Page 80 of Immortal Throne

CHAPTERTWENTY

Iwalked into the dining hall beside Ryker, and nothing happened. None of the conversations stopped. Dishes didn’t fall to the stone floor with a clatter. No one even looked at us, too busy chatting and shoveling food into their faces.

But surely, they had to know. Surely, everyone knew or at least heard my world falling down around me and getting shattered.

I was confused.

My emotions were a mess, while my body hummed with vitality and an annoying warmth kept squeezing my chest every time my gaze settled on Ryker.

Surely, everyone knew.

Chupey brushed past me and headed for the area that provided food for familiars and left me to my jumbled thoughts. What the hell was I supposed to do now? Did Ryker and I move our separate ways? Is this when Ryker would reveal it was all an act? God, if he did that, I’d have to cock-punch him. And I’d grown rather fond of his junk.

It didn’t seem like an act.

Everything certainly felt quite real this morning, especially when we decided to go another round in the sack before breaking for food.

“Come on.” Ryker jerked his chin to the right. “This way.”

He led me to a table where a familiar-looking demon sat with a platter of food in front of him.

“Slade, Sloane. You two know each other, right?” Ryker had many qualities, but making introductions wasn’t one of them.

Slade froze with his fork halfway to his mouth, syrup dripping from the chunk of pancake. His gaze darted between the two of us. Instead of taking another mouthful of his breakfast, he set the fork down and swallowed. “I see things have…changed.”

Ryker sat down on the bench across from his friend and patted the seat beside him.

“Uh…” Yeah, I didn’t need a side of awkward with my pancakes.

“Sit down,” Ryker said. “Slade won’t bite.”

No. Slade looked more like he’d rip the head from his enemies and roar over their twitching remains, but okay. I slipped onto the bench beside Ryker and sat quietly while Ryker loaded pancakes onto my plate from the main platter.

Pancakes.

In Hell.

Who knew?

Slade continued to stare at me. He reached for a glass of water and took a long drink. “You didn’t strike me as the quiet type,” he finally said.

“Still processing.” And I was. Sitting next to Ryker, talking to him, sleeping with him, it all felt so natural and right, like I should’ve been doing this my whole adult life despite my initial reaction to despise everything about him.

I didn’t want to go back to hating him, but we also still had to compete for the same prize. Neither one of us was going to back down. I wasn’t the type to set aside my dreams for a man, and I wasn’t about to start now.

“Yeah,” Slade said. “Me, too.”

Ryker grunted and ate with relaxed efficiency as if none of this bothered or concerned him at all. But he could only dodge his friend’s questioning gaze for so long.

Ryker set his fork down and sighed. “Okay, go ahead and ask.”

Slade’s gaze slid to me.

“Real subtle,” I muttered.

“You can ask in front of her,” Ryker said, taking a sip of water.

“What does this mean?” Slade waved his finger between us.

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