Page 128 of The Demon Crown

With a broad slash of twin blades, his daggers cleared a new entrance to the tent from where he stood. He stepped over the carnage of a body on the other side, and she felt the man laying on top of her take a deep breath.

Was he going to scream? That wouldn’t do.

Varya wiggled her arm out from between them and drew her own blade up as she went. It cut through both his flesh and hers, but she didn’t care. He needed to be quiet. So Greed could rescue her.

So she could rescue the others.

She was so afraid he would leave the rest of the townsfolk here. It was just like him to barrel toward her without a single thought to his own safety, but also for the safety of others. And already she was trying to figure out her argument so that he would stay and help. There was more to do. They were both exhausted, but surely —

He leaned over the shoulder of the dying man and wrenched the man’s head back by his hair. Varya only had a brief moment to gasp before he snapped the man’s neck and tossed his body off her.

“Varya,” he said, and his voice shook with some emotion she couldn’t name. It didn’t matter. Greed was here. He was right in front of her and she was covered in blood and... and...

He gathered her up in his arms, yanking her against his chest even though she winced in pain. He held her tightly, his arms banded around her while radiating heat and power. Greed wouldn’t let her go. Varya could break down for the few moments this would take and then she could piece herself back together so no one knew she’d been crying.

An ugly sob wrenched out of her. She bent into his arms, pressing her face against his shoulder as he buried his head in her neck and sank down into the sands with her. Away from the bodies. Away from everyone.

He cradled her in his lap as though she was made of glass and in that moment, she felt like she was.

“You’re okay,” he whispered into her hair, brushing his shaking hands over her back and hips. “You’re okay, treasure. I’m here. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

A part of her wanted to scold him and say that she wasn’t afraid at all. She hadn’t been the entire time. But this newfound softness in her chest whispered he was right. She didn’t have to be afraid anymore and she could lean on his strong shoulders for a few more minutes.

Varya knew she couldn’t sob for too long, though. There were people here who wanted to kill her. Men who wanted to hunt her down. Others that they needed to save. And she couldn’t let them linger for too long while she had her breakdown.

Sucking in a shuddering, deep breath, she leaned away from him to scrape her palms over her cheeks. “I’m all right. I wasn’t even gone very long this time. I wasn’t.”

“I know you weren’t.” He looked at her so soft, so kind, and it made something deep inside her flutter. Greed smoothed his thumbs across her cheeks, chasing the tears that she’d missed. “I’m a fool, Varya. A fool who let you slip through my fingers without ever telling you the truth.”

“The truth?”

His brows wrinkled, and she had a momentary spike of fear before he whispered, “I love you, treasure. More than any of the objects I’ve collected, more than the sun in the sky and the sands on the desert. I love you more than anything I have ever stolen in my life, so much so that I didn’t recognize the emotion until it was almost too late. With you, I am a better man. Without you, I am not a man at all.”

Oh.

Oh,those were the words she’d been waiting for. She’d wanted to hear them for such a long time and now that he’d said them...

More tears raced down her cheeks and her knee jerk reaction was to say, “You had to say this when I am covered in blood?”

He tilted his head back and chuckled, the muscles of his throat working so beautifully until he looked at her again. “Yes, my love, my treasure, my life. I had to say it now, because you beat me to the blood bath. You’ve never looked more beautiful.”

She wrinkled her nose and looked down at all the blood and sand, but then she shrugged. “Well, if you don’t mind it, then I suppose I can say I love you, too. I have for a long time, you know.”

“I know.”

“You do?”

He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her bloody nose. “I always have, treasure. From the first moment you yanked me into a cave and wiggled your butt against my spine. You are mine, and I am yours. Forever more.”

Oh, and what poetry that was to hear. She might have said more if someone didn’t step between the moon’s light and them.

Hissing, she lifted a blade only to lower it immediately when she realized it was Gluttony peering down at them, amusement on his features.

“What?” she asked, maybe a little too aggressively.

“You look positively lickable,” Gluttony replied. He laughed when Greed growled, then held out his hand for both of them. “Come on, there’s still some fight left. You know there’s other prisoners, Varya?”

She didn’t take his hand. Instead, she let Greed pick her up and stand for the both of them. Curled against his chest, hidden in his arms, she felt like this was the only place where she could find a little peace.

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