Page 71 of The Demon Crown

And those words stuck with her. A little too hard, really. She hated that she’d left a lasting impression on these people. Varya had never and would never be long for this world. Her wandering heart would send her into yet another dangerous job and maybe she wouldn’t make it out of that one. Maybe she’d get caught underneath a boulder, or the Horde would catch her again. There were too many variables in her life and making connections like this...

It made her sweaty.

At the time, she’d wiped her slick palms on the fancy fabric that covered her body and laughed at him. She’d nudged his shoulder with hers and muttered something about him being too funny to get his own jokes.

She swore she heard Ivo whisper underneath his breath, “I’m kind and I’m funny.”

As if her words had given him permission to be something more than he’d already known. And she didn’t know what to do with that.

The days blurred together, but Greed rarely came back to see her. In fact, after that night in the ballroom, he’d made himself rather scarce. She told herself that was a good thing. Neither of them could continue down this rabbit hole of attraction. That’s when actual feelings came into play.

Feelings were dangerous for people like them.

He was a demon who had a very dark persona to keep up, and she had to keep thieving from all the people that wanted to kill her. Was there a lasting ability to their relationship? Absolutely not.

What she didn’t understand was why he had avoided her. Was he catching feelings? Impossible. People like him weren’t capable of falling in love with anyone, so she’d thrown that out the window almost immediately.

But she’d overheard something Ivo and Morag had said while eavesdropping through the door. Something about a brother arriving and that meant there were two demon kings hidden in this oasis. Perhaps therein lay the issue.

Greed didn’t want to share her with anyone. Would his brother insist? Would she start a war between kingdoms because two demon kings wanted to fight over her?

She snorted at the thought and shoved a monstera leaf out of her way. That wasn’t possible at all. She wasn’t some stunning beauty who had fallen into their lives and would tempt even the greatest of kings.

Her inability to understand what was happening was the reason she was out in the middle of the oasis, slapping leaves out of her way as she tried to snoop. Thieves were good at finding themselves in secret places, but Greed made that difficult.

Where was the man?

“Why are we out here?” Ivo asked as he reached above her head to hold the massive leaf out of her way. “I thought you understood that Greed was busy, and that was the only reason he hadn’t come to see you.”

“Because I don’t believe you, liar, and there’s something going on here that I want to understand.”

“You could just ask me.”

She flashed a glare at him over her shoulder. “Really? And I’m supposed to believe you’ll tell me the answer to anything I ask?”

“We are friends.” He grunted as she let a leaf slap him in the face. “Hey! I said we are friends!”

“I understand that, but you are still very loyal to Greed, a phenomenon I will never understand, which means there are questions you will not answer.”

“Try me.”

Varya whirled on him, her hands planted firmly on her hips. “Which of Greed’s brothers has come to visit?”

“Uh...” Ivo opened and closed his mouth before staring at her helplessly.

“That’s exactly what I thought. Now, can we keep moving? I want to see if Greed’s put his brother somewhere in here to hide him from me.”

“I think Greed understands no one could hide anything from you.”

“If he did, then he wouldn’t have tried hiding his brother in the first place.” She turned around and squared her shoulders. Blowing a hair out of her face, she continued onward through the jungle.

Why he was trying to hide the other man, she’d never understand. Was it because he was dangerous? Obviously he was. She knew that. All demon kings were dangerous. Was it because he wanted to keep her for himself?

That was more likely. The bastard.

Slapping at another leaf, she muttered underneath her breath about men who thought they could control her. “He does realize I have opinions of my own, right? I’m stuck here for the time being, and he wants me to stay here willingly. I’m not immortal, by all the gods! I could die any minute and he’s over there acting like I won’t do exactly that, just wasting away in that stupid room.”

“Varya...”

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