Page 22 of Raising the Sun

I glared, but the blush spreading high on my cheeks no doubt ruined its heat. “Toy, singular.” I crossed my arms over my chest to seem intimidating. “And stop taking the piss.”

“Then stop asking ridiculous questions.” Finally, he peered up at me, but one pass over my stance had his eyebrow rising. I deflated, and his focus returned to the page. “You are back early, my dear.”

Huffing, I threw myself onto the empty side of the sofa, sagging into the cushions. “Well observed.”

I caught his small, amused smirk. “Bad day?”

“Nothing new.” I waved that off, breezing past the topic. “Do you even like reading? Or have you just got nothing better to do?”

“I could murder your neighbour.” His tone didn’t change, his response so easy it was as if he’d suggested a game of cards. “He is very inconsiderate. Mowing his pathetic lawn in the wee hours of the morning.”

I stared at him in disbelief, but he wasn’t in the least bit arsed. “Ten o’clock isn’t thewee hours! And no, you can’t kill Kevin. He’s nice.”

He was also Moxie’s owner, the sweet little cat that hung around here. At least, I suspected he was. Her name waswritten on her collar, so I’d just assumed her address since she typically came sauntering over from that general direction. Regardless, it would break my heart to see her separated from him. Not that I was even dignifying Ash’s lunacy with a second thought.

Just saying.

“Then, no,” he said with a condescending half smile, “I do not have anything better to do than read. At present.”

I chewed the skin from my lip, a nasty habit I’d developed as a way to keep quiet. He’d warned me not to ask stupid questions, but there was something I had to clear up. “You didn’t steal that book, did you? Because I know the librarian, and she would have my guts for garters if she—”

Ash scoffed in offence. “What do you take me for?”

“Er… a demon with zero morals, who just brought up killing my neighbour for the offence of cutting his grass?”

He shrugged. “Fair enough. Though no, I did not steal it. I haven’t left your cosy little den since I got here.” His gaze lifted before he tacked on a nonchalant, “You haven’t permitted it.”

“What?” I felt my face pale. “I have toallow yououtside the flat?”

“I am tied to you, my dear,” he said again, as if I’d somehow forgotten that part. “Even with your blessing, I cannot straytoofar from you—or the place of my summoning—for long. But due to my immense power, I could venture out if and when you were not in need of me. Even if only to your neighbour’s garden and back.”

“You need to tell me this shit! I don’t know what I’m doing!” I lurched forward, gesturing wildly as I spoke. “What would’ve happened if I’d just saidfuck thisand skipped the country? I even went back to The Magic Shop without asking you to come with, and you didn’t say anything.”

Ash reacted to my frustration by closing his book, a finger slotted between the pages to keep his place. I had his attention, at least.

“As I’ve said, I have to be beside you or in the vicinity of the summoning circle. There would have only been adverse effects if you’d taken me to thismagic shopand left me there before ‘skipping the country.’I’d have felt compelled to follow you, or withered out of existence had you ordered me to stay.”

My jaw dropped in horror. “Fuck, okay.” Why was summoning a demon such a fucking hassle? “Then, yes, you’re absolutely free to leave whenever you want, just… please don’t murder anyone. Or, you know, show my peers your demon form. If it can be helped.”

He dipped his head in a mockery of a bow. “Message received.”

“And, let me guess, it’ll be wilfully ignored?”

“Yes.”

I glowered at him, pointing an accusatory finger. “I mean it, behave yourself. I don’t need any more reason for people to avoid my shop.”

He sniffed loftily and went back to reading. “I wouldn’t dream of getting caught, pet, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Huffing a laugh, I flopped into the cushions again, letting my eyes drift shut and my linked hands rest on my stomach. “Whatever you say.”

Silence fell between us.

For all of three seconds.

“So…” I cracked one eye open. “I can control you?”

Ash stilled, and it made me regret asking. “You can control my physical presence, to a degree. You can send me to the edge of our bond’s perimeters, and call me back whenever you are in need, but that is the extent of it.”

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