Page 6 of Unleashing Chaos

Jace rolls his eyes and takes a deep breath as I hop onto the barstool next to him.

“What?” I ask with a shrug.

He doesn’t answer but pushes my bowl in front of me. I peer into the dish, all thoughts of Jace’s clear annoyance with me forgotten, and a bright smile consumes my face. Fettuccine alfredo. My dad always has the chefs cook it for our Friday night dinners even though he doesn’t really like it. “Thank you. This is my favorite food. Look at you. You’re already winning on the roommate front. Not that you have much competition. I’ve only ever had six brothers as roommates, and, well . . . anyone could win against them because they are the literal embodiment of—” I stop myself before I say too much. “Well, they’re royal pains in my ass.”

“Hey, Jace has some competition now,” Cannon says as he enters the kitchen, settling on the barstool next to me and flashing a grin before digging into his pasta. “This smells fantastic, Jace. Thanks.”

Jace twirls his fork, wrapping the fettuccine around it, and nods at Cannon before turning back to me. “Six brothers, huh? And none of them ever taught you about cell phones or dating apps?”

I nearly choke on the bite I’d just taken and wipe my mouth with my napkin before speaking. “Six older brothers. They’re all sort of a big deal where we come from, so connecting with others was easy for them. I’m the only one on the dating struggle bus.”

“I’m an only child. I’ll never understand that overprotective big brother thing,” Jace says.

“Oh, no, they’re not overprotective. Far from it. Things are . . . different where I’m from.”

“Isn’t that the truth? I’m starting to believe you’ve been hidden away in some secret compound your entire life. I’ve never seen someone our age so clueless about technology,” Cannon says with a snicker.

I hate that he and Jace think I’m incompetent, but explaining my realm’s technology to them isn’t possible without blowing my cover. The last thing I have time for is house hunting again when they learn they’re living with a demon princess who needs to find a partner to reign beside her for the rest of eternity.

I let out a nervous chuckle. “Right. So, these dating apps . . . you can really meet people on those things? It’s not, like, some kind of scam or something?”

Jace snorts into his pasta and Cannon shrugs. “I mean, yeah, it could be a scam, but most of the time there’s a real person behind the screen. Dating apps are designed to connect people with common interests. You know, farmers, lovers of hot sauce, gluten-free people, even clowns have a dating app. Some people even meet their person online.”

Their person. That sounds like an eternal partner to me. “Their ‘person.’ Like, the person they want to be with forever?”

“If you believe in that shit,” Jace mumbles before Cannon can answer.

My gaze darts to Jace, and he avoids my eyes. “Oh, and you don’t?”

Jace grabs his empty bowl and stands. “There is only right now and the things you can control in this moment. Nothing else matters.”

Without another word, Jace rinses his bowl and loads it in the dishwasher before walking out of the kitchen and down a hallway next to the dining room. Then a door clicks shut, and Cannon and I are left in silence. I clear my throat and shift my gaze to Cannon as I continue eating. “Well, that was awkward.”

“That’s what love can do, Desi. It can turn a man into a jaded human being,” Cannon says, shoveling a forkful of pasta into his mouth.

I look down the hall to where Jace disappeared and then back at Cannon. “Wait, what? You think Jace had his heart broken or something, and that’s why he feels that way?”

“I’d bet my Lexus on it.” That’s a steep bet considering Cannon’s silver sports car is top of the line. I’ve never seen anything like it in Infernis, which is saying something because demons have an obsession with fast, decked-out cars.

“But you believe in love. Right?” I ask.

He sets down his fork and turns to me, his eyes bright as they search my face. “Yes, Desi. I believe in love.”

A strange feeling gnaws at me, and I force myself to look away and back at my pasta to take the last bite. “I’m glad I’m not the only one. That would make doing what I need to impossible.”

“And what is it you’re doing exactly?”

I chew the inside of my cheek and deliberate about what to say. I can’t tell him too much; I’ve only known him for a couple of days and there’s no way I can trust him—or Jace—yet. So, I tell him a bastardized version of the truth.

“I need to find a person to bring home to my father, a person who is suitable for me to marry. Where I’m from, our family is . . . in the public eye, I guess you could say, and it’s important that I—” I clear my throat. “Make a good match. And since I’m in sort of a time crunch, I’m only allowed to be gone a certain amount of time.”

“That’s right! That explains the ninety days. Sounds like something out of one of those chick-flick movies. Hold on, I bet you want me to think your dad is some kind of politician, but he’s actually a king and he’s going to bypass all your brothers and crown you queen because he wants his land to be run by a woman of grace and beauty.”

“Aww, Cannon, you think I’m beautiful?” I say with an exaggerated sigh.

“No.”

The flush deepens and I want to crawl into a hole and dig my way back to Infernis with the fork in my hand. “Oh, no, I know, I was just—”

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