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One of them is a Sombra demon male. He has the same red skin as Loki, though his horns are curved further back and he only has one pair. His eyes are different, too. A bright gold color gleams out of his cautious face as he approaches us.
The female at his side is nothing like the males. Her skin as is golden as the male’s eyes, her orange hair is a long plait tossed over her shoulder. She’s as tall as he is, though her deep brown horns are so dainty, they’re adorable.
For a moment, I think that Sombra demon males look like Loki and this other guy, while their women look like this female, but a name pops right into my brain.Soleil. The neighboring demon realm where many Sombra males find their demoness mates.
She is a Soleil demoness, and obviously his mate.
“Apollyon.” His brow furrows as though he’s struggling to place her. He does. “Lilith.”
“Loki?” The pretty demoness doesn’t hide her surprise very well. “Can that really be you?” She glances at me, her amber-colored eyes going wide when she notices Freya curled around my neck… or maybe it’s her shock at getting her first look at me. “Is that an ungez wrapped around this female’s throat?”
Oh. It was Freya.
Loki lays his hand on my shoulder. “Yes, and yes. We’ve come to ask permission to join your clan. The three of us.”
I beam.
Loki knows to include Freya, too.
The male demon frowns, and since he hasn’t taken his attention off of Loki yet, I don’t thinkthathas to be with my pet.
“You walked into the shadows,” he says.
I was right.
Loki nods sharply. “I did.”
“You were lost.”
His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows roughly. “I was.”
“No one survives the shadows,” offers the demoness.
“No one except Loki,” my mate says. “And all because of my Kennedy.”
Loki believes that to the depths of his soul. He believes that he was lost and broken before he found me, and that I’m the reason why he has his purple eyes and his magic back.
“And you want to rejoin Nuit? I know we are not your birth clan. You came to us from Marvo. Not many choose a poorer village on the edge of the shadows.”
Maybe not, but they probably aren’t leaving the shadows, either.
He squeezes my shoulder, the points of his claws gone shadowy so that he doesn’t prick me with thim. “I have, Apollyon. If you will have us.”
“You became a clansman when you came to Nuit and built your home here. It still stands.” Apollyon holds out his hand. When Loki takes it with his free one, the golden-eyed demon pulls him into an embrace, clapping him on the back before releasing him. “Welcome home.”
“And my Kennedy? I go where she goes. If she’s not welcome, we will search for a new clan.”
He explained this to me in hushed tones as we traveled to the demon village. Sombra might be ruled by its duke leader, Haures, but each individual neighborhood—er, clan—is run under one leader. For us to live among the villagers, we both need his welcome.
It’s some weird demon respect thing. By welcoming us, Apollyon is giving us his protection. He will stand up for us against any threat, even shield us from the duke if he has to. But it works both ways. We need to listen to him and do what’s best for the clan.
That’s why Loki left Nuit. For some reason, he was a threat to it when his eyes were white, but now that his eyes are purple again, he can return home.
It’s safer living in a community. Even in the human world, we know there’s safety in numbers. The monsters that lurk in the shadows by Loki’s old shack would never enter Nuit.
I suck in a breath. He has a house here. He obviously knows these people. I hope they let me stay because I really, really don’t want to go back to the dark shadows again.
“She is your bonded mate?”
