Chapter 9

ChapterNine

Katherine had taken such a long time getting to the castle. Not because her hip was hurting. She’d made certain to stretch out the stiff joint and warm it for a few nights in a row so she could make the trek. Her slow pace was entirely due to the nerves churning in her belly.

And now here she was, pressed against Gluttony’s door while he glared down at her, feral and angry and... Well, it wasn’t all that bad, she supposed.

She’d never had any man get angry if he could sense that something was off. She’d been surrounded by men her entire life who ignored her injury, or if they noticed it, they just shrugged it off as something she had to deal with. They didn’t want to help her, even if she was injured again.

Now, this man was supposed to be a terrifying beast who harmed women left and right. Yet, he was standing in front of her, practically foaming at the mouth the moment he thought someone might have injured her.

Perhaps he wouldn’t mind injuring her himself. She couldn’t forget that. But there was still the chance that he just didn’t want to see her hurt or in pain. And that made something glow deep in her chest.

“You don’t need to hurt anyone,” she said, trying her best to sound unaffected by his anger. “Unless you want to hunt down the kelpie that attacked the traders who were coming here from the other village.”

Gluttony searched her gaze, and she had the off thought that he might not believe her. Was that what his look said? Was he really pondering if she would tell him the truth?

He reached forward, wrapping one of her curls around his finger over and over until he reached her temple and gave it a slight tug. “And this wasn’t your... Jackson, was it?”

He was worried another man had done this? Katherine refused to let that settle in her heart. The damned organ was already trying to beat its way out of her chest, reaching out for him like the pathetic, puppy love stricken thing it was.

She knew that her heart wanted someone to see her. Just to see her. Not as the seamstress who might stitch their wounds shut. Not as the neighbor who would show up in the middle of the night if trouble had arisen. And certainly not as the woman with the limp who had lived in their town her entire life. The one person they all looked at with pity. How many times had she heard them whisper, “Poor thing, everyone gone and only the memory of fire to replace them?”

This demon saw her, though. He was looking right at her with so much heat in his eyes, it was hard to think. She swallowed hard and his gaze tracked the movement of her throat. Perhaps the gulp was a mistake. Because even if this man looked at her like a woman—something no one had done for a very long time—he was still a bloodthirsty demon who consumed blood regularly.

Hissing out a breath, she spun toward the door and tried to open it. “I came here to talk, just as you said.”

“Indeed you did.” He leaned forward, and she felt him inhale at the side of her neck. “You kept your promise, pet. I will gladly reward you for that.”

Oh, she didn’t want a reward, but her body certainly thought she did. It wanted to melt, drift toward him, and let him take her weight. Ease the ache in her hip even as he wrapped his arms around her front and breathed onto that aching column of her neck.

Still, she couldn’t do this. These feelings were madness.

Grappling with the door, she let out a little frustrated hiss again. “Did you lock this? I will not have this conversation outside.”

He leaned ever closer, and she could feel the warm press of his muscles against her back. His hand slid down her arm and over the fine bones of her hand, lacing their fingers together in a weaving pattern of flesh. Then he pressed down on the handle and suddenly she was staring into darkness.

So much black. Oh, his home was so dark even though the sunlight had filtered through the mist. Just enough for her to see the first few feet into his castle, and then there was nothing she could see at all.

Was she really doing this? Was she going to walk into the home of a demon without hesitation or fear?

He didn’t give her a choice. Gluttony moved her with his body, step by step, into the home and then the door closed behind her with a sudden thud. She jumped, terror streaking through her bloodstream as she frantically tried to find him as he slipped away. Then he disappeared into the shadows.

No. She wasn’t this person. She wouldn’t faint with fear at the very first sign of difficulty. Katherine had a plan. That was why she was here. A plan that bolstered her courage and would fix so many issues in her life. His life. And… the town’s.

She straightened her shoulders and bit out, “Is this how you greet guests? A blackened home with only shadows for you to hide in?”

He snorted. “I should have expected you would be snippy.”

