"You seem lost."
Even though it had been days, I recognized the voice immediately. My mood dropped before I had even turned around.
Out of all the people in Safe Land, it had to be him.
I spun around, scanning the dark. The trees were still. The shadows gave nothing away. My heart skipped.
Where is he?
I moved toward where the voice had come from, eyes searching the dark between the trunks. Nothing.
I turned back and walked directly into something solid. Pain cracked across my forehead and I staggered.
"Ow! What the hell?"
I looked up. Devon stood in front of me, shirtless, watching me with an expression I couldn't name.
I had seen shirtless men before. That was not the reason my eyes moved across his chest — the defined contours of it, the breadth of his shoulders, the strong lines of his abs — before I caught myself and dragged my gaze upward.
It was just proximity. He was very close and my brain had not caught up with the situation yet.
I met his eyes. The crimson of them picked up what little light filtered through the branches overhead.
He was not looking at me with anything threatening. That almost made it worse. If he had looked dangerous, I would have known what to do.
"Move, demon," I said.
He smirked. "I've already told you, my name is..."
"I don't care," I cut across him. "I'll call you whatever I want. Move."
The smirk widened. He gestured loosely behind him. "That path is a dead end. Keep going and you will only get more lost."
"I'm not lost," I said. "I'm exploring."
He looked at me. I looked back at him. We both knew that was not true.
"Move out of my way or I'll make you."
He shifted to block me with one easy step when I tried to go around him
"Move!" I said, louder.
Amusement in his eyes. He stepped toward me instead of back. I stepped back. He stepped forward again. I took another step, and then another, and then the tree was there and my back was against it and there was nowhere left to go.
His scent reached me. Still the same, but with something smokier underneath. It was distracting in a way I chose not to examine.
The practical reality settled in at the same moment. We were in the dark, well away from the party, and no one knew I had left. He could do whatever he wanted out here and no one would find me until morning.
I thought about screaming. But I knew he would be gone before anyone reached me.
I thought about running. I had nowhere to run to.
I had walked myself into this, literally, and there was no version of it that did not come back to that.
"Move," I said. The word came out quieter than I intended.
He stopped close enough that I could make out the precise line of his jaw, the sharp angle of it in the dark, and the shift in his expression from amusement to something more mischievous.
"Why do you fear me so much, Kira?" He asked.
"I don't fear you."
His eyes moved across my face slowly. "No?" His voice dropped lower as he took another step closer. My back pressed deeper into the tree. "Then why are you trembling?"
I went still. I had not noticed I was.
"Demons can smell fear," he said, his hand brushing the air beside my arm. "Yours is very strong right now. It's almost intoxicating."
I wanted to push him away. My body was not cooperating. Why had I not kneed him in the groin?
I swung at him. A proper fist aimed at his face, and powered by all the strength I could muster. He caught my wrist before it reached him. He didn't even show effort.
He pulled me forward instead of releasing me. I stumbled into him and then I was chest to chest with him, his grip was firm around my wrist, and close enough for me to feel the warmth of his skin.
"Let go of me." My voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Call me by my name," he said. His eyes were fixed on mine. "And maybe I will."
I glared at him. "Why should I? You're a demon."
His expression changed. The amusement left. What replaced it was quieter, harder to read, and more unsettling.
"I'm not just a demon," he said. Not defensively, just stating it. "You don't know anything about me. "
"I know enough," I said. My voice was rising now, the fear crashing out as anger. "You're evil. An abomination. You're not supposed to exist, and everything the stories say about what you are..."
"Stories," he repeated.
"– is reason enough not to trust you. "
He studied me for a long moment. He did not look offended. He almost looked bored.
"You hunters," he said quietly, "are blind to the real threat. "
The words landed strangely. I did not know what to do or say to that, and before I could decide, the ground disappeared.
There was no warning or sound. Just the sudden absence of everything solid beneath my feet. My stomach dropped, my body lurched, and I reached for something to hold onto and found him.
I threw my arms around him, a reflex with no thought behind it. Then there was a moment of nothing, a second of pure disorientation where I had no sense of direction or surface, and then the world came back.
I was in my room.
The dark blue walls, the white curtains, the two beds. I was standing in the middle of it with my arms still wrapped around Devon.
I scrambled away from him, putting the full width of the room between us in three steps. My heart was going too fast. My hands were shaking.
Devon straightened, looked around the room with an expression of mild interest, and then looked at me.
"Good night, Kira," he said.
And then he was gone. Just gone.
I stood in the middle of the room for a moment, still breathing hard. Then I sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the floor.
He had teleported us both.
I ran through the conversation in the dark, looking for the part where I had handled it well. I could not find it. And what did he say to me after everything I said? He had just said: You are blind to the real threat.
Not the reaction I was expecting.
I did not know what that meant. I was not sure I wanted to.
The other thing was that there had been moments out there that had not felt like fear. The fear had been real, but underneath it, something else had been present. I did not have a word for it.
I lay back on the bed and looked at the ceiling.
I would avoid him from now on. That was the plan.
I pulled my knees to my chest and tried to think about something else. Useful things. Things that might actually get me somewhere.
Outside, the party was probably still going. Evelyn had probably come back to find me gone and was either annoyed or unsurprised. Either way, I would deal with that in the morning.
I closed my eyes, and when sleep came, I saw crimson eyes in my dreams.