Five

There was a moment of pause while I debated showing the paper to Demetri. He was a demon, a King no less. While that didn’t necessarily make him untrustworthy, there was a knot in my stomach at the thought of giving him my parent’s work.

“Did you not look through this while I was sleeping?” I narrowed my eyes at him. It appeared that he was experiencing this for the first time as he took inventory of the room.

“No, you had not welcomed me into this room before, and it is not the most trusting room for my kind.” He lifted the fabric from the wall with his pointer finger, grimacing at the sight of the markings on the wall. It didn’t escape my notice that he subtly moved back toward the door after letting the sheet drop.

“Welcomed you into this room? What are you a vampire?” My snide remark was met with a look of exasperation. He leaned again the door frame before hissing and standing up straight again.

“No, but I would not have been able to open this door on my own. There is very powerful magic at play in here. If you hadn’t scuffed the pentagram on the floor, I would have been trapped inside of it upon my arrival.” He nodded his head toward the marking, and I looked over to see a small scratch in the design where I had walked across it the night before.

“That is good to know.” I watched him for a moment, noticing the way he stood tall with confidence, even when he was obviously uncomfortable even being in the doorway of this room. The air around him exuded royalty in a threatening kind of way. It didn’t seem like a birth right but rather a title that he would have taken by force.

Then again, it seemed as if I knew nothing about my own lineage. I had no right to make assumptions about others.

The paper crinkled in my hands as I attempted to flatten a newly acquired crease from the storm against my thigh.

“I know nothing about your kind beyond the horror stories that humans tell.” I started, unsure how to approach this conversation.

“Many of which are true.” He stated calmly as he widened his stance and crossed his arms in front of his chest. My hand twitched with the paper in my grasp as I turned my attention down at it.

“I need to know if I can trust you.” It had been evident that him coming here was accidental, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to hold a grudge and kill me as soon as I freed him. As alone as I was in the world, I wasn’t ready to die.

“Our fates are tied, my little witch.” His shoulders twitched forward, and for a moment I pictured the large wings erupting from his back but they never did. The movement appeared to be prideful as his chin lifted, but the emotionless expression on his face made me think he was irritated by that fact.

“That does not clarify anything for me. You have already threatened my life. I did not mean to bring you here, and I am hoping that we can work together to find a solution to free you without there being any resentment or violence between us.” My eyebrows raised as I tried to gently hint toward my concern for my personal safety.

The corner of his mouth twitched before he spoke, confusing me further. All of these little movements could be signs of deception and lies, but I also did not know him well enough to know if they were just part of his mannerisms. “There will be no resentment. My decision has been made. Why would I wish ill-will on my potential mate?”

A deep breath left me at his words, and I openly rolled my eyes. “You keep saying that, but we are not compatible to ‘mate’ with each other, whatever the hell that even means. I believe the bond is influencing you. I just wanted to know that you would not just off me one day for getting you into this mess.”

My phone slid out of my back pocket easily, and I hurried to type in the text into G****e Translate, hoping for some clarification. The translation still did not make sense. I knew there were several languages that did not directly translate word for word, but this was like reading a drunk Shakespeare while sleep deprived.

“Seraphina,” Demetri called out to me, eyeing the device in my hand with disgust. He un-crossed his arms and reached out, silently demanding the paper in my hand.

Giving in, I walked toward him. Warmth spread across my chest and neck as his eyes travelled up my legs watching me greedily as I moved toward him. My fingers tightened on the paper for a moment as he tried to pry it from my grip without ripping it. A deep breath in calmed me, and I released it, sending a prayer up that it was not a mistake.

Not that it would be heard. I highly doubt a witch who summoned a demon king would have their prayers listened to, let alone answered.

He scanned over the paper, his eyes widening slightly as he did so. “Very interesting.”

I waited impatiently as he read it over several times before letting out a sardonic laugh and rubbing his large hand down the front of his face. My pointer and middle finger rhythmically tapped against the exposed skin of my thigh, and the soft flesh on the inner part of my bottom lip found its way between my teeth. “Well.”

“We are more than bound. This is some dark shit at play. What would an innocent little witch be doing with such dark magic?” His question sent goosebumps to rise along my skin, and I shivered at the thought of being able to do something so apparently evil without meaning to. Was there anything else in my life that I had done unintentionally? Had I ever hurt anyone…killed anyone?

“I could guess that much. I just allegedly summoned a spawn of Satan!” Demetri cringed at that, but I turned away and began to pace.

“Come here.” His curt demand had me stopping in place. It felt like an instinct to give in to his requests. A small part of me wanted to please the man before me, while the rest of me resisted the urge to have anything to do with him.

His gaze moved back to the paper, and curiosity got the best of me. I moved closer to him until I was an arm’s length away and lifted my chin to get a look at the paper that I had already read multiple times, as if I were expecting to find something new.

Demetri’s hand moved forward and spun me around. Before I had time to process what was happening, he had pulled me into him with his bare chest up against my back. With his arms around me, trapping me between them, he held the paper in front of us.

I knew it was just a ruse to get me close to him as I didn’t need to see the paper to understand what he was saying, but my body was working against me. There was an unnatural pull that I couldn’t resist drawing me in. So, instead of listening to my head, my body sank into his as he began to speak.

Even though he held the paper in front of us, I knew he wasn’t looking at is as his breath hit my neck and his lips grazed my ear.

“What you cast, my little witch, was spliced. The original design was to bring me to you.” His words came out like a siren’s song, and I shivered. “These additions, they were to bind my life essence to yours.”

I turned my head, surprised by the words but pausing when I saw how close his face was to mine… how close his lips were to mine. Knowing magic was real, I knew there had to be some at play right now between us. “What does that mean?”

“That means if you die, I die.”