“Snippy?” There it was. The anger that always strengthened her and gave her courage. “I’m not snippy. I cannot see, demon.”

There was a long pause before he said, “Ah.”

And then she could hear him move. Just the shuffling of feet on the floor, gliding until the sound suddenly stopped. She couldn’t see him, hear him, couldn’t even sense him until a warm gust of air trailed down her neck and disappeared between her breasts.

“I forget,” he said against her throat, “that humans are so weak.”

Oh, he had to be an ass about it, didn’t he?

She was ready to spit fire at him, to yell and scream as she should have done the very first time he let himself into her room. This was the ravings of a man who had clearly lost his mind. And here she was, standing in his living room like all the other fools who had been tempted by his pretty face and promises of riches.

She opened her mouth to berate him, but then froze. Warm light bloomed in the darkness, illuminating his concentrated expression as he stared down at the many candles on the candelabra before him.

And she wasn’t frozen because he had somehow changed her mind. He was still a monster, and she wouldn’t forget that, but...

By the gods, he was so pretty.

Even with his brows furrowed in concentration, he looked like a marble statue come to life. Surely only the hands of an artist could paint a man who looked like that. He was so handsome it hurt to look at him, and she’d never experienced that in her life before.

The kind of handsome that made her want to run her fingers through that perfect hair and see if she could convince even one of the strands to curl. So she wouldn’t be the only person with frizzy hair in the room and dirty shoes that tracked mud through his castle. She didn’t want to be the dusty little peasant who had crawled out of the muck to make a deal with the demon king.

And yet, here she was.

Ready to make a deal with him. Because no one else could.

He finished lighting all ten of the candles and then looked up at her. His red gaze was always startling. She expected him to have deep brown eyes. Emotional, soulful eyes of an artist who had seen too much in the world and was consumed by his need to purge all the dark thoughts in his mind. But those red eyes perhaps reflected his emotion even better than the darkness she’d expected. He looked at her with his soul in his gaze, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen another person’s soul so easily.

He seemed to freeze as well. Gluttony, a demon king, stunned as he stared back at her with wide eyes.

Katherine licked her lips, watching him track the movement and she couldn’t help but ask, “What do you see when you look at me?”

He shook himself at the question. “What do you mean?”

“The rumors claim you only look at a person like myself and see food. Sustenance. Someone to feed upon and that’s it. But... You don’t always look at me like a predator.”

And maybe that was why she was here. He looked at her like a man looked at a woman, not like a monster looked at the newest thing it desired to eat. And she knew the difference. She’d been in this kingdom her entire life, and she’d been around enough dangerous creatures.

Kelpies and all the other monsters of the swamp were part of daily life. She knew what it looked like and felt like to be hunted.

That was not at all how she felt around him.

He swallowed hard, and this time she tracked his movement. Curious of the reasoning behind him feeling so uncomfortable because there was no reason for him to be.

He had all the power here. Didn’t he?

Watching his movements, how uncomfortable he suddenly was, and how he turned away from her, she wondered if maybe she did have all the power after all.

He started walking away into the darkness, but then he said, “I see a very brave woman, pet. Very brave indeed.”

Oh.

Oh.

He saw something in her that so few people did. No one had ever called her brave in her life, if she thought back upon it. Perhaps her father, but that had always come tacked along with a “You’re foolish, girl” or something like that. She’d always taken risks for the betterment of her family or people. And yet no one had seen it.

Or if they had, they’d never told her. Never had the kindness in their hearts to realize maybe she needed to hear someone say it.

Sometimes it was all just... really hard.

A knot created itself deep in her belly and she had the sudden, insane urge to hug him. Because he cared enough to tell her how he felt, and she wanted him to know that she appreciated his words.

But he was already moving away from her. Walking with a strange stiffness to his spine that belayed how uncomfortable he was with this conversation.

So she stayed silent. Katherine followed him through the badly neglected castle. She could see it had been a very long time since anyone had even attempted to clean the place. And it was massive. If he’d really let go of all his staff, then this was too much for a single person to care for. He needed people to clean the floors, at the very least.

