Page 7 of Zodiac Demons

The fact that she existed at all was the real problem, because that meant there was some possible ritual that made Lamia fertile, which meant the possibility of combining our monsters and creating a bridge between two of the most powerful family lines in the city.

I couldn’t even comprehend how her mother could have bore her in the first place. I knew that interbreeding was far more complicated than anyone realized in the history of the universe, where we’d all kept ourselves separated for too long to fully understand what was possible, but by legend, and by local knowledge, Lamia had lost her ability to reproduce a long, long time ago. There was no way Lila was a surviving child from before her curse had been cast. That would make her as old as my father, and I didn’t think for any fraction of a second that Lila was an amnesic ancient immortal. She’d barely discovered shifting was possible, and she had too many modern memories of growing up for that to be reality.

The door creaked, and I startled in my seat. In my haze, I hadn’t remembered to lock it, but there was no reason anyone should be coming in here right now, so that shouldn’t have mattered.

With panic in my eyes, I stood from my desk, but I wasn’t able to retreat to any sort of hiding place before the demon herself walked into the room.

“L-Lila,” I stammered as she stared at me with equal surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh sorry—I was just…” She took a step back, and I could feel the nerves and regrets through our cursed bond. “I was just trying to find somewhere quiet to think. I didn’t think anyone would be in here.” Her cheeks flushed, and I hated that I thought she looked impossibly beautiful when she was embarrassed. “I’m sorry I… I can go.”

“No, stay.” I heard the words leave my lips before I could process them. “You can stay. I was just…”

“Trying to hide somewhere quiet, too?” She finished my sentence for me entirely too accurately, and I didn’t know if that was thanks to our bond, or simply thanks to the fact that we were… legitimately friends.

My throat bobbed, as I shook off the thought, and I pulled out the chair beside me. “You can sit with me. If you want. If you’re not afraid of me.”

Lila shook her head. “If you think sitting with you in a library under a waning moon at Graves Academy is the scariest thing I’ve encountered here, I have some stories to tell you.” Her laugh was light and melodic, and I was the one who was petrified every time I felt that genuine affection for her in my chest.

“Fair enough.”

She took the seat beside me, and I nudged in her chair for her as she sat down

It had been nearly a week since the full moon, only a few days past finals, and I’d admit I’d been avoiding her since I marked her. But even with the summer break ahead, it wasn’t as if we could simply ignore each other. I’d have to suffer through mate separation sickness on any full moon that we weren’t together, and well, we worked together. Firing her out of cowardice would help nothing, especially considering how much her presence actually made my work day better. It would be a stab through the heart tenfold.

“Do you know who Lamia is?” She asked, getting straight to the point.

“I’m half Basilisk. My father was born before the turn of the century when the Romans conquered Egypt. I know who Lamia is.” I was speaking slowly, not sure where this conversation was going. “I know you’re some hybrid of Lamia.” I confirmed what she was so obviously asking about. “My demon sensed it the second we both turned. A serpent can always recognize another serpent.” I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “Have you spoken to your mother yet?”

Lila nodded. “That’s kind of why I needed a quiet retreat.” She grabbed the book in front of me and slid it over to her seat. “You’re reading about the origins of field hockey?” She scrunched her adorable nose at the pages.

“I honestly have no idea what books I grabbed.” I rubbed my neck, laughing on accident. I didn’t really want to admit that I’d been thinking about anything but books since I stepped in here. “It was supposed to be a distraction, but I couldn’t seem to focus.”

“There’s a lot to process,” she said, flipping through the pages idly. “But maybe right now, we can just… not?”

Her energy was soothing as she sat so calmly beside me, having lost all of its biting stress that she’d had when she first walked in. Feeding on that shared link and letting those easy, gentle emotions sink in was really all I wanted to do right now.

I nodded. “Let’s not.” The longer I sat with her, the less I wanted to keep worrying about anything other than her comfort.

Lila leaned her head on my shoulder, and she closed her eyes. I held perfectly still, and that sense of affection flooded me so completely, that I didn’t know if it was her heart or my own that was creating such warmth.

“Do you want me to read to you?” I asked, and she dipped her chin in confirmation. My smile was involuntary as I went down my pile, hoping I’d grabbed something interesting. Apparently my absent mind had picked up mostly sports history and cookbooks.

That was fine.

“Chapter one: How to make the perfect melt-in-your-mouth buttermilk biscuits.” I started, and Lila snorted, a wide grin taking over her entire face. She kept her eyes closed, as I continued. “The colder the butter, the more light and flaky the biscuit.”

“Keep going. This is working for me.”

This time I was the one who laughed. The amount of panic and fear I’d been overwhelmed with just moments ago suddenly felt so silly when I was actually sitting side by side with my mate.

I forced myself to keep reading, because that was the only way I could stop myself from allowing the correction ‘Marcus’ mate’ to fully materialize in my mind. Let alone the even more harrowing ‘our mate’ that was the true reality.

If everything else in my life had to be a mess, at least she was in it with me.

Chapter 4

Eighteen Months Ago