Page 30 of Married to the Devil

“I was glad you agreed to do this. But…” I trial off.

The corner of his mouth kicks up. “I go from being happy I can help you to being wary of this whole mess.”

“What do you think his game is?”

Ben doesn’t answer for a moment. Uncertainty dances over his features before he finally answers. “I’m not sure. I just know I couldn’t reject his offer.”

His lashes are thick, and his dark eyes silently ask me if he should go. Soulful. That’s what they are. Ben is here for me. That fact settles a little of the unease of this, only a little.

He’s not telling me everything. It was there on his face when he was contemplating how to answer me, an ill-timed wince. I’m not the most observant witch, but Ben is hiding something.

“I guess we are playing this by ear,” I breathe. Even with his secrets, I don’t want to send Ben away. He’s my ally even if Stoneheart teased fantastical options that seem in direct conflict to his prior rules.

I bite my lip, wondering what to do next. I thought I’d be focusing on the disappearances but that has been taken off my hands. I’m unsure how to proceed.

Do I meet with my aunt?

What else do I have left in my life now that I’ve accomplished the revenge I craved, other than my position in this territory?

For better or worse, I’m the lady of this territory, and that fact paired with how ill-equipped I am makes me want to vomit. And that’s without adding Stoneheart or how I feel about the remaining Leonids into the mix.

Ben is suddenly next to me as if drawn by my distress.

“Hey.” Ben’s voice is as gentle as the hand he places on my arm. My bare arm. We both freeze, and our gazes drop to that point of contact. I don’t pull away from him, and he doesn’t yank his hand back. Instead, his thumb moves in circles on the inner crease of my elbow. The sensual tickle contradicts his warm comfort.

“We’ll figure this out,” he says, the words a crooned promise. “Everything. The territory. Stoneheart. The Leonids. We’ve got this. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

If Stoneheart doesn’t rip his hands off now that he’s undoubtedly rubbed his scent into my skin.

That detail is something I can solve.

I blow out a breath. “Thank you.”

Ben pulls away with a nod. His support postpones my panic for later. Now—now I have something to work on.

My soldering gun is exactly where I expect it to be.

10

BEN

I should have told her.

But what exactly should I have said? That I may not know what Stoneheart is planning but when he threatened me last night it was with the care of a lover? A seducer. That only begs more questions, and I could have been mistaken.

I should have saidsomething, anything to dispel this tightness in my throat.

I’m back in the reading chair watching Stella work. It’s all I can do to keep from blabbing things I don’t understand.

I’m here to be helpful, not to add more confusion.

It would be a distraction to whatever charm she’s crafting, and the sight of her intense focus is too captivating to risk saying anything.

I stay silent in the quagmire of my feelings and focus on being busy to keep from staring at the witch I’ve only ever seen chaos from funnel it into magic. I check off various tasks for Kalos I can perform remotely while I run searches in our territory for the same type of disappearances that are plaguing the Leonid territory.

Nothing. The relief is short lived. The stark differences between the two territories mean that something has been rotting the underbelly of the territory that Stella has so readily claimed ownership of.

I reach out to various contacts that live between the two territories with carefully worded inquiries. With each reply it becomes clear that though there’s no proof, people are suspicious. Tempers are short, leading to more altercations.

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