She couldn’t even tell what color anything was. It was all ghostly with a fine layer of dust, but there was an air of beauty to it all. Neglected beauty, yes, but it was hidden in there still. Just enough for her to see past the strangeness of a home so thoroughly mistreated.

Warm wood, she thought. The floors were probably oak, stained to look like a dark brown that would be so pretty, with countless candles lighting it up. Or even the bulbs that lit the town. Why didn’t he have electricity? Surely he did. Everyone in the kingdom had use of it, but he didn’t have any lightbulbs.

“Why don’t you have light?” she asked before she could grab the words back.

He glanced over his shoulder and took a right down yet another dark hallway. At least this one still had portraits hanging on the walls, but he was moving so quickly she couldn’t get a good look at them. “That was Lust’s idea for all the kingdoms. It works, but it would take a lot to install it throughout the castle.”

“So you do have some lights, then?”

He nodded before taking a left.

Apparently, he didn’t want to have this conversation with her. But she wanted to talk about it. At least talking made her feel less like they were walking toward a dungeon where he would lock her up and use her as a personal snack whenever he wished.

“If you have lights, then why didn’t you install them in the front of the castle?”

“I just didn’t.”

“Ah. You’re suddenly at a loss for words, I take it.” She almost ran into his back. Katherine stumbled a few steps away from him, her hip screaming with pain as she twisted the wrong way to get away from him.

“Here,” he said, completely changing the subject. “We can speak in my office.”

“You have an office?”

Maybe she had her mouth open, staring up at him in shock, because he looked a little amused at the question before he nodded his head toward the room again. “I have an office. Most of us do.”

“Why?”

“Well, I am the king of this kingdom. And though many of you villagers might think I do nothing at all for you, there is a lot of paperwork that goes into trading.”

Now it was her turn to snort. Katherine strode into the room with her shoulders stiff and a bitter taste in her mouth. “Trade? For what? There’s nothing coming in or out of this kingdom.”

“That is where you are wrong.”

The door thudded closed behind her, feeling a bit too final for her taste. But then again, she was already struck dumb by the interior of his office.

This was nice. A mahogany desk, piled high with papers in neat little stacks. There was a pretty light made of stained glass that cast rainbow colors all over the floor. And then there was a thick rug underneath her toes, warm, plush, and soft. Two red chairs sat in front of his desk, velvet covered and faintly glimmering with bronze dusted over the wood.

It was cozy. Welcoming. Easy to see how someone could spend hours in here. And it didn’t require the candlelight that he still set on top of his desk as though it were necessary.

Turning toward her, Gluttony suddenly dropped the act. Or perhaps he picked up the mantle of demon. She wasn’t certain which. All Katherine knew was that one moment, a warm, kind eyed man had been staring at her and the next, she was being inspected like she was his next meal.

“So,” he said, leaning back against his desk and crossing his arms over his chest. “You are here to make a bargain with me.”

She wasn’t. Was she? That wasn’t the point of her coming here.

“No, I am here because you asked me to come here.” Katherine tried to remember the deal she had already thought of on her long walk to the castle. It was hard to think about anything other than the discomfort of his stare.

“That’s not why anyone comes to this castle. You want something, pet, and I want to give it to you.” He arched a pointed brow. “For a price, that is.”

She already knew what his price was. She already knew exactly what he thought he wanted, and she was willing to give it to him. But she didn’t think what she wanted to ask him would make him very pleased.

“All right,” she said. “Perhaps I did come here to make a deal with you.”

He nodded, although she saw the flash of disappointment on his expression before he turned to pick up something from his desk. “I have learned from my... previous deals with other that it is best if I have a taste before we go any further.”

“I do not give you permission to take an ounce of my blood before you have heard me out.” Katherine straightened her back, knowing she had to seem confident if she was going to get through this in one piece. “You, sir, are going to want this deal from me. Not the other way around.”