Page 7 of Kiss of a Hellish Prince

“Tori. Tori! Can you hear me?”

It felt like someone was yelling directly into my headache. The rough-textured rubber flooring scratched at my legs, but my head was on something soft and warm that smelled good, like spices and home. My eyes opened slowly. I was lying on the gym floor with my head in Rune’s lap.

Murmur knelt next to me, holding something cold and damp to my head. “Hey, dollface. There you are. You passed out on us, and I think you hurt Evie’s feelings. So not cool.”

“What happened?”

“Well, I’m assuming Rune said or did something stupid, and you ran and crash-landed in our little training room where you saw Sif and me spar. She stabbed me, and you thought she hurt me, and I am moved. You were all scared for my safety and crying, thinking I died. It was sweet. Really, I am touched.”

“Touched in the head maybe,” Rune grumbled.

“Then you saw our darling little Evie and her wings, and you looked like you were going to freak, so I tried to calm you down, but I think I gave you a bit too much juice. Sorry.” Murmur said with a small smile, color rising on his cheeks as he cast his eyes to the side. “Evie thought it was her fault, so she ran off, and Sif is taking care of her while Rune and I make sure you are okay and answer some questions we are sure you have,” Murmur finished, ignoring Rune’s interruption.

Sitting up, I looked over my shoulder at Rune resting on the floor. “I can ask anything, and you will answer?”

“Not a chance. I owe you some answers, and we will be fair. But we can’t spill all our secrets to any outsider. Even an adorable one like you.” Murmur tapped my nose with a smirk.

I knew Murmur wouldn’t be straight with me. He was too talkative. He could spin lies and bullshit into reasonable-sounding answers. Something told me that Rune would be more of a straight shooter, or at the very least a less practiced liar.

I wanted answers from Rune. I shifted around so I was facing him. “What are you?”

“Well,” Murmur started, “I am a sexy heartbreaker extraordinaire, a visionary, a—.”

“A demon,” Rune said, cutting Murmur off mid bullshit. “We are demons.”

What in the Alice in Wonderland fuck is going on?

Murmur threw his hands up. “Dude, did you not just hear the whole ‘no spilling all secrets to outsiders’ bit? Sif is going to kill you.”

“I outrank her, and I don’t care. Tori deserves to know. And come on, she saw Evie with her wings out. How long do you think it would take her to put this together, and that the men who attacked her weren’t exactly humans?” Rune lifted his shoulders in a shrug before leaning back on his hands. “Besides, I am not nearly as easy to take down as you are. What could she possibly do? Tell my daddy?” Rune asked with an eye roll.

Murmur looked back to Rune wide-eyed and nodded. “Yes, that is exactly what she is going to do. She will rat your ass out so fast. She is still mad about that one thing… You’re a dead man.”

“Let her. I will deal with that tomorrow.” Turning his attention back to me, he let out a deep sigh. “We are demons. We are from another place, but there are thousands of demons living here. Some demons have special skills, like Murmur here is unfortunately very difficult to kill and can sense and manipulate emotions. Sif, who you saw spar with him, is incredibly fast. Evie has wings, as well as other gifts.”

Deep down I knew I should have been scared, panicking and trying to run for my life, but it was making sense. I knew people were different. Not just culturally, but supernaturally different.

“What about you?” I asked. “I saw your eyes glow before. Is that your special thing?”

I glanced at Murmur’s hand that at some point had ended up back on my shoulder. Manipulate emotions… That was why I was so calm.

“No, but how do you know my eyes can glow?”

“Do you breathe fire or something?” I ignored his question, wanting my own answers.

“No, I don’t breathe fire, although I hear dragons find that very useful. I have a few things about me that are a little different.”

“What he means to say…” Murmur butted in. Despite his hand on my shoulder, I honestly forgot he was there. “He is special. Even among others like us. He is royal, so he is extra weird. Don’t look at me like that, Rune. You started this. Why not tell her everything, Your Highness?”

Your Highness, at least in this case, sure sounded a lot like asshole.

“Or better yet, show her,” Murmur told him.

“Really? She fainted just seeing Evie’s little feather wings!”

“She fainted because I tried to calm her down, and I pulled too much.” Murmur finally took his hand off me, and I immediately scooted back out of his reach.

“Show me. I want to know,” I said.

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