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REINA
The wayhe looked at me as he left the room kept my stomach in tight knots for several long minutes after he was gone. Finally able to shake him from my system, I went to the door and thanked him softly for giving me a lock on the door. Turning it tight, I pushed a chair against the doorknob for good measure before going to the window and pulling the curtains shut.
It had been a long night, and all the exertion had exhausted me. I couldn’t even be bothered to expend the energy to process all this new information; I needed to sleep.
It was well into the afternoon when I woke again, and the house was quiet. The chair was missing from the door, and the silent threat that hung there warned me that no amount of security would keep him away from me. I didn’t know how comfortable I was with that knowledge. It certainly took away the thanks I had registered before bed.
But with the chair replaced and the lock undone, I found the closet filled with new clothes. After showering and cleaning myself of the dirt and blood from yesterday's adventure, I pulled a pair of jeans out and a v-neck t-shirt. Once fully dressed, I left the room and wandered through the hall.
I vaguely remembered Santino giving me some rule about staying out of rooms I wasn’t supposed to go into, but he hadn’t said which rooms I was supposed to avoid. So, I figured unless he were going to tell me where I could and couldn’t go, I would go where I pleased. Not that I would have listened to him anyway. He couldn’t just tell me I was going to marry him and then decide he would dictate how the rest of my life was going to go.
Even if he was a demon.
The thought made me shudder, and I gripped the banister tightly. My future husband was a demon. Demons were real. What else was real?
I paused on the steps and looked around. So far, no one had appeared, which meant that maybe I was home alone right now. That gave me ample opportunity to explore this place I was supposed to call home and learn more about the entire other world I hadn’t known existed until now.
At the base of the stairs, I made my way back into the sitting room he’d first brought me into and looked around. I still hadn’t seen anyone, not even the butler Carter, so I crossed the room to the next set of sliding doors. At the very least, I wanted to find the kitchen to get something to eat. I hadn’t eaten since noon the day before, and my stomach growled with hunger as I explored.
Pushing the French doors open, they revealed stairs descending into a dark room. My heart sped up slightly as I looked over my shoulder. This was likely one of those off-limit rooms Santino had mentioned, yet I couldn’t stop myself from stepping down.
I tried to justify it as I held the rail and descended that maybe it would lead me to a cold cellar, and I might find something to eat there. But it was a bullshit reason since the kitchen was a better option for that.
The stairs kept going, and when I looked back, the doorway was a small pinprick of light behind me. My heart raced more as I realized this was a terrible mistake. My pride and stubbornness were certainly things that had gotten me into trouble before. But this felt like the worst thing so far—and nothing had even happened yet.
Then I reached the bottom.
Demons. The word echoed in my mind, reminding me of what I was involved in, and the weight of reality crashed around me.
Of course, demons had to come from somewhere, and if he was a prince of demons … Well, it stood to reason he needed a way back to the throne, to the king of the demons.
“Oh God,” I gasped, turning to the stairs to rush back up them for as long as it took, but a whoosh blasted past me before I could, and I turned quickly. Looking around wildly, I tried to see what was flying overhead as another whoosh echoed. Then laughter joined in its place, blood-curdling, spine-tingling laughter.
I liked to believe myself to be a brave woman. But there were some things in life that I simply wasn’t prepared to handle, and being in hell, surrounded by literal demons, was one of them.
My knees shook as I tried to run back to the stairs, but they fleed from me. The distance between them and me grew at such an unnatural pace that I knew something was keeping me from getting to them. Something slimy grabbed my arm and pulled me toward its weight as I lashed and struggled, trying to fight it off.
“Get off me! Get off me!” I tried to grab it, but the texture of its skin was unbearable to touch, making my stomach turn and my skin crawl. The creature's tentacles slithered up my body, wrapping around my neck in a chokehold that left me gasping for air.
“She is mine!”
His voice boomed around me, heat rushing through the darkness and blasting through the creature’s hold. It hissed at his voice before slinking away, and I crumpled to the ground, covering my face with my hands.
“Reina.” Leathery, coiled claws slipped under my body, and he lifted me from the ground, cradling me to his chest. I forced my hands away and urged myself to look at him. His face was handsome but twisted. Two tendril horns protruded from his forehead over heavy, bright red eyes. Massive fangs hung from his upper teeth that should’ve repelled me, but I reached for them, gently stroking my finger along their sharp points.
“Are you alright?” I pulled my hand away like he’d bitten me, remembering my place and why I hated him as much as I did. He was repulsive. Look at him. But even as I said it to myself, I knew it wasn’t true. There was a beauty in his monstrous form, and now, more than ever before, I found myself intrigued and captivated by him.
But I couldn’t give in. I wouldn’t.
