Page 14 of Their World

“You … would come back?” he asked softly.

Looking back at him, I frowned and said, “Of course. I’ve been nothing but honest with you, Jol. I want to help you and your people.”

“Only because we’re threatening to take over your world,” he countered.

I shook my head. “No, because I want to help. My goal has always been to help those less fortunate than me. I don’t know what war the Grand Advisor told you about, but I don’t think itneeds to resort to that. I feel a sort of … kinship with you and your people. As friends, we can help each other.”

“Friends?” he asked and smiled softly. “I like the sound of that.”

“Eat!” I said quickly. “We can talk boring politics and things later. Your food will get cold out here from the wind.”

He gave me a soft smile and resumed eating.

Jol seemed like a kind male, so why wasn’t he mated? I had no idea how old he was or what he had dealt with other the last decade.

“Jol, why aren’t there very many female demons?”

His eyes widened. “Oh, there are. The females just prefer to live together in communities away from the city. They hunt together and raise their children together. They’ll come to the city to find mates or buy items, but prefer to live their lives separately from the males.”

“And none of these females caught your eye?” I asked and leaned my chin on my hand now that I’d finished eating.

“There was one,” he admitted and a dark cloud seemed to settle over him, “but she was killed.”

An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach as I guessed what he was going to say next.

“By one of your demon hunters.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I can’t imagine how painful that must have been.”

“Death is part of life,” he said and shrugged, but I could see the painful memory still lingered in the tenseness of his shoulders and the ways his eyes narrowed.

After he finished eating and we cleaned our dishes, I went back to the courtyard to check on the plant. Jol hadn’t said I couldn’t come back out here, and since it was part of the castle, I figured it was safe. Dhun had whined a bit, but followed me because he didn’t want to leave me alone. Zoman was nowhereto be found, so I assumed that meant Jol felt I was safe enough without him as a continued guard.

The little plant with its two green leaves looked the same as when we’d left it and Zoman had added a chain link metal cage around it to keep birds and small animals from eating it.

Dhun walked around the courtyard, nose to the ground, snuffling loudly. Every now and then he would pause, tilt his head to the side, and start to dig a hole.

“What are you doing?” I asked after the third hole.

He stuck his snout into the hole, huffing loudly, looked back at me and barked.

I walked over and knelt to look in the hole, but there was nothing there. “I don’t understand, Dhun. What do you want? What are you looking for?”

He ran over to the plant, nudged the cage gently, then ran back to the hole.

“Oh! You think there’s a plant here?” Could he smell the plant?

Barking, he danced in a circle.

Setting my hands into the hole, I closed my eyes and tried to feel for life. Immediately, less than three inches below, I felt it. “You’re right!” I shouted as my eyes flew open and I looked at Dhun. “There is life here! Can you smell them?”

He barked and bobbed his head.

“Dhun, I need water and more of those cages. Can you find Zoman or Jol and?—”

“Well, what do we have here?” an unfamiliar voice said in a strange purring tone.

Looking up, I stared at the demon as I tried to figure it out. It had feline ears, a feline-human combination face, and a tail that was swishing back and forth behind it. It reminded me of Triston when he was in warrior shift, though his tiger stripes alwaysshowed and this demon’s body was devoid of fur. The tail had short quills like Dhun’s.

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