He grunted what she supposed was meant to be a thank-you. Fortunately, the waiter arrived then with their order, and soon Daisy was telling them excitedly about the hot chocolate, and Des and Aurelie found there was no need for either of them to speak.
Several times, while Daisy chattered on about her cousin and her children and how she’d be going to live with them next year, Aurelie glanced at Des to find him watching her. The first two times, she looked away immediately, her cheeks reddening. But the third time, she forced herself to meet his gaze.
This time, he looked away first, brow furrowed, and stared intothe dregs of his hot chocolate. Aurelie smiled as though she’d won a battle, though she wasn’t exactly sure what she’d gained. At least if he planned to arrest her, she’d gotten to drink her hot chocolate, which was admittedly delicious.
When they were finished, Aurelie reached for her purse to pay. She flinched when Des placed his hand over hers, just for a moment.
“I’ll get this,” he said. “No one should be responsible for Daisy’s insatiable sugar addiction.”
“But I invited her,” Aurelie protested, her hand aflame where he’d touched her. Who was this Des? she wondered. The first few times she’d encountered him, she’d thought him as one-dimensional as a blank sheet of paper. But each meeting revealed that there was more to him than she’d originally given him credit for.
“There’s no use arguing,” Daisy said, already standing and pulling on her gray Iron Guard peacoat. “Des always insists.”
“She’s right,” Des said with a shrug, pulling on the same coat, albeit considerably larger. “There’s no use arguing.”
Aurelie followed them outside, feeling more than a little unhinged. It was probably all the sugar, she told herself. Perhaps the cold air would help clear her head. The streets had emptied out a bit by now, and she was looking forward to getting back to her laboratory. She had more runes to interpret, which was proving challenging. Professor Sheldrake had been impressed with her progress, but Aurelie had never felt so lost in a subject. Fortