Page 169 of Of Nine So Bold

And meanwhile the gods I’d always thought hated me had rewarded me with abrother.

Discomfort flashed over Niko’s face as I stared at him.

Oh, fuck me. I was a moron in either form. What about howhemust feel about this? Yes, he and I had come to a truce. Quite a good one, since he was willing to share Gwyneira with me.

But that didn’t mean he’d be happy to find out I, of all people, was actuallyrelatedto him.

His mouth moved like he was searching for words, but nothing came out.

My stomach turned to lead. Oh, this was bad. And here I was, standing around like an idiot in demon form, probably making it all worse.

At least this time I had pants on. I should thank Clay for that.

I was stalling.

With a shudder, I tried to shift back, but the demon didn’t want to go. It agreed that, yes, this was awkward. Excruciatingly so, in point of fact. But we had higher priorities here, namely that we were still surrounded by potential enemies who could hurt our treluria.

So what if I was a monster with blood coating my hands? That was a good warning to anyone who’d consider fucking with what was ours.

Embarrassment gnawed at me. Yeah, okay, the demon had a point. Except there were plenty of regular folk here too, andgods, they were staring.

I looked around, feeling a bit frantic. If I’d been in human form, my face would have been burning brighter than a cherry because of how badly I was messing everything up. As it was, I faltered with indecision and then bent to dunk my hands in the pool. It was probably disrespectful as hell to get blood in the holy water, but what else was I supposed to?—

Gwyneira’s hand came to rest on my side. “Demon?”

Oh gods, how did I explainthis? My mind, his body, and neither of us with the slightest fucking clue about how to handle anything at all.

“Breathe,” she whispered.

My eyes darted to her, and gratitude tangled with the confused panic inside me. Her smile was like a lifeline, saving me from drowning.

Saving us both.

Beyond her, the others were gathering, making sure that even if I was distracted she stayed safe among these giants.

My gratitude only grew, and after a heartbeat, the demon decided that, okay, perhaps we could let down our guard—alittle. As long as I swore that if anyone tried to hurt her, he could come back and unleash fucking murder.

A rough breath left me.Deal.

My body shifted back to my Erenlian form.

“You okay?” she asked softly.

My mouth moved soundlessly. I was great except I might be awful. It all depended on whether Niko thought being related to me was the worst thing that could have ever happened to?—

Small splashing sounds brought my thoughts up short. From the corner of my eye, I saw Niko walking closer, Ignatius following.

Shit, I couldn’t even breathe.

“Okay, wait, hold on.” Clay’s urgent words snapped my attention back around.

Oh, fuck. Brock was starting across the room toward us, the knife still in his hands.

The demon surged inside me again. We shouldn’t have shifted so soon. We’d been fools to let our guard down so?—

“Easy,” Dex cautioned in a low voice.

Was he talking to the others or me?

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