Page 16 of The Demon of the Wood

“How much did you eat?”

She pursed her lips. “I took a few slices.”

That was not nearly enough. “Take the bread, at least.”

She nodded, taking it, and carefully eating. She was clearly holding herself back from devouring it. He wished she would, but knew that it would probably upset her stomach. He remembered the first few weeks out of captivity. It was difficult to eat much because he’d been so used to only a little each day. He had thrown up the first time he’d eaten from gorging himself. He had to train his body to handle the proper amount and so each meal it was a bit more, day by day.

The heat of the room was a stark contrast to outside and made him sweat. He rolled up his sleeves and saw her gaze dart to his arms, examining the scars there. Her eyes lingered on them, something like sympathy showing. This was the first time he’d seen her without a trace of fear. She looked up and started when she realized he’d been watching her.

“Are you curious?” he asked. He didn’t want her to feel more uncomfortable than she already was.

“No,” she replied hastily, but her eyes darted back. “I… well, I thought demons healed so fast that scars were impossible.”

“Rare, but not impossible. The people who did this to me used magic-inhibiting poison so that I would scar and be in pain for a while after.”

Her eyes filled with hurt as she looked back at him, her brow furrowed. “That’s horrible. Who did it?”

He took a bite of the bread and swallowed hard. He hadn’t talked about this with anyone. A few lovers had asked, but he’d brushed it off, the intimacy of it too deep. But it was the first conversation with Melina that wasn’t fraught with her anxiety. It was a chance for him to build trust with her.

“I was captured ten years ago by Hunters from the Guild.”

She blinked, her mind processing it all. “I thought… I thought the Hunters only took demons who were criminals.”

He saw her wary expression return. “They say that. Perhaps they normally do. But they attacked my whole family while we were here on a peacekeeping mission. Killed all the guards and captured me.”

Silence stretched between them as she stared at him. She was weighing her belief in what he said. He didn’t blame her, and he doubted it would tilt in his favor.

“You think I’m lying,” he stated calmly, gently.

She chewed on the bread for a moment, looking out the window. “I think I was told a lot of things about demons that have turned out to be false. So far, you are the most likely to be telling me the truth.”

His breathing stilled at her admission. It felt like progress, like she could get to a point where she didn’t fear him. And that thought was more important to him than he understood at the moment.

eight

Melina

Thenextfewdaysin the cabin passed without incident. Melina found herself less and less frightened by him, though she still felt wary of his presence. But he was so gentle, so patient, so kind. She often looked at the scar on his face, thinking of what he’d been through. She wouldn’t have believed that he’d been captured for no good reason if it hadn’t been for the fact that he was the exact opposite of what everyone else had always told her. Nothing she had been told before could be trusted. Things were different now. And the monstrous demon was looking less and less like the monster in her story.

She also stared at his face because it was quite beautiful. Emotions stirred in her often when he came back into the cabin, his hair mussed from when he took his cap off, his cheeks red from the wind. She knew it was his magic, and she tried to tamp it down, but his kindness made it doubly more difficult.

The snow was not melting, which was to be expected, but Kaemon had made pathways to the forest, and the drifts were less where the tree cover gave a canopy. Cabin fever infected her mind, having only gone outside to relieve herself or to go to the river.

“Kaemon,” she asked on the fourth day, when the sky was bright and warm. “Could I go into the forest and forage?”

She had hatched this plan before. If she could gather some nuts or other items to sell at the market, when everything cleared, she would have money to help her on her way.

He grabbed a leather satchel off the wall and handed it to her. She didn’t mind his proximity so much, and she only startled now when he was behind her, and she was unaware. “Take this with you,” he said. “And call out if you need me. I’ll be able to hear you.”

She grinned, freedom feeling within her grasp. “Thank you!”

She bundled up, slinging the satchel over her torso, and walked into the woods. The snow crunched under her feet and drifted up to her ankles. She trekked a little way in, picking beechnuts as she went along. Her shoes hit something round, and she dug out the snow, finding black walnuts. Letting out a muted cry of joy, she brushed the snow away all around the tree, finding a large crop of walnuts that she happily stashed in her satchel. It was heavy on her shoulder when she was finished, and she would need to go back and empty it.

A felled pine branch struck her with an idea. She gathered the greenery, taking some conifers with her and headed back to the cabin. Kaemon was gone somewhere when she arrived, so she set about making a garland of the pine needles and conifers and hung it on the mantel above the fireplace. The pine smell filled the cabin, and she breathed it in happily.

Kaemon walked in and she gestured broadly at the fireplace, grinning as she showed him her handiwork.

He grinned, too. “Wow, look at that! It’s beautiful,” he said, moving close to her. His hand brushed against her arm, the barest of touches, and she almost melted into it, the way it filled her body with warmth.

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