Page 83 of The Female

“And what books would those be?” he asks.

“Whatever you have on demon females.”

The sudden stiffening of Silas’s body and the flexing of his hands tells me I was correct in my assumption. There’s something they aren’t telling me. Hopefully, I’ll find the answers I need in a book.

I still can’t read the demon language, but my tutor, Rock, gave me a tablet that helps translate. I should be able to make do with that.

Silas steps around me and walks down the first aisle, his back stiff as he scans the titles.

“What are you looking to find in there?” His voice is deceptively calm as he reaches out and pulls one off the shelves. “They aren’t going to be very interesting.”

“I want to learn about female births,” I admit. “There were a lot of women at the party.”

Silas pauses, hesitating, before laughing. I can’t tell if it’s genuine as he spins and places a book in my arms. I stare him in the eye as I accept it, silently challenging him to tell me the truth.

He doesn’t, and I shoot him a playful glare before turning and rushing to my office.

20

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CHARLOTTE

ROCK SITS INthe corner of my office reading some thick paperback, and I watch as a shadowy hand pops out of his robe and flips the page. Being a shadow must be hard.

He’s told me his body will gradually materialize as he grows older. Most demons are born into a solid body, but occasionally one will come out too weak to hold a physical form.

Rock doesn’t talk much about his family, but from the information I’ve gathered, it seems his parents weren’t happy to give birth to a shadow. He’s mentioned that they’re Wrath nobility, which isn’t a surprise.

The Wraths seem to value strength above all else.

Rock flips to the next page in his book.

I wonder if he has a hard frame or if his physical body is hazy to the touch, too. I tried asking Gray, but his only response was to suggest I touch Rock and find out. The glint in his eye as he said it, though, tells me doing that would be nothing short of a bad idea.

I’m not going to ask Rock, not wanting to offend him, but I can’t stop thinking about it as his blurry fingers reach out to turn another page.

He’s got to be at least partly solid if he can pick up and move things around.

Rock politely ignores my staring as I trail my gaze down his cloaked figure. He wears shoes, a shiny, black pair that look awfully expensive. He wore simple, faded brown ones before, but I’m sure Gray’s paying him well and is the reason for the upgrade.

“Can I help you, Charlie?” He laughs.

I shake my head and get back to work.

The book Silas gave me was useless, and I’ve taken it upon myself to go to the library and grab three more. The fate watched me the entire time, cracking jokes about my obsession, but I know I’m not crazy.

These books are surprisingly dense, though, and they’re taking me forever to get through. They aren’t even engaging, making the task drag. I’ve learned an incredible amount about demon skincare and the process of childbirth, but nothing at all relating to gender rates.

“What do you know about female births in the demon realm?” I ask.

Rock grows still.

He knows something.

Does everybody but me know what’s going on? I clench my jaw and take several slow, deep breaths to calm down. Getting worked up and angry isn’t going to help me any.

“I don’t know anything. It would be best if you went to Gray or Silas with those questions,” he eventually says.

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