Page 30 of Devotion

Unknown: It means you didn’t storm in and interrupt that meeting for a far more interesting reason.

Layla: You’re insane.

Unknown: And my insanity intrigues you.

I pause, taking a moment to push him out of my head.

Unknown: Let me come to you.

Hearing him suggest it a second time has another incredulous laugh bubbling in my throat, and I’m officially done.

Layla: You won’t hear from me again. Go to the police. Do the right thing before it’s too late.

I’m sure he has plenty more to say, but I log out and close my computer before he has the chance. This conversation is over, whether he agrees or not.

12

Damien

“Good morning, Sir!”

I stop in my tracks at the sound of small voices calling out to me, then my hand goes up to silence Darwin’s rambling. The children of the flock always get my full attention, and this morning is no exception.

Stooping to one knee, I embrace all three, smiling as they squeeze me from each side. Kids’ hands and faces are almost always smudged with some sort of sticky, slimy filth. So, instead of keeping them at arm’s length,thisis one of many reasons I always wear black.

“And where might you three be headed in such a rush?”

They release me to point in the direction of the door that leads to the playground, their eyes wide with excitement. “Mother said we’re allowed to play for five minutes before school starts.”

Standing, I ruffle one’s hair. “Then you’d better get to it, haven’t you? Time’s wasting.”

Their voices bounce at the pace of their rapid steps as they race toward the exit again. “Goodbye, sir!”

“Playing before school? I’m not sure that’s the best thing,” Darwin says, whispering as we continue our trek down the hallway. “It’ll get them wired before class, and the teacher will have a hell of a time getting them to settle down.”

I sigh and wonder if he emerged from the womb the surly old man he is today. “Relax, Darwin. They’re kids. It’s okay to indulge them every now and then. I’m sure their mother doesn’t do this often.”

Nodding, he retreats a bit. “Very well, Sir.”

He drops the subject there, and I steer us back on topic. “What’s next on the agenda?”

“Well, I was asked to give you this correspondence from Aria first thing this morning.”

Hearing her name, tension spreads through my shoulders. Darwin hands over the folded sheet of paper, and I break the black seal in the center, shaking my head. Everything she does is so fucking dramatic.

My eyes scan her words as we walk, then I toss it into the trash at the corner when we turn. Cole and Darwin’s gazes both stare at the bin as we pass by. They know better to ask what was written in the note, but they likely already have an idea.

With Aria, her agenda is always simple, always incredibly transparent. She’s requested that she be allowed to return to my bed. Apparently, the two-week ban is starting to wear her down, which is why she’s now resorted to desperation and pleading. It must be killing her, wondering night after night who I’ve chosen to warm my sheets in her absence. She doesn’t need to know that the answer to that question would be no one. Her only concern should be that after the stunts she’s pulled lately… it won’t be her.

As my advisors and I turn down yet another corridor, I recall that look I’ve seen in Aria’s eyes lately. She’s got this idea in her head that she’s somehow more important than any other member of this flock, that she’s somehow more important tome.Once, while we lay in my bed, naked and soaked in our own sweat, she reached for my hand, staring at our fingers interlocked in the flickering candlelight. She rambled some nonsense about how every king needs a queen, and how the faithful support of a woman can only strengthen his kingdom. The words went in one ear and out the other because, at the end of the day, she had her spiel all wrong from the beginning, because I could never be a king.

Kings are heroic and selfless, and I’m no one’s hero.

I’m a self-appointed reaper. A nightmare who’d sooner tear out someone’s fucking throat and watch them drown in their own blood than show them kindness.

“Anything else?”

Darwin clears his throat when I ask. I’m guessing my abrupt dismissal of Aria’s message catches him off guard.

---