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“Yeah, it is a permanent part of her personality. I’m just saying be careful. You just declared her an enemy.”
“Ladies, am I so boring, you can’t resist your own conversation?” Mr. Shaw asks with a note of exhaustion.
“Sorry, Mr. Shaw.” Stevie is quick to apologize.
I go back to my slides and spend the rest of the period reading and internally reciting the school’s history.
I’m more excited than I should be when I get back to my room and see a gift box sitting on the edge of my bed.
I don’t bother worrying about how Axe got in my locked room.
The box is long and thin, wrapped in shiny black paper with a gold foil ribbon strung around it. I unwrap it carefully and open the soft velvet box.
It sparkles so brightly I have to squint to see the thin silver bracelet. Scrolls and faceted designs etched along the surface reflect the light like precious stones.
It’s quite beautiful, and I almost have it fastened around my wrist before I catch a closer look at the designs.
It’s not simply decorative metalsmithing. Wrapping the entire length and both sides of the dainty bracelet are tiny demonic sigils.
“Balls,” I mutter and chuck the bracelet back in the box. I can’t wear demon sigils. What if they interact with the magic keeping my real form and magic hidden?
Axe is sure to take offense if he doesn’t see his gift sparkling around my wrist.
Before I decide what I’m going to do about it, Axe’s face appears on my tablet, smirking and gorgeous.
A video call.
Without thinking, I answer it, and again, without thinking, my mouth is doing all the heavy lifting. “What the hell is this?” I ask, holding up the scrap of silver.
Axe’s face drops. “Is it not to your liking?”
“To my liking? Who do you think you are, giving me gifts, Troyan Axwell? We just met, and now you think that just because I’m a demon and you’re a demon, we have to be besties or fuck buddies or whatever is going on in that skull of yours.”
His brows rise. “I’m sorry to have assumed anything, Dove. I thought we were on the same page.” His tone is as neutral as his face, which helps me exactly zero.
“Look, I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’m not from demon culture. I was raised in a weird situation, so I don’t know what this means or what you’re expecting. I don’t even know what the sigils on the silver mean, so I’m sorry for the rebuff, but you’ve caught me completely off guard.”
A line forms between Axe’s brows. “What do you mean, you were raised in a weird situation?”
My brain screams with the itchy need to blurt out everything. Luckily, I’m in the habit of keeping my tongue between my teeth around the heirs, so a quick chomp and I’m not giving up any Celestial secrets.
“Dove?”
“I mean, it’s complicated. My father is a self-appointed demi-god of our plane, and he restricts the information we have access to.” Half true.
A storm rolls across the clear midnight of Axe’s gaze. “You don’t know your own damn language?”
Before I can answer, the screen goes dark.
Axe ended the call.
Chapter Twelve
Very little is known about demonic breeding and courtship practices, but when given the choice, they prefer small hordes of several women and one man. An abomination, indeed.
- From Realm to Realm: The Creature Encyclopedia
Potions is canceledfor some reason, likely related to their new hire, so I take the period to go over the slides and notes I had from other instructors. For the rest of the night, I’m glued to my tablet, searching everything I can about the heirs, the Auction, and the Cinder City Syndicate.
