Page 35 of Demon Daddy's Little Girl

"What's wrong?"

I debate not telling her, but the questions are eating at me. So, I sigh and admit, "I found a picture of a human woman and a baby blanket tucked away in one of the rooms last night. Dezoth doesn't know."

She nods. "And you have questions."

"I shouldn't."

She gives me a smile. "But you do." I bite my lip and nod. "That was Raina."

It hits me then. Something Vashti said so long ago, I dismissed it.

"He wouldn't tell you this, but he needed life back in his home. He's been alone since Raina left, and he doesn't handle it well."

"Raina was his…" I search for a word, but I come up lacking.

"He loved her," Vashti answers. "They were going to have a child together, a little girl the healers said. I'd never seen my brother so... alive. He'd spend hours in the nursery, crafting the most beautiful furniture. The cradle he made..." She shakes her head.

"What happened?" The words slip out before I can stop them.

"The pregnancy was difficult." Vashti sets down her cup. "Demon-human pregnancies often are. But they were so careful, so hopeful. Then one night..." Sorrow flickers across her face. "The healers couldn't save the baby. Raina survived, but she was never the same. The light in her just... died."

My heart shatters then. He was going to have a daughter… I think of the yellow blanket, the purple room, the way he looks at Rose sometimes like his heart is breaking and he's enraptured with her at the same time.

"Oh, gods," I whisper.

Vashti nods, and I see the same heartache in her eyes. "She left three weeks later. Said she couldn't bear to walk these halls, see the nursery. And it's already hard to be a human on this continent. To be a human who loves a demon was harder and she didn't have the strength to face any of it. Dezoth offered to leave everything behind, start fresh somewhere else, but..."

"But she decided to leave him behind, too," I whisper.

"It was…someone else's project. A long time ago."

His words echo through my head, flashes of when he first saw Rose, so many little moments. The whole time I thought I had my walls up, but I get it now. He did, too. I'm scared to trust a demon. He's afraid to fall for someone and lose them again.

And the way he reacted to those hunters possibly targeting Rose…

I cover my mouth, horror filling me. And I told him that we should leave. He wants to protect her, to hold on to us, and I told him we needed to go. No wonder he reacted the way he did.

Vashti reaches for my hand. "He doesn't talk about her. About any of it. Just…be gentle with him?"

I nod, feeling the last of my walls crumble at this new revelation.

I followRose and Dezoth into the kitchen, studying him in a different light. He was busy with work all day yesterday, not coming home until after Rose was in bed.

But this morning, he was up to have breakfast with us. Morning light streams through tall windows, catching the silver threads in his dark hair as he helps Rose climb onto her chair.

"Can you make them extra thin today?" Rose bounces in her seat, violet eyes bright with excitement. "Like paper!"

"As my lady commands." A ghost of a smile crosses his face as he slices the bread with precise movements. The knife looks tiny in his large hands, yet he handles it with surprising delicacy.

"And triangles! No - wait - rectangles!"

"Both?" His golden eyes soften as he glances at her. Softness and sorrow. Like he is looking at what he once could have had and is afraid to get attached again.

"Yes! All the shapes!" Rose claps her hands. "Did you know I had a dream about a purple dragon? He was teaching me magic but he kept sneezing sparkles everywhere!"

Dezoth arranges the toast strips with meticulous care, creating a pattern that makes Rose gasp in delight. "Sneezing sparkles? That sounds rather inconvenient for a dragon."

"It was pretty though!" She picks up a perfectly cut rectangle. "Like stars falling down."

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