The Mayaware's reign must end.
In a world of demonic beings with a hunger for human flesh and thirst for blood, Hesi Renen knows it well. When her siblings are taken to the harvesting farms, she must do everything she can to get them out, even if it...
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Mezo wasn't dining when Hesi arrived. A bright smile broke through his lips as her silent shuffles echoed. The absence of debris squeezing into the gaps of her toes was the only thing she anticipated in coming here.
"How was the trip?" The prince asked as though the walk from the bridal palace to the royal palace was as treacherous as navigating the desert at night.
She dropped on the opposite cushion without waiting for his invitation. She'd rather not hear another line of pleasantry this evening. She had a long day. "Dandy," was all she replied. "How have you been?"
The demon blinked as though her question caught him off-guard. Was he excluded from everything to a degree that such a correspondence was shocking? She stuck her lip out. "It's how humans make conversation." She waved a hand. "Didn't the other brides tell you that? What do you even talk about with them?"
"Most are too afraid to even look me in the eye." He inclined his head at her to prove a point. He was right; she looked at everything but his dark, slitted eyes. But she was busy figuring out if plunging her knife in them would work. "How do I answer that question?"
"You tell me anything you want me to know," she answered. "What you did since the last time we met, what you are doing now that I don't know yet, what you're feeling."
"Feeling?" His eyebrows creased. "What is feeling?"
"It's...ugh." She curled her fingers in the air, her words not forming. "I'm not the best person to ask, but a feeling, an emotion, is something we experience inside us. Like..." She snapped her fingers in his face, causing him to blink and lean back. He didn't bite her hand off, so it was fine. "Happiness. Remember that?"
He scratched his chin. "Happiness? Is that a feeling?"
"Yeah."
The demon prince rested his arm on the low table. Without the plate of meat and the goblet of Cani wine, it was spacious. In fact, the room was leagues better from when she visited last. Oil-stuffed lanterns sat on the room's four corners, their flames flickering on the cloth wick dipped into their basins. Thank the heavens she could see. She never realized he had warm chestnut skin.
"Then, I would say I am happiness," he said.
A snort flitted off her nose, throwing her head forward. Locks escaped her braids and flopped to her face. She tucked it behind her ear with a quick swipe. "You don't say it like that," she said. "You say 'I am happy'. Not...that."
"Oh." He scrunched his face. Even though she laughed, he wasn't pissed. He didn't appear as though he wanted to bite her head clean off. And she giggled like an idiot before a creature who could devour her if he willed, one who has a secret that hurt a bride and eventually killed her.
And here she was—laughing.
Her amusement dried up. The prince didn't appear to notice the shift in her mood.
