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She waited to see if he had any more questions, before she allowed the show to play again.
Huh. She'd forgotten the hero'd had to dig his way out of his own grave. Had Stan had to do that? Was that why he wasn't worried about where his body was buried, because there was no body left to find? All those empty graves in the cemetery...how many were empty because they'd been summoned as demons? Alethia shivered. This sort of thing was what you expected in America, or Eastern Europe, or in movies, but not here in Western Australia.
"Those are modern horseless carriages, are they not?"
Alethia had to force her thoughts back to what was on the TV. She nodded. "Yes. A truck and a car, respectively, on a modern highway, like the ones we flew over when you brought me home."
"But this is more like a gothic novel, yes? It is not real?"
"Like a novel, or a play, yeah."
"So the man with no head is...?"
Alethia grinned. "An American legend, from a story that's about as old as you, I believe."
"I heard stories of a horseman who carried his head about in his saddlebag when I was a boy, back in Scotland. In some tales, he was a man, killed in one of the clan battles for the isles. In others, he was not a man at all, but a fae creature who collects the dead. There is also Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a tale that is older than the discovery of the Americas. My mother was fond of this particular tale, and I read it aloud many times."
Alethia blinked. For a man who claimed he could only remember his dying moments, that was a whole bunch of new memories...with not a single mention of Carline. Evidently she'd made a good choice of TV show for Stan, at least.
"There's so many lights in your time. On the carriages, all over the houses, in the streets! The only time I've seen so many lights was when we went to Glasgow, and they were gaslights, my da said, burning gas that came from coal."
"Yeah, gaslights were a thing for a while, but now most lighting is electric. Like...lightning, but through wires. I learned how it worked back in high school science class, but that was a while ago, so I'm not sure I'd be able to explain it to you any better than that."
Stan grinned up at her. "I could not explain how gaslights work, either. It was not something a Scottish farm boy needed to know."
Ah, so that's how a demon wound up with a Scottish accent. Actually, he didn't look so demonic right now. It took her a moment to realise why.
"Your wings are gone!"
Stan shrugged, his eyes on the TV screen. "I put them away. It's easier to sit down and lean against your chair without them. It's the same with the tail."
He'd vanished his horns, too, and without all the extra bits, he looked almost human. Well, still hot as hell in his shirtless state, but the kind of hot that made her wish he would join her on the couch, and then one thing would lead to another, and...
Stop perving on your demon protector, she scolded herself. If he was even the slightest bit interested, he'd be on the couch already.
