Page 31 of The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate
“What do I do?” I whispered.
“We have to go,” Belial said firmly. “You can’t stay here. You aren’t safe anymore. We have to leave.”
Leave the bakery? Go on the run?
“I can’t do that,” I told him, my brain shutting down any notion that I was some sort of criminal. It wasn’t possible. I hadn’t meant to do it.
If Belial was willing to forgive me, then why would the magic police come after me? It didn’t make any sense.
“We have to, Lily.”
I hated how my name sounded coming from him. Hated it because it sounded so good.Hesounded so good. How was that even fair? He was shockingly good-looking,andhis voice was sexy?
“No, you don’t understand,” I said, shaking my head. “I can’t.”
I couldn’t leave. Shutting the bakery for a day would mean it was over. Then what would I do with my life?
“Youhave to,” Belial said, frustration showing on his face and bleeding through our connection. “Don’t you understand? You have to. For your own good.”
“I can’t,” I said stubbornly. The bakery was the only chance I had ever to see her again.
How could I give that up?
“Lily, I—”
“I’m not leaving, Belial,” I said sharply. “Maybe you should, though. I was safe here before you came along!”
He rocked back, his neck muscles flexing as he sought to remain calm. On the inside, he was anything but.
“This isyourfault,” he growled. “Not mine, okay? You should remember that. I didn’t ask for it. You did this by meddling in forces you didn’t even understand. Did you read a book on what you were trying to do? Ask around about what could happen? No! You just went for it. Now, I’m here, and I’m trying to shield you from those consequences. So, don’t get mad at me!”
“Shield me?” I fired back, fear fueling my anger. “Really? Is that what you call tricking me into signing your contract? Some sort of bondage where you have my soul?”
Belial grew calm and still, locking eyes with me, the yellow flaring extra bright, it seemed. “Remember, Lily. It’s a two-way street. You have mine as well.”
I rolled my eyes. “You probably don’t even have one if you go around doing things like this.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Belial’s anger spiked so suddenly that I backpedaled across the bakery, suddenly worried he would come at me.
But he didn’t.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said in an icy tone. “You don’t know what I’ve risked for you. None at all,Lilith.”
Then he stormed past me and out of the bakery. It was the third time he’d left like that.
But it was the first time I regretted how things had ended and wished he would return.
He never did.
Chapter Seventeen
Belial
Iwatched from my perch on the rooftop as the lights in the apartment building across from me slowly went out as the night deepened. I didn’t move. Shadows gathered the light around me, twisting it away, hiding me in the darkness, even though I was sitting in plain sight.
Within that absence of light, I sat and stewed.
Stubborn woman. Why won’t she listen to what I have to say? Doesn’t she know I’m trying to help her?
