Page 97 of The Demon Crown

She wanted to talk to him about everything. She wanted a partner who saw the kingdom as a challenge to overcome and who would listen to her concerns. Not a man who every time there was a conversation that was even the slightest bit difficult, he reached for sex as a crutch. This wasn’t right. It wasn’t who she wanted to be.

So she stood there, holding herself hostage so that he would hear her.

But he didn’t.

He shook his head, taking a step back from her with a stunned expression on his face. “I am not a man of words, Varya. I never have been.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Desperate, she needed him to tell her something that would make this all okay.

But he lifted his hands and held them out to her. “This is how I speak, Varya. With my body. My actions. I cannot... I cannot do what you are asking of me. I need you to see me, just as much as you want me to hear you.”

And oh, it made her heart break.

This wouldn’t work. This couldn’t work, even though they both wanted it to be real. And it wassoreal. It hurt to look at him and know that he wasn’t capable of what she needed. Or wanted. Or...

Her mind was so jumbled. Rambling in her own head because she wanted to make this concession for him. She wanted to forfeit all that she’d dreamed of just so she could have him.

And was that wrong?

Was that the wrong choice?

The future she’d wanted turned to dust in front of her and all she could do was run. She made it to the door before his voice cracked like a whip and she froze with her hand on the door. “Remember, Varya. You vowed you would stay.”

She would. She was nothing without her word.

Nodding, still not looking at him, she slipped out of the room.

Ivo jumped in surprise from where he leaned against the wall, blinking as though he’d perhaps been dozing. “Varya! That was quick. Is there anything I can get you?”

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and saw the big man melt. Without asking a single question, he put his arm around her shoulders and tugged her in close. “It’s all right, little one. It’s all going to be all right.”

The first sob was ugly. It rocked through her body, too loud, loud enough that Greed surely heard her. And she shouldn’t feel bad about that, but she did.

Varya forcibly pulled herself together, only taking a few seconds of relief in the hug that Ivo offered before taking a big step back. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t...”

He lifted a hand. “You may do as you wish, Varya. But perhaps I might suggest an evening with my sister instead?”

“I don’t want anyone else to touch me.”

“Oh, she won’t. But her blade might.” He smiled at her surprised face before holding out his arm in the direction he wanted her to go. “Fight, Varya. Perhaps that will fix everything.”

And that sounded good right about now. Or, if not good, the best she was going to get.

ChapterThirty-Four

“So,” Gluttony said, shifting on top of his mount to look back over his shoulder. “Here we are again.”

Here they were again.

Hunting in the sands like the idiots they were. For two very different reasons, of course. Gluttony was here because he couldn’t keep his hands to himself and Wrath had heard he’d been eating people, even here. They’d both heard ringing in their ears for days after that confrontation. It didn’t matter that Gluttony was helping Greed, nor did it matter that people had attacked them. He’d fed. That was the problem they were trying to fix.

Whatever. Wrath had bigger problems than Gluttony getting his fill in Greed’s kingdom.

Greed was only out here because of a much bigger problem. A problem who was giving him the silent treatment for the better part of a week because she refused to even unlock his door. He had a key, of course, but what kind of a person would he be to just barge in when a woman said no?

A demon, some dark voice in his mind, whispered. And she expected him to be a demon, didn’t she?

No, that wasn’t right. Varya needed her time. She needed to come to terms with the realization that she wasn’t getting away this time. Not from him. Not from their world. She’d completely and utterly given herself over, and now she had to pay that price.

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