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He wasn’t wrong. The creatures had pointed horns and leathery wings, but the pointed teeth, cruel expression, tail, and pitchfork were far from Savida’s identity.
“These creatures seem to be based on demons,” Daithi said, and Savida sent him a pouty look. “I said ‘based.’ You are far more attractive.”
Charlie raised his brows, then smirked and said, “I don’t know. The resemblance is striking.”
Savida hissed at him, and I chuckled quietly. He was fitting in nicely with us.
As I watched my friends joke with each other I wished it could stay like this forever. But Daithi’s premonitions were never wrong. Something terrible would happen to Savida. It was only a question of when.
CHAPTER7
CHARLIE
“It’s shopping day!” Savida gleefully shouted as he entered the kitchen with Daithi at his heels.
I was just putting juice on the table when Clawdia showed up again.
“Master!” Savida cheered as she curled herself around his chair.
“Little Cat, you look especially fluffy today,” Zaide told her as he ran his big golden hand over her. He’d pouted when she went home the night before.
The perkiness of everyone was too much before my morning coffee. Dreams of portals and cats and otherworlders disturbed my sleep last night, and so this morning, I was grumpier than usual.
“Clawdicat, I swear, I’ll fucking squash you on purpose if you keep getting in my way,” I growled as she twisted around my legs again while I moved to the table. I slammed my plate down, and she jumped onto my lap. “You’re just trying to make up for being all over Zaide yesterday. I’m not falling for it, traitor.”
“I cannot help if the little cat prefers my praise to your censure,” Zaide replied as he joined me at the table with his own meal.
I stroked her with one hand and picked up my breakfast and stuffed it into my mouth with the other. Around a mouthful of sausage sandwich, I garbled, “Well, she’s a glutton for punishment.”
I had left a bit of sausage on my plate, and Clawdia clawed it toward her, sniffed it, and then munched it down as if we’d invited her over to join us. I glared as she looked at my sandwich expectantly. “You’ve had enough, fatty,” I told her.
Savida gasped with his knife inches from the butter. “Charlie!”
“What?”
“You should never remark on a female’s weight. Even small animals,” he remarked, oddly serious.
“That’s a universal rule, then?” I laughed as Daithi sat gracefully on the chair opposite me. He didn’t look well; his eyes were still bloodshot, and his skin was a little less sparkly and a little sweatier. I didn’t want to ask about it, and from the way Savida was catering to him, I assumed it was normal for him to look a bit out of it after a vision.
Savida brought over both his and Daithi’s breakfast to the table. He set the plate in front of Daithi, and when the seer looked up to thank him with a small smile, Savida brushed his dark fingers through his lover’s green hair and tucked it behind his pointed ear. As he bent to sit down at his own seat, he brushed a small kiss on Daithi’s cheek. Daithi’s eyelids fluttered closed for a moment to savor the feeling. They both looked up from their plates at the same time to see me watching.
“It’s not rude to stare in the human realm?” Daithi remarked coldly.
I chewed and remembered what Zaide had said yesterday about how their love proved that to him that romantic love exists. It wasn’t something I was looking for, but seeing it in front of me did make me curious. “Not every day that I see a faei and a demon loving on each other at my dining table. I’m interested; when did this happen?” I waved my hand between the two of them.
“You are asking for our love story?” Savida asked eagerly.
I almost regretted asking, but I was curious to know how two different species, and opposite personalities, were so in love. I nodded, and Savida wolfed down the rest of his breakfast in two bites. He poured his orange juice into his mouth and then gasped when he finished.
He wiped his mouth and, with his wings flapping in excitement, said, “It began when after many, many years of darkness, cold, and silence, suddenly, there was light. I could see. It was painful but welcome, and with the light came a beautiful face.”
Although I already knew Savida had been conscious while underground, I was fucking horrified to hear him say it himself. Somehow, that made it more real. “How did you survive that?”
Savida’s eyes glazed slightly, but he shook himself, brushing off the memories. “It takes a lot to kill a demon. But let us not dwell on unpleasant things. This is a love story.” He smiled brightly at Daithi. “I gazed at the beautiful face shading me from the blinding light, and two tears fell from his eyes. They splashed me. I remembered being so very confused. I asked if he was hurt, although my throat and voice were sore from disuse. He shook his head and reached down to pull me out. As I climbed, I felt the wind for the first time in a long while, and my wings fluttered. I had almost forgotten I had them. Had anything.” He reached behind him to stroke the leathery ends of horns.
“And I stretched them, wide and long, when I came out of the hole, but they couldn’t hold me up. My legs were shaky, too. But the faei kneeled down, even though he was wearing very expensive clothing, and draped a cloak around my shoulders. He whispered, ‘You are safe with me now, Savida. Let me take you back to my home.’” Daithi squeezed his hand.
There was only a brief pause before Savida continued, his voice wavering with emotions, “I had not heard my name in so long that it shocked me to hear it. I was so grateful to my hero that I’d let him do anything, take me anywhere, so I nodded. He bathed, fed, and looked after me for months. We grew close, and I learned my beautiful hero was also funny and smart and needed me as much as I needed him. We were perfect for each other from the start.” He smiled at Daithi, love shining in his eyes. “It is quite the romantic tale, yes?”
