Page 35 of Grabbed By the Guard

I held my breath, sure he would refuse. But he doesn’t. All Glaine as to tell him is that I am his mate—and when I don’t deny it like I did back at the duke’s palace, Loki sees no reason why we should still be wearing the gold chains.

Without anything more than a nod and his purple eyes flaring brightly for a split second, he disappears them.

“I thank you, Loki,” Glaine begins, pausing when the demon mage interrupts him.

Loki clears his throat, then waves his hand near his horns while purposely staring at Glaine.

I follow his stare just in time to see him reach up to stroke one of his own?—

I do a double-take. He’s stroking one of his horns, but he has four. Like Loki, Glaine has two pairs. There’s the one set that I’m familiar with; starting a few inches past his hairline, curving back and over his crown. Another starts at his hairline before jutting straight up.

Where did they come from?

Despite not wanting to rely on Glaine’s essence too much, there are some things that I just know now. Like how demons are immortal. In their shadowy shapes, it’s hard to hurt them. If something wounds them when they’re solid, they can turn to mist and back again, healing up their injury in no time. But not horns, it seems. Like that lost demon who tried to challenge Glaine for me who broke his horn in the fight, if we hadn’t had to put him down, it would’ve taken his horn ages to grow back.

But Glaine… the second the chains were finally removed from us, he sprouted a second pair as it was no big deal.

Then, to my stunned surprise, he acts the same as he says plainly to the other demon, “It’s fine. I have my sword. I will shear them off later.”

Wait. What?

“Glaine?”

He smiles indulgently at me, then turns back to Loki. “I’m glad you came to meet us at the clan’s borders. But I must ask… where is Apollyon?”

“And Lilith?” asks Loki.

Glaine jerks his head in a nod.

I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. I… whoa. Something even weirder just happened. Just hearing that unfamiliar name has my heart jolting, then sinking. A fleeting ache dashes through me, there and gone again, leaving the impression that she’s hurt me.

Well, not me. Glaine.

Lilith? Who is Lilith?

BILLIE

I don’t talk about my past lovers. If he wants to torture himself and dip into my memories, watching me with any other guy I’ve been with, that’s on him. I’m not shy. I don’t regret anything I’ve done, even if I wish I was a better judge of character. Knowing that my whole relationship with Trevor was a farce pisses me off, but I was a willing participant in it until he dropped the bomb on me. But just because I’m not a prude, that doesn’t mean I kiss and tell.

That’s part of the reason the whole essence exchange bothered me at first. To demons, it’s natural. It’s part of their mating tradition. Humans are used to being alone in their own heads. We have a certain degree of privacy we’re used to. So I try not to sneak peeks at Glaine’s past in the hope that he stays out of mine.

I use it to be able to understand the world around me, that’s all. From understanding Sombra to knowing that a white-eyed demon can be demonic—or a visionary—and all the other rules in Sombra that are commonplace to everyone but me. I’m okay with Glaine getting his English download and reading my emotions so that I don’t have to waste my time explaining how I’m feeling.

Right now, though? I’m feeling… odd.

Shit. I’m feeling jealous.

I’m sure, if I search, I can get the answer to my question. Glaine obviously knows Lilith, and whatever happened between him and this other demon… demoness… will be in his memories. However, that would make me the worst kind of hypocrite if I looked. It’s his business. If he wanted me to know about Lilith, he would’ve told me on our long journey to Nuit.

Something tells me that he doesn’t want me to know…

One thing for sure: she can’t be his former lover. For good or for bad, I’m the only one he’s ever had, and we haven’t even fully fucked yet. I let him give me oral, and that’s when he told me that he’d never been intimate with anyone else before.

But when I hear Lilith’s name, I get the distinct impression that he wanted to be with her.

Whatever. Everyone has a past, and I can’t act like his bothers me. Not when he thinks I’m his future and he doesn’t get that I can’t be.

So when Loki’s purple gaze darts over me before he says, “The clan leader and clanmother could sense your approach… and your mortal’s. They allowed me to meet you at the edge of Nuit first because of Kennedy,” I twist a curl around my finger idly, acting as though all of this doesn’t interest me in the slightest.

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