Page 35 of Beneath the Watching

“Not a witch, a god. Demon god, to be precise. You’re in the Fourth Realm. Several people your friend James and his cronies are involved with frequent this world. I don’t have the time or the inclination to explain it all to you right now, but I will in time.”

My mouth was parched. “Can I have some water?” Did James and Al know about this place? My blood ran cold. What, exactly, were they all involved in? Subconsciously, I shook my head. They couldn’t know—Madison would’ve told me during one of her monologues.

Stefan stood up and crossed the room, pausing before a door. “Come. You need to get familiar with your home. After tonight, I have to briefly leave you with Benjamin and Jack to take care of some business.”

That would explain the glowing eyes, I realized. For some reason, probably pop culture, I would’ve expected demons to be less appealing. “You’re pretty hot for a demon,” I offered as I got up and went over to him.

“I just told you I’m a demon who trapped you in a strange land and you’re worried about my appearance?” He opened the door and motioned for me to walk through.

We entered a large kitchen, and I noted a hallway and several doors. A large window framed the wall across from us, offering a wide view of a valley with a backdrop of immensely tall mountains. We were deep inside a forest. “I’m not worried. I guess I should be?”

Anxiety over my situation escaped me but anger had begun simmering below the surface. As far as I could tell, Stefan and his buddies had been staking out me and my friends for a while. I still couldn’t identify the exact moment things had begun to change, but it was becoming increasingly obvious something big was under way and I was way behind on the details.

I grabbed Stefan’s wrist, halting his progression toward the refrigerator. “You’re not telling me everything,” I accused him.

He didn’t pull away. “I may have.”

“What would Julian do to me? What does he want with me?” I’d heard Ilya say I could be a substitute for Kiara, whatever that meant, before he’d dismissed the idea. Julian remained a mystery.

“You have magic in you. The music and voice you heard? You have clairaudient magic. You should know this.” He twisted his arm away from me and opened the door, grabbing a bottle of water and handing it to me.

“That never happened until I came here. It's this place doing it to me; that never happened at home,” I retorted.

Stefan closed the door. “I just told you I’m a demon and that you’re in danger, and you’re acting like I told you I made you a sandwich.”

Twisting the cap off the water, I said, “There’s not much I can do about any of that. I’m not sure how to react.” I paused. “A sandwich sounds good.”

“You’re not nearly as quiet here,” he said, ignoring my ill-timed comment.

The cold water felt great on my parched throat as I chugged the contents of the bottle down. “Getting kidnapped will do that.”

He took the empty bottle from me. “You can’t kidnap the willing.”

“I don’t want to be a bother, and I don’t understand why you took me. I know you're attracted to me, and you’ve said some nice things to me, but I’m nobody.” Shame filled my chest, and I glanced down at the floor. I hated putting myself out there like this, giving people things they could use against me or that would come back to bite me.

Every time I’d ever made myself vulnerable, shared how I really felt, it’d been used against me. I’d been mocked, reminded of my place, and expected to shut up. I had always been the unwanted.

Except for Stefan, I argued internally with myself. Sure, he’d played games with me, but he seemed to place value on my words to some degree. He paid attention when I spoke. He looked me in the eye, and he listened.

“You’re not a bother. Do you think I’d go to all this trouble if I didn’t care for you or value you? I’m a busy man but I make time for you, and I will do my best to protect you.”

“But why?”

He stood quietly, a small frown marring his features and I glanced away. He didn’t have an answer for why he cared, just as I didn’t have an answer for why nobody else did, either. I never knew what I did to garner such a reaction from those around me, those who would take on the role of my safekeeping. I’d always done my best to be as cooperative and easy as possible. I’d smile at the right times, use impeccable manners, clean up after myself, only speak when spoken to but for all that effort, it’d never been enough.

The answer was, I was inherently flawed. I’d been born like this. Where some people entered the world and were immediately adored, I was chosen for instant scorn. It was just the luck of the draw, and I couldn’t change what I’d been born into.

A door at the end of the hall banged open and Jack’s heavy footsteps clomped against the hard wood flooring, dress bag draped over his arms. He came to a stop right before us. “Ma’am,” he said with a slight nod.

I glanced at Stefan. “This is your dress,” he said, lifting the package from his friend’s arms. “Follow me.”

We walked further into his living space, and he led us to a set of double doors after narrating the other rooms as we passed them.

There was a library, a study, an entertainment room, another living room, a sunroom, a guest room, storage, and Jack’s and Benjamin’s quarters. He indicated that I had free rein of all the spaces other than his mens’ with the stipulation that I was not to leave the apartment.

Stefan pushed the doors open and we entered his bedroom. “Wait,” I protested. “Where’s my room? I’m staying in the guest room, right?”

“Of course not.” He continued across the floor, opening a door in the far corner. “En suite,” he stated, showing me around.

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