Page 9 of Demonic Division

A chuckle shakes my chest as I sift through her memories, needing to know it for myself.Dagny. Dagny Olavera.But that’s not the name I tell her.

“You’remine.”

She blinks, some of the haze in her vision clearing as her heart begins to race. “I… am?”

“Yes, little one,” I murmur, brushing my thumb over the pulse point on the side of her neck. “Since the first moment I laid eyes on those pretty brown eyes…”

A tinge of pink creeps across her cheeks as her eyes move from my face, taking in the strange glittering bluewalls. “Where… where are we?” she asks, her voice an awe-filled whisper.

Just as she asks, another faraway screech rattles the ground, causing my spine to stiffen. “Nowhere good, I’m afraid.”

“Oh… how did I get h—” Dagny’s eyes go wide as her memories flood in violent succession, twisting her face with fear and causing her to pull away from me. “You.You brought me here. You… you almost killed me!” Her mouth sets in a firm line as she wriggles against my hold, trying to get free. ”Let me go! Take me back right this minute!”

My smile dims, but I can’t seem to make it go away entirely. She’s just so damncute,thinking I’d take her back. Not now. Not ever. Not now that she belongs to me.

I hold her in place while she continues struggling, running my thumb gently over that racing pulse point. “Relax, little one. I’m not going to harm you.”

“You already have! I was—I could have died! I was going to die if I didn’t… if…” Her voice fades away as she gazes at my surroundings once more, her brows pinching in confusion. “What is this place?” she asks, gazing in awe at the great curved walls of ice.

“An ice tunnel. Hundreds of feet below the ground.” I decide not to tell her about the massive ice wyrms that built them or how the ground is currently shaking with their calls hundreds of feet below us.

A shock of fear travels down the bond, and I can practically feel the panic squeezing Dagny’s throat as she gazes around the space, searching for thin fissures or cracks that could indicate a cave-in.

“There’s no need to worry about that,” I murmur, reading her thoughts. “I’ll keep you safe.”

Dagny’s eyes widen as a wail sounds somewhere in the distance. “You still haven’t answered exactly where weare.”

“Like I said earlier, nowhere good. This is my home—The Far Place.”

As I say the name, a bolt of shock travels down the bond, and my eyes widen slightly as Dagny’s thoughts enter my mind, unfiltered and brimming with fear.

The Far Place. But those were just silly stories. Weren’t they?

“Come again?” Her voice comes out as a choked rasp, and a million possibilities swarm her head, too jumbled for me to make any sense of them.

“Have you heard of this place?” I ask, attempting to sift through her memories to findwhereandhow.I come up empty.

Dagny’s eyes swing around the tunnels once more before settling on my face. She nods slowly, lost to some faraway memory I cannot access. It’s locked beneath too many layers—buried in the labyrinth of secrets Dagny hides from the light.

“I thought it would be… different.”

“Different how?”

She shakes her head, her eyes glazing over. “I’m not sure… it’s not clear exactly.” A crease forms between her brows, and she blinks away the fog before focusing on me. “What are we doing here, Cyprien? Why did you bring me here? Andwhereare we going?”

My mouth tips into a smirk as I pull her to my chest and stand. “I think it’s better if I show you.”

“It might help if you close your eyes,” I murmur, clutching Dagny’s wrapped body tight against my chest. I stare at theopening of the tunnel, my claws lengthening, hooking inward and sharpening to deadly points as my wings materialize just over my shoulders. They beat the air once, twice, and I’m hovering above the ice, gliding straight toward the mouth of the tunnel.

Dagny lets out a little squeal as we shoot through the wyrm hole, my wings beating furiously in order to gain enough momentum. When the tips brush the walls, I snap them in tight, causing us to shoot to the top like a missile.

Blinding silver light shines onto my face as we breach the surface, and though it’s uncomfortable, it’s twice as beautiful, especially after being inside the ice tunnels. Dagny seems to share my sentiments—breathing a sigh of relief that shudders down the bond and has a purr vibrating at the base of my throat.

Now that she’s wrapped in my coat, Dagny’s human body can tolerate the temperature up here, which means she’s able to take in the frozen wasteland that makes up The Far Place. Her eyes scan the horizon as we fly across the land, her body shaking for a reason other than cold.

“Cyprien… where are we going?”

Instead of answering, I clutch her tighter against me, taking a deep breath of her scent as a pleasurable heat builds beneath my skin. “I like the sound of my name on your tongue.”

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