Page 94 of Demon Food

“Ahh, well, if my days are going to be numbered,” he said, winking as he brought the cigarette to his lips, “then I should probably enjoy them.”

My frown deepened. “Not if your enjoyment brings you one step closer to death’s door.”

“Darling,” he chuckled. “It’s not that grim. It’s just a little cough.”

“No, it’s not, either. It’s an indication that you’re not saving your strength like you should. How much time do you have before you’re able to see this doctor of yours? And that’s assuming he’s even going to have a ‘cure’. An alternative to eating.”

“He discovered these, you know,” he said, lifting the cigarette. “Would you have thought that possible?”

I flared my nostrils at it.

“He’s on the verge of something special. He’s almost there⁠—”

“But almost will not save your life.”

He parted his lips and sealed them again.

“Look, I’m not saying the cigarettes aren’t impressive, but numbing your hunger and feeding it are not even close to the same thing.”

A smile stretched his perfect lips, but something about it was contrived. “So, what would you have me do, my love? Would you have me find some human who’s willing to die in exchange for feeding their children?”

I took a breath, prepared to argue but couldn’t. It was what I’d always hated about the whole system, and it cut straight into my heart.

“Or perhaps I find a human on their supposed deathbed,” he said, flicking ashes. “A human that someone has declared as good as dead.”

I swallowed, blinking at my hands in my lap.

“Except that someone is quite often a vultus, aren’t they? And well, if you don’t see what’s problematic with that, then you’re either blind or refusing to see it. But hey, at least you’d be in good company. Everyone refuses to see it, so that we may pretend it’s something other than what it is.”

I inhaled, high in my chest.

“I cannot be the king of change if I myself refuse to do what is necessary. Refuse to sacrifice just because it hurts.”

“You cannot be the king at all if you’re gone, Alek.”

“My Snow Fox,” he said, showing me that dazzling smile once again. The one that melted me. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m sorry, darling, but you lost.”

I blinked, eyes narrowing. Lost?

“You lost so horrifically last night, that now you are stuck with this demonic puppy, possibly forever. I won’t let something so silly as starving to death come between us.”

A spot of levity bloomed bright in my chest at the same time a smile tried to tempt my lips. He had to know how ridiculous he was.

“Possibly forever, huh?” I asked. “Bold words from a nineteen-year-old.”

“Oh, it is hardly the boldest thing this nineteen-year-old could say to you, Feloré.”

“No? And what would be the boldest?”

“I’m so glad you asked. Come,” he said, beckoning with his fingers. “Come closer.”

I leaned an ear toward him.

“Closer than that, darling. It is a secret, after all. A brave secret.”

I rolled myself forward onto my hands and knees, the chain tumbling between my legs as I crawled to him. He twitched wildly, and part of me suspected he just wanted to see me like this.

“You ready?” He grinned as he leaned into my ear, cupping a hand around it to whisper in Vultaen, “Plum wine makes you snore like a miniature troll.”