LILY'S POV
The cottage appeared out of nowhere.
One second they were standing in the forest and the next Adrian's shadows wrapped around them both and the world dissolved. Lily's stomach flipped like she was falling. She grabbed Adrian's arm without thinking and he didn't seem to mind. His skin was cool and solid under her fingers.
When the shadows faded, they were standing inside a small cottage.
It had thick wooden walls and a stone fireplace. A table with two chairs sat in one corner. A cabinet stood against another wall. And in the far corner, there was a bed.
Only one bed.
Adrian set Lily down gently on the edge of a cushioned chair near the fireplace. She collapsed into it like her bones had turned to water. Her body was shaking. Her mind felt like it was moving through mud.
She'd just sold her soul to a demon.
The reality of it crashed over her suddenly. She wasn't running anymore. She wasn't hiding. She was sitting in a cottage in the middle of nowhere with something that had been trapped in stone for eight hundred years.
What had she done?
Adrian watched her with those burning amber eyes. He could see everything. Every doubt flickering across her face. Every moment of panic. He didn't say anything about it though. He just moved to the fireplace and started a fire with a wave of his hand. Flames burst to life without any wood or kindling.
Because he was a demon.
She was living with a demon.
Adrian turned back to her and his expression softened slightly. Just slightly.
"You need rest," he said. "Your body is shutting down. Tomorrow your real training begins but tonight you sleep."
Lily nodded because she didn't have the energy to argue. Her whole body ached. Her feet were cut and bleeding. Her mind was exhausted from fear and adrenaline and making the biggest mistake of her life.
She looked around the cottage more carefully now. The walls were bare. There was almost no furniture. Just the essentials. A table. Chairs. The fireplace. And that bed in the corner.
That one single bed.
Lily's eyes went back to it and stayed there. She was starting to process details again. Details like sleeping arrangements. Details like what it meant to share a space with Adrian for the next year.
"Where will you sleep?" she asked quietly.
Adrian walked over to the bed and sat down on its edge like he was testing it. Like he was making sure it was sturdy enough.
He looked at her and his smile turned absolutely wicked.
"We're married, remember?" he said. "You told the guards that yourself. And married people share beds. That's how it works in your world."
Lily's face went on fire.
Her entire face burned red and she couldn't look at him anymore. She stared at the floor instead and tried to convince her heart to stop racing. Adrian was still watching her. She could feel his gaze like a weight. Like something physical.
"I won't touch you," Adrian continued and there was amusement in his voice now. "Not unless you ask me to. The contract doesn't require that. You asked for revenge and power. Not for me to seduce you."
The word seduce made Lily's face even hotter.
"I'm too tired to argue," she said, which wasn't the same as agreeing but it was close enough.
Adrian stood up and gestured to the bed. "Then sleep."
Lily forced herself to stand even though her legs felt like they might collapse. She walked to the bed without looking at Adrian. Without looking at him watching her. She lay down fully clothed, keeping her muddy torn dress on, keeping her shoes on.
She was not going to undress in front of him.
The bed was surprisingly comfortable. Soft pillows and warm blankets that smelled like herbs and something else she couldn't identify. Something that might have been Adrian's scent even though demons probably shouldn't have scents.
She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing.
Behind her, she heard Adrian move. Heard him lie down on the other side of the bed. There was enough space between them that they weren't touching but not much. She could feel the unnatural cold that seemed to radiate from him. It made the bed feel like two different worlds pressed up against each other.
Heat and cold. Human and demon. Mortal and immortal.
Lily lay perfectly still, barely breathing, hyperaware of every inch of space between them. Her heart was pounding again. Not from fear exactly. Something more complicated than fear.
Adrian was quiet for a long moment. Long enough that Lily started to think maybe he'd fallen asleep or dissolved into shadows or whatever demons did when they rested.
Then he spoke softly into the darkness.
"Don't thank me yet," he whispered. His voice was close. Too close. Just inches from her ear. "You'll pay the price eventually. You signed a contract in blood. That's not something you walk away from unchanged."
Lily's breath caught in her throat.
"I know," she whispered back.
"Do you?" Adrian asked and she could hear the smile in his voice. "Do you really understand what you've done? You didn't just summon a demon. You bound yourself to one. Your soul isn't just mine in a year. It's connected to me now. I can feel you. Can feel your heartbeat. Can sense when you're afraid or angry or when you're thinking about revenge."
Lily turned her head slowly and looked at him in the darkness. She could see the faint glow of his amber eyes even in the shadows.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked.
Adrian reached out and tucked a strand of her hair away from her face. His fingers were cool against her skin. "Because you need to understand what you are now. You're not a victim anymore. You're not a broken girl hiding in a forest. You're my wife. You're bound to a demon lord. And in one year, you're going to belong to me completely."
The way he said it made it sound like a promise and a threat all at once.
Lily should have felt afraid. She should have regretted the contract immediately. But instead she felt something else. Something that tasted like power. Like finally having some control over her own fate instead of having it control her.
"Good," she said softly. "Let them wonder what I've become."
Adrian's smile widened and in the firelight from the other room, she could see his fangs. Actual fangs. She'd agreed to share a bed with something with fangs.
"Sleep, wife," he whispered. "Tomorrow you become someone they should fear."
He pulled back to his side of the bed and Lily turned to face the wall. Her heart was still racing. Her body was still shaking. But underneath all the fear and confusion, something had shifted.
She wasn't Lily Crane the victim anymore.
She was Lily Night now. Wife of a demon. Bound by blood and contract to something that had just promised to make her powerful.
As she drifted off to sleep, she could feel Adrian's presence beside her. Cool and dark and absolutely dangerous.
And somehow, that didn't feel like a threat.
It felt like salvation.