Page 91 of Sent To A Fantasy World and Now All the Men Want Me 7

Purification of dark miasma. Counteracting poisons. Setting throne rooms on fire. All of those powers I knew about. But what else did I possess in my saintly arsenal? The twig had been an experiment on levitation. Or would it be considered more telepathy, moving things with my mind?

Another sigh, this one heavier.

The excitable, adrenaline-charged voices of warriors joined the clangs of swords and grunts from the training field. One of those excited hollers came from my cinnamon roll.

Callum took down a demon twice his size before spinning around and whacking another with his shield.

The trio of knights were a short distance away, sparring with two female warriors. The demons were outnumbered by humans, but they held their own against them. Quincy was knocked backward, falling on his ass in the mud. A chorus of laughter rang out as he stood up, a brown stain now on the seat of his pants.

I laughed and continued down the path, no destination in mind. I just wanted to stretch my legs and try to clear my head. Peaks of the distant mountains vanished into low clouds, and the air was damp. The storm from last night had cleared, but rain clung to the grass and dripped from leaves of nearby trees.

Case in point being the tiny patter on the top of my head as I bent to tie my boot lace. And the raindrop wasn’t the only thing that landed on my head.

Cheep.

Smiling, I reached up and gathered Pumpkin in my hands, then brought him to eye level. The little rascal stared at me with his big green eyes and chirped again. A peak of a snaggle showed from the slit of his mouth. Seemed he was like both Onyx and Rowan. Mischievous and with a tooth to match.

“I know you don’t know what I’m talking about, but thank you for guiding me through the elixir world,” I told the cute and fuzzy tree demon. “Even though it was scary, you helped me not feel so alone.”

As a sudden lump wedged in my throat, I held Pumpkin to my chest and kissed the side of his orange head. Another chirp reached my ears, followed by him wiggling his butt. I breathed out a laugh, a tear slipping free as I did.

“Good afternoon,” a smooth voice said from a short distance away.

My heart skipped a beat as the owner of that sexy-as-hell voice came into view. Several strands of Onyx’s hair were braided and pinned back, giving him that familiar regal but warrior-like air about him.

“Hi,” I said, then turned my face away to wipe at my eyes. Pumpkin nuzzled my cheek. “You weren’t at breakfast this morning.”

The demon lord arched a brow. “Should I have been?”

“Yep,” I answered, one hand going to my hip. “Fane and I made fluffy pancakes and hash browns. You missed out.”

“Is that the cause of your tears?” He closed the distance between us and touched the quiver of my bottom lip.

“I’m not crying.” I stepped into his chest and pushed my face against his neck. “Don’t look at me.”

A soft laugh left Onyx. The sound glided over my heartstrings, the reverberations traveling through the rest of my body. He lowered his face to the top of my hair and slid both arms around me.

“Did you come back to the room last night?” I asked, resting my head over his collarbone. “You kept to the shadows, but I smelled woodsmoke.”

“Nothing escapes that nose of yours, does it?” He withdrew from the embrace and peered down at me. “Thunder frightens you. I worried the storm had caused you distress and came to check on you.”

The tears I’d worked so hard to blink away earlier returned, as did that tightness in my throat. “You should come out of the shadows and join us next time.”

“I believe your captain would rage at that idea,” he said as the tiniest of smiles touched his lips. His hand found mine. “Walk with me.”

The urge to ask where we were going was on the tip of my tongue, but I decided to let it be a surprise. Not everything needed an immediate answer. Living in the moment instead of thinking about what happened next.

Pumpkin moved to my shoulder as Onyx and I walked along the path at a leisurely pace, passing the field of grunting, sword-wielding warriors and the pasture where Ghost and the other stallions grazed.

He led me to the greenhouse.

The moment we stepped inside the glass dome, I stared in awe at the small paradise he’d created there. An oasis with flowing water and countless species of trees, tropical plants, and flowers in various shapes and colors.

Pumpkin leapt off my shoulder and scurried up into a tree, hiding within the green leaves. Or trying to. His orange fur stood out too much.

“Just as pretty as the first time I came here,” I said, surveying the pool of crystal clear water and the waterfall that emptied into it, the stream creating a winding path that traveled from one side of the dome to the other.

“The elixir made you see things that continue to weigh on your heart,” Onyx responded, keeping hold of my hand as we walked farther inside the greenhouse. “Being here always gives me a sense of peace. I thought it would help you as well.”