Page 30 of The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate
“I’m sorry,” Belial rumbled, thinking that the silence was me having a hard time talking about it and not getting lost in the wonder of my job.
There was a certain magic to being a baker. To seeing your creations come to life, knowing that someone, somewhere, would be the one to enjoy them. I was providing happiness into people’s lives, one roll, cookie, or pastry at a time. It was a good life.
“Don’t be. He was an abusive piece of shit,” I acknowledged eventually, attempting to brush off the trauma as best I could. “He was killed in here. By a Fae, I later learned. Then it tried to come back and kill me, but another Fae killed it.”
Belial grunted, his only response to my description of my father. “I was at the trial for the woman who unleashed the being that killed your father.”
“Trial?”
He nodded, but that seemed to be the end of his answer. “What about your mother?”
I shook my head. “I never knew her.”
Belial softened at that.
“That’s how we met,” I explained to him, my hands working automatically as I talked. “I wanted to bind a minor demon to speak to him. Get him to finally tell me about her. About why she’d left.”
I buried my head, focusing on getting the consistency of the dough just right before splitting it off into individual pans to let it rise. I didn’t need to say more. He could tell how I was feeling anyway. No need to lose my composure talking about the hurt of being abandoned by her and left to grow up being beaten and yelled at daily.
Belial, too, worked in silence. The only sound was the clean dishes clanking together as he put them on the rack next to the sink to dry.
“I lied.”
My head came up and around to find him standing at the end of the table, looking anywhere but at me.
“I’m sorry, pardon?”
“I lied,” he repeated. “To the person you heard me speaking to. I lied to them.”
“About what?”
“Betraying you,” he said.
I faced him, trying to peer into his mind. Unlike earlier, he was no longer shielding himself. He wasn’t hiding anything. He was telling the truth.
Unless he can do more than just shield his mind. What if he can make me think he’s feeling something that he isn’t? Could this all just be an elaborate setup?
My gut told me otherwise.
“Why would you lie about that?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“Because it’s what they would expect me to do. What I should be doing.”
I let my surprise show. “What youshouldbe doing? Why would they care? The only person I did anything to was you.”
“I know,” Belial agreed. “But, Lily, when you tried to do that, you broke the rules.”
“Rules?” I echoed, trying to fight the sinking sensation in my stomach.
He nodded. “There’s a system set up. In the world of magic. To stop people from breaking the rules. And if you break them, they come after you. To punish you.”
“Magical law? Is that what you mean? Does that make you some sort of policeman? Magic police?”
“Not quite. The person I was talking to …theyare part of that enforcement arm. I’m …” He paused, frowning. “I don’t know if there’s a good term that applies. Special agent, perhaps? Regardless, what it means is that since I’m not punishing you, they’re going to come for you.”
“Come for me?” I squeaked, terrified at the prospect of magic policemen coming to arrest me.
He nodded.
