Page 31 of Dating the Dealing Demon

Gilly stops with her drink halfway to her lips. “In case you missed it, brother, I’ve been busy. I haven’t had time to speak with her except in your presence that once.” She gives me a cool, pissed-off look before her gaze shoots past me, going icy with rage. “Dupree,” she seethes. “Seems our cousin is taken with your pretty mate.”

I’d been so focused on Gilly these last moments that I hadn’t been watching Val, hadn’t noticed my cousin coming to sit beside her. Whatever he says makes both my mate and Ora laugh. Hells, even Montejanus doesn’t hiss at my smarmy asshole of a cousin. It doesn’t matter that everyone finds him amusing, I don’t trust Dupree with Val. I stand, ready to move her way, when Gilly catches my sleeve.

“Don’t you want a progress report on the kraken’s ship and the portals?” she asks, narrowed eyes fixed on me. “What’s going on, Theo? This isn’t like you. You lost a match. Not just any match—the sea witch’s daughter. When she finds out, she’ll be in this realm demanding retribution from the royal coffers, an inter-dimensional apology, and your head. And you’re here acting like a jealous hobgoblin instead of the crown prince.”

She’s right. I take my seat again. “Any luck on either investigation?”

“The kraken is a slippery bastard. I tracked his ship,The Marauder—what an audacious name—to what the humans refer to as a devil’s triangle. They sailed inside and vanished.”

“What do you mean vanished?”

“Exactly that.” She takes a sip of her drink. “No tech or magic could follow it. When he crawls out of whatever pit he’s hiding in, we’ll find him. Too bad the woman you wanted to match with him wouldn’t take a summoning device.”

I glance toward Val who still insists on wearing the damn thing around her ankle, and my brain immediately goes to a fantasy of following the curve of said ankle up her long leg with my lips to see how far she would let me go.

“Theo,” Gilly snaps. “Get your head back in the conversation. If you’re so worried about losing your mate to Dupree?—”

“I’m not.”

“He’s broken more hearts than you’d think. The humans find him handsome and charming. He’s their rule-breaking bad boy stereotype. Of course, they believe they can fix him through theirlove.” She wrinkles her nose as though the very thought disgusts her. “When we all know he’s not the misunderstood rebel they think he is. No, he’s just a sad little fuck up.”

“I can’t stand our cousin, but I’ve never been able to figure out why you hate him so much.”

“He wants what we have. To be the direct descendants of the king, not the cast-off son of the king’s leech of a younger brother. His bitterness at what he perceives the world has cheated him of? It’ll burn through him and right into us if you let him.” She lifts her chin. “We haven’t been able to discover which demon royal has been opening portals throughout the realms. Maybe it’s because he’s sitting right there underneath our noses or horns or pick your body part.”

I stop glaring at Dupree for simply being near my mate and instead assess him as a real fucking threat. “You think he’s smart enough to orchestrate a scheme as complicated as masterminding the portal problem?”

“No,” she says. “I think he’s that stupid.”

“But it would take coordination between realms and among rulers who can’t agree on anything, let alone keeping a secret from our father.”

She finishes her drink and sets it to the bar with a loud clink. “Like I said, some people adore the fucker. Who knows what he can convince them to do? Perhaps you were right to watch your mate so carefully. I’ll keep searching for answers. You heal up and get her to lust after you as much as Dupree pants after our father’s throne.” She strolls toward the door like solving the realm’s crisis and mine are just another day at the office. It’s so very Gilly.

“Thank you for all the work you’re doing,” I tell her.

She stops. “Why, big brother, I think the human’s making you softer already.”

Could meeting my fated mate have changed me this fast? I can’t afford for her to make me weak. Not if I’m to remain my father’s strong right hand. I would appoint Gilly as my top advisor in a heartbeat, but my dad doesn’t trust anyone but me and my mother to assist him in the harder parts of running the kingdom.

Gilly disappears through the far entrance, and I force myself to sit instead of interrupting whatever bullshit charm Dupree spins for Val and Ora. The man’s such a kiss ass. It makes me wish I’d taken Gilly up on pouring me a drink. There’s no way Val doesn’t see through his empty flattery, right? Except maybe he means it. Maybe Ishouldbe worried about her finding him attractive.

Even worse, what if my sister accuses him correctly of being the royal behind those portals opening where they’re not supposed to? Dupree could’ve been the one behind Ava’s vanishing from my control where I could’ve managed her match and outfitted her with tracking sigils.

The air behind Val and Dupree ripples, a split-second shimmer before the world splits to reveal an opening to another realm.

I call out to my mate, rushing to get to her as a cyclops charges through the portal with a roar.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Val

Theo yelling my name has me spinning. The giant I find coming at me makes me wish I hadn’t looked. My breath catches, andoh my god, I gag on the smell. It’s rotten eggs, the world’s stinkiest cheese, andeau defast food dumpster rolled into one.

What isthat? The one-eyed beast with jagged teeth and a terrible stench runs faster than I could’ve expected given the stumpiness of the short legs beneath his barrel body.

At my side, Theo’s too-pretty cousin Dupree stares, his eyes wide with shock. “What the f?—”

“Cyclops,” Theo calls, shedding his glamour in an instant to reveal his true demon form. “Dupree, get her out of here.”

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