Page 53 of Demons and Darlings


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Clearly, he didn’t want to talk about whatever happened with his sibling. I fought the urge to reach out and touch his hand.

Alek stopped before a large, framed photo of a man. He looked young, and something about him seemed so familiar. “Is that a younger picture of your father?” I guessed.

“No. This is the man who was supposed to rule. He was in charge for decades before my father fell onto the throne.”

“Really?” I asked. “What happened?”

He took a long breath before explaining, “He became too powerful. Too hungry. He wanted things that were impossible, and he didn’t care who he had to hurt to get it.”

I was familiar with that concept.

“So he was killed?” I asked.

“He was,” Alek answered with a tight jaw. “And I regret it every day.”

My eyes locked on Alek, who was still staring at the picture with unfading focus. “You killed him?” I asked in a whisper.

Alek nodded slowly. “It was for the greater good,” he said, yet somehow, I didn’t quite believe him. The pain in his voice told me there was more to the story.

“How does one kill a powerful demon?”

Alek looked away from the picture and met my eyes. “With help and with risks.”

“I imagine your father had something to do with that.”

His eyes darkened. “The things we do for our parents.”

I should have looked away. I should have broken our gaze. But something behind his eyes sent a thrill of excitement through my body.

Alek didn’t know the truth. He didn’t know that my blood was sacred and that my mother had kept me hidden for so long because of it.

Yet somehow, when he looked at me, I actually felt seen. I felt like he knew the truth, and that was something I had never felt before.

The sound of chanting interrupted my thoughts. I finally looked away from Alek, only to realize I had moved closer to him.

“What is that?” I asked, stepping back and turning my attention to the voices.

Chanting grew louder and louder.

The language was one I didn’t recognize. Latin, maybe? Either way, the sound of the words made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

“Come on,” he said, leading me out of the room. “It’s starting.”

He didn’t bother to wait for me. I followed directly behind him, eager to figure out what was going on.

When we reached the bonfire again, I halted in my tracks. “Shouldn’t I be running away from the creepy chanting?” I asked Alek as he turned to face me. “Not toward it?”

I expected Alek to smile or crack some sort of a joke, but his face remained as serious as I had ever seen it. “No,” he answered. “You should see this.” He held his hand out to me. The chanting grew behind him, and oddly enough, so did the flames of the fire. “Do you trust me?” he asked.

I looked at his outstretched hand. Trust. That was something every bone in my body told me not to do. Alek was many things, but trustworthy?

I nodded my head. It wasn’t even a question. Trustworthy or not, I was already neck-deep into his world. There was no going back now. I closed the distance between us and took his hand in mine.

Together, we approached the back of the small crowd.

“Stay calm,” he whispered in my ear, close enough that his breath tickled my cheek in the cold night air. I couldn’t stop myself from shivering when his lips brushed—just barely—against my ear. “You’re safe with me.”

Stay calm?I peered through the crowd, desperate to see what everyone was chanting at.

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