Page 3 of The Demon Court

The few times she’d left her home, she’d gotten the impression that the citizens of this kingdom were uncomfortable around her kind. Magic folk, she’d heard them whisper more times than she could count.

The young man tilted his head to the side, looking her up and down. “I wouldn’t imagine someone with clothes as fine as that would want to kneel in the mud much longer.”

Was she?

Selene glanced down and realized that the rather cold sensation on her knees was indeed mud. She looked up at the man as though he knew how to help her, before heaving a sigh. She was supposed to arrive and make an impression, not blend in with the locals.

“Unless you are needing... help? Are you hurt?” He dropped her pack—the bastard—and then rushed toward her.

Selene threw up her hands. She’d defend herself if she needed to, but really, was he so stupid as to attack a sorceress in the middle of nowhere? No one would find his body when she was done with him. But he approached swiftly, gripped her elbows, and drew her upright. Gently. All of it so gently.

Blinking at him, she felt her jaw drop open.

He flashed her a much too handsome smile. “You can pay me with a kiss, miss. If you want to keep looking at me like that.”

She blinked again and felt tiny furrows deepen between her brows. “I’m not going to do that.”

“Ah.” The young man released her and rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry ‘bout that. I’ve just always wondered what it would be like to kiss one of those clean ones, you know? The untouchables.”

“Excuse me?” She had no idea what he was talking about, but he’d already turned around and picked her pack up out of the mud.

“You’ll be going to the Festival then, yeah?” He climbed onto his wagon, not looking back at her at all. “They all come here for the Love Festival. Maybe you’ll get lucky and Lust will pick you to go back to his castle.”

Lust? Another name for the demon king who ruled this land. But why was the man saying his name with reverence?

“Where are you going?” she asked, planting her hands on her hips. “You have my things.”

Another bright grin. “I figured you’d be needing a ride into town. We’re a ways out yet.”

She shouldn’t. She should walk, because who knows what this young man might be planning? He could drag her to his home and she’d have to burn his eyes out to get away.

Or... Not. He might actually want to help.

“How far?” she asked, suspicious.

“At least a day’s walk. You’ll miss all of it if you don’t get a move on.” He made a show of pursing his lips and holding a hand out to his brow as though staring off into the distance. “But you could follow the signs, I suppose. Might not get lost.”

He had a good point. Selene hadn’t traveled to Greenbank in years. She stomped toward his wagon with a curse on her lips that never quite made it out into the air.

The hairs on her arms stood up. Her entire body clenched with something unnamed, although the young man’s gasp made her realize what it was.Lust.Quickly, she gathered up all the emotions in her body and dunked them into the icy water of her magic.

Bury it, Selene, she told herself. Bury it deep.

She was still frozen, cold as she always was, when the carriages started past them. Gold and gleaming in the sunlight, they were more like children’s toys than they were practical. Even the mud didn’t stick to those wheels.

And she swore for a moment, when the middle one rolled by, there was a face in the window that looked at her. She only caught a small glimpse of him. High cheekbones, golden hair, bright blue eyes.

Then they moved past her as though Selene and her new found companion never existed.

It took a while for either of them to make a sound. The young man blew out a long, steady breath. As though he were counting the length of it before he shook his head.

“Get on the wagon if you’re coming with me.” His voice had deepened, gruff sounding now. Uncomfortable.

She didn’t hesitate this time. Selene climbed up onto the bench in the front and dragged her pack into her lap. “You sound different.”

“Not surprising.” He grunted again and then reached into his pants to adjust himself.

Horrified, she swiveled her eyes to the front of the road and sat rigidly beside him. “Was that really necessary?”

---