’ve met my protégée here,” she says to the tall demon with an easy smile, throwing a protective arm around my waist. “She’s mireborn, pretty fresh out the lake. She can’t speak Cyrax yet.”
“And you brought her here?” He grins, his fangs glinting in the lamplight as his gaze falls on me again. “Eager to have fun, were we?”
I can feel Syrus roll his eyes.“Sweet darkness, I hope that’s not the best he’s got.”
“Shush,”I say, concentrating on smiling at the demon so he doesn’t get suspicious. “I’m just here to take in some of the sights.”
He steps closer, dropping his voice. “Surely youarethe sights, beautiful.”
I blink, not able to come up with a quick response due to the retching noise being made at the back of my mind.
Then a force takes hold of my tongue, pushing words out of my mouth, low and rough.
“Unfortunately, I’m not going to see anything with your loathsome face in the way,” I say, totally at the mercy of Syrus’s magic.
The demon’s face falls, and he takes a step back. “Wow. You know, you’re awfully new to Infernum to be such a bitch,” he snaps. “And by the way, that whole mire look is so not working for you.” Then he turns and storms off into the crowd.
“Rude,” Asterim tuts, turning to wave at another friend across the room. “Although thereareeasier ways to let a man down, darling.”
I can’t answer her, too distracted by the smug bastard laughing in my mind.
“That wasn’t funny,”I huff.
“What?”He stops laughing, an edge to his voice.“Don’t tell me you actually found that miscreant attractive?”
Not at all. But I don’t want to tell him that. In fact, I don’t want to share another single minute of this evening with the brute who’s happy to puppet me in whatever humiliating way he pleases.
“You know I really wish you’d just shut up andleave,”I bite back, reaching out to the space where I can feel him lurking and giving his presence a hard, mental shove, just to take out some of my frustration.
Then, without another word, he’s gone, exiting my body so fast I freeze in place. Asterim turns around to give me a quizzical look, and I just blink at her, confused by the sudden emptiness created by his absence. My body is my own again, my mind blissfully quiet.
I didn’t actually expect him to listen to me and go away when I told him to. Now I don’t know whether to be pleased or suspicious.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, examining my face and then scanning the crowd. “Did that bastard put something in your drink? I’ll hunt him down and?—”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m fine. It’s just…Syrus stuff.”
