Page 10 of Sent To A Fantasy World and Now All the Men Want Me 7

“Be careful,” I told him.

“Always am.” He caressed my cheek. Though his expression remained stoic, tenderness shone in the blue depths of his eyes. It gave me butterflies. Amazing how Maddox could still have such an effect on me after all the time we’d spent together.

“My turn.” Callum drew me into his arms and feathered kisses along my cheek before, finally, landing on my lips. He tasted like vanilla bean, along with traces of the coffee he’d drank. “Stay safe until we return, milord.”

My heart skipped a beat when he lifted his hand and ruffled my hair in the way I adored. “You’re the one I’m worried about, Mister ‘I got mauled by a Fenrir and still wanted to train the very next day.’ Don’t think I forgot about that.”

Callum responded with a dimpled grin. He and the other knights then left to train, leaving only me, Lake, and Briar in the kitchen.

Despite the rain having cleared, the ground was still wet. As I stood at the sink washing dishes from breakfast, I looked outside just in time to see Quincy slip in the mud on his way to the field and fall on his ass. A chorus of bellowing laughter followed, trickling in through the open window.

Silly boys. But they were my silly boys.

Lake grabbed the soapy plate I’d just scrubbed clean, ran it under the water, and set it on the drying rack. He offered me a small smile and waited on the next dish to rinse off. We fell into a familiar routine as the minutes ticked by. That, too, reminded me of home: the two of us washing dishes together in a comfortable silence.

Fane returned to the kitchen and set the serving platter on the counter. Barely any of the food had been touched.

Hmm. That was odd. Maybe Lord Onyx wasn’t hungry this morning.

“Phantasia will hunt me down if I don’t leave soon,” Briar said as he stood from his chair. Seemed Fane wasn’t the only stickler for time; the demon physician was the same. “Today, she’s instructing me on rare healing magic and elements, starting with the tears of a phoenix.”

“Be mindful of Salem,” Fane cautioned him. “He’s fond of biting.”

Briar breathed out a short laugh and rubbed at his bicep. “I’m well aware.”

“You should bite him back,” Lake said. “Exert dominance.”

I snorted. Such a wolfy thing to say.

“I’d, uh, rather not do that.” Briar offered him a tight smile.

Salem was the buzzard-sized bird I’d met the time I’d visited Phantasia’s clinic. Though, the place seemed to be more of a torture chamber than a physician’s clinic. Monstrous teeth, sharp claws, and chicken feet had lined shelves in glass jars, along with jagged blades hanging on the wall and bone-chilling handsaws with, what I feared, had been specks of dried blood and flesh still on the blade.

Or it could’ve just been my imagination.

Hopefully.

“Take care, love.” Briar hugged me and turned his face against my temple—his favorite spot to kiss. “If you need anything, anything at all, you know where to find me.”

“In Phantasia’s House of Terrors,” I muttered, bringing to mind that awful handsaw. “Who wouldn’t want to visit such a lovely, not scary at all place?”

Briar laughed again, this one ringing of a deep affection. After kissing me softly on the lips, he patted Lake’s fluffy wolf ears, then excused himself from the room.

Fane emptied the food from the serving platter, shifting the scraps to a large bowl, probably to give to the outside animals, and stepped over to the stove, putting on a kettle.

“Are you making more tea for Lord Onyx?” I bounded over to the stove, hands behind my back. Feeling antsy at the thought of demon lord.

“I am,” the black-horned demon answered. “Along with some toast and fruit.”

“He already wants a snack?” I asked. “But he just ate breakfast.”

Well, kind of. My gaze trailed back to the mostly-full tray.

“Milord hasn’t much of an appetite this morning and barely ate what I brought him.” Fane sliced a bright red apple and arranged it with an assortment of raspberries and grapes. “I insisted that he eat something though, even if it’s small. I won’t allow him to be malnourished.”

No appetite, huh? That explained why he’d mostly pecked at his breakfast instead of eating it.

“What’s wrong with him?” I fiddled with my hands, a knot forming in my chest. “Did he say anything?”