The Demon in the Pastry Shop

27: Showing Your Cards

 Awakened Idols were made out of stone, weren't they? Kit expected Silus to feel cold to the touch. If not for the fact he was born of stone, then for the fact that he was somewhat reptilian.

Beneath her hands, his cheeks were warm. Beneath her gaze, his eyes were warm too.

"I wish I could know what you're thinking," Silus swallowed. The snakes closest to his face reached out to touch her hands resting in front of his ears.

She wished she could know that too. If she had to come up with words to put to the tangled box of necklaces that was her stomach and her brain at the moment, she would try I wonder what Luca would think of me kissing a demon who's been sent to hunt me.

After that, she would probably go with he could've asked me out at the pastry shop. He could've kissed me then instead of now.

"It's my heart," Silus spoke up.

Kit furrowed her eyebrows.

His eyes crisscrossed her face before he inhaled long and told her, "the one I have right now is the wrong one. My first heart is in the Place Where Important Things Go and I can't get there unless the Collector allows it. And he won't unless I bring him you. The thing that was taken from me... it's my heart, Kit."

The confusion sunk in and stirred up a burning question she couldn't ask him. Kit kept her eyebrows knotted together. Maybe she could think of a way to ask him. What's wrong with this one?

"I don't know what to do," he confessed, looking down and pulling his face out of Kit's hands, "I told you before, I don't want to hurt you but it's my heart."

Kit bit down on her lip in frustration and she placed her hand on his chest. When he turned to look at her, she pointed her index finger and poked at his heart. Then she pulled her hand back and turned her palms up with the question flicking from her fingers and eyebrows.

Silus considered her for a moment and then tentatively said, "it's... it's bad. You wouldn't understand."

Kit rolled her eyes. She wanted to say that she might understand more than Silus would know about having a bad heart. But she swallowed her perspective and brought her hand to his cheek again. She turned his eyes back onto her. For a moment, her eyes retraced their steps across his brown skin and dared to glance back at his lips. Kit edged closer to him. She was thinking about testing the line again.

Silus' eyes retraced the same track, stare falling to her mouth before he caught her eyes and muttered, "you shouldn't have kissed me back. What are you going to tell your husband?"

Kit practically fell forward with her eyes jumping out of her skull. She collapsed over to the side to get her bearings, though it felt like she had been stabbed in the gut.

It was funny. It was devastating. It was kind of hilarious. It hurt so deeply.

She rose up and managed to mouth with a face full of confusion, what!?

The cell bars lifted and Sheriff stepped into the cell to take Silus away. He would have to face Lolona and then he would kill her and break her out of jail. At least, that was her understanding of the plan, though the plan seemed like a pile of forgotten dirty clothes in the corner of the room at the moment.

"You didn't think I'd find out about him?"

Kit scrunched up her face even more as Sheriff lumbered in and unlocked the fetters on Silus' legs. She would've written it in blood if she could if only to quell the chaos. It was a clear picture in her head. The words I'm a widow??? with three sharp lines underneath it.

Sheriff shook Silus hard to tell him to get up. Silus rose to his feet, but stared at Kit as he walked out. Before Sheriff followed him out of the cell, Silus turned back to Kit.

"I don't know what kind of husband he is, but Luca must be a really terrible person if you're cheating on him with me."