Page 32 of Taken By the Shadow Prince

Mavey scowls. “I’m no fool—I knew you weren’t vampires.” She pauses, then adds, “But I did sort of think you might like your meals a little less... cooked.”

“Raw meat?” My nose turns upward. “Horrendous.” I shake my head and take a drink from my glass. “If that were the case, how do you think the demon witches get on?”

She shrugs. “Perhaps they can choose their diets. Maybe their witch blood is a little stronger.”

I laugh. “In no universe does witch blood run stronger than a demon’s. Nor does fae blood, for that matter.”

Mavey scowls at me, then pauses a moment before asking, “Are there demon-fae, like there are demon-witches?”

I nod. “Of course there are. Why wouldn’t there be?”

She doesn’t bother answering the question before asking another one of her own. “Are there any here? In Atheya?”

“Of course,” I repeat. “But I didn’t invite them to our little meeting, considering we’re enlisting these people tokillthe fae, essentially. I’m not sure they would have agreed.” I debate, then add, “Also, it wasn’t a part of our deal.”

Mavey shoves her plate away from her and stands, as if suddenly deciding that she’s tired of conversing. Fair enough, I suppose. “I’m going to shower before we go,” she tells me. “Soak it in while I can before we go back to bathing in icy streams.”

I nod, smiling. “Would you like me to come with you? Distract you some more?”

She waves a dismissive hand through the air. Afaedismissing ademon. And I don’t even say a thing about it. “Not right now,” she mutters as she stands, taking her glass of juice with her, lifting it to her lips, and downing the rest of the liquid before setting the now empty glass back down on the table.

“But later?” I only mean to get a rise out of her, but the words, their implication, set fire to my bones.

Mavey just shrugs. “Probably.” And then she turns and walks away, as if she hasn’t nearly shattered me with those words.

I can’t help but wonder if she knows what she does to me, or if it’s all accidental. Perhaps she truly is oblivious to how capable she is of driving me mad, or perhaps she knows exactly what she’s doing and finds a morbid satisfaction in toying with me.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it.

I definitely do. And it might be my greatest weakness, the things that this mortal girl does to me, but I find that I wouldn’t change them for anything—that I woulddoanything tokeepbeing undone by her.

I watch her go until I can no longer see her before turning my gaze to the city below me. The view from this balcony is rather stunning, really, especially with the morning sun glowing against the rooftops.

Home.

For me, it always has been, and it always will be.

Will it ever be home for Mavey? Or will she refuse to accept it, and simply bide her time in these coming years until she can return to Aligris. I have to admit, I can’t quite figure out what it is that makes all these people so endeared to it. I certainly wouldn’t start a war over such tainted land, especially when conquering a far less problematic country would be much easier than taking the time to save theirs.

Mortals, I suppose, often find themselves indebted to nostalgia. To memories that they are desperate to bring to life again, though you never truly can replicate them. I’ve made bargains with many people in their efforts to bring the past into the future—and most of them end up regretting it for reasonsoutsideof the price that they must pay to me.

I can’t think of a single thing I would give to relive even a moment of my past—and since there’s a lot, that’s quite a statement to make. But I find that I’m much more partial to the future—to what it holds for me, the visions I have had of it I can only hope will come true.

The visions. From a bargain I made so long ago, a bargain that, when I searched for insight as to what it might lead to, how this one little instance might change the world, showed me her.

Mavey.

And not just Mavey, but...me, too. Showed me us, taunting me with what I did not have and what I would do anything to obtain.

It’s hard to say what decisions will be the ones that change everything, when there are so many shifting factors, so many slight changes that might just have the largest of effects.

I think I’d laugh in my face, if all of this, everything I’ve done and worked toward, catastrophically backfired on me. Not that I wouldn’t deserve it—of course I would. I’ve done some very, very bad things just for the opportunity to be here right now.

I pray karma chooses to have mercy on me.

Even if praying doesn’t do us demons much good.

Chapter 19

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