Page 93 of The Devil and His Sparrow

I wasn’t afraid of myself anymore.

“He’s a really amazing guy,” I whispered.

The music playing overhead suddenly slowed and turned into a soft melodic rhythm, and people broke apart to slow dance with a parent, sibling, or friend.

“I can tell.” Noya paused and pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I hope I find someone someday who looks at me the way he looks at you.”

My heart stuttered, and I bit my lip. “The way he looks at me?”

While I’d noticed the lingering looks from the demon, there had been a part of me that thought I was reading too much into it. But Noya had seen something, too. The knowledge made the air thin in my lungs.

“You haven’t noticed?” Noya asked with wide eyes. She laughed softly and gave me a pointed look. “It’s the same way you look at him.”

I stared at her, too dumbfounded to do more than uselessly open and close my mouth. My cheeks warmed. Had someone turned up the heat in the room?

A throat cleared.

Noya and I turned to find Zagan, flanked by lots of giggling patients.

The demon smiled at me and offered me his hand. “Would you like to dance?”

What Noya and I had been discussing was still on the forefront of my mind, and now, I had an audience of teens, eagerly watching as Zagan held his hand out for me. I practically moved solely by instinct, taking hold of his outstretched hand. The moment my skin touched his, though, a sense of rightness flooded my system, like my hand had been made to fit in his. The nerves and confusion over my sporadic feelings slowly seeped away as I followed my demon to the dance floor.

He swung me around in a grand flourish, and I was laughing when he finally pulled me in, clutching my hand and holding the small of my back with the other. I squeezed his hand and rested my free one on his shoulder, offering him my own smile.

“The cameras finally left,” Zagan murmured softly, his voice for me alone. “I figured it would be safe to ask you to dance now.”

“You wanted to ask me to dance?” I teased with a raised brow.

He shrugged and feigned indifference. “I was being forced into it. Did you know? Teen girls are relentless when they want something. They’ve been breathing down my neck all evening about asking you.”

I glanced at the teens, who sure enough, sat at nearby tables, watching us with their chins in their hands and stars in their eyes. Laughing under my breath, I looked back at Zagan. “They definitely seem invested.”

Zagan stepped back and raised his arm as he spun me around with ease then pulled me back into his strong arms again. When my hand found his shoulder and his found my waist, his eyes had softened at the edges. “You look beautiful, by the way. Absolutely stunning.”

There was no fighting my grin. “Thank you. Addie helped me with everything.” I let my gaze drink in his fitted black tux and the crisp black shirt beneath it. My insides warmed with flames of desire, and I had to swallow hard before saying, “You look very nice, too. I like you in this outfit.”

He quirked a pierced brow. “What about out of it?”

I laughed but quickly tried to stifle the sound so as not to gain even more attention than what we already had. “I definitely like you that way, too.” I bit my lip as guilt tried to weave its way through me. “Also, I wanted to apologize. I know you were forced to do this party tonight. Because of me and … and those rumors.”

Zagan had told me about the articles circulating once he found out from Leo. I didn’t know what to think or how to feel about them at first. The fact that people thought we were dating made me feel kinda good, which was immediately followed by feeling silly. Because really—Zagan and me? Sure, I was his bond that he fucked, but our arrangement was solely something forced onto him.

If there wasn’t demonic magic tying us together, he’d get rid of me in an instant. And if an opportunity presented itself where I could die in an accident, he’d stand by and watch. It was nothing against me. It just was. He’d been forced to keep me around by magical demands, and that was the only reason we stood here. No matter what our friendship meant to him, his freedom meant more.

“Don’t apologize,” Zagan replied. “I don’t mind it.”

It was my turn to quirk a brow at him. “But it’s an inconvenience, which we both know you hate.”

“This party might be for Bloomings benefit, but I’m here for you. And nothing about you is an inconvenience.”

I pressed my lips tightly together and stared up at him. His blue eyes never left mine. They were unwavering and as steadfast as his words. He meant what he said, and that … that confused me. I’d been nothing but an inconvenience since we’d met. He thought he was venturing down one path, and I constantly threw walls up on it, forcing him to turn around and venture elsewhere. Everything about us was “inconvenient.” Everything about us was lack of choices.

So why had I never felt freer?

“Iyla.”

I snapped out of my thoughts to look down at Gemma. Gone was the ecstatic little girl, and in her place stood a distressed, fidgeting child. Her frantic eyes moved to the doorway, and I followed them, already figuring who I’d see.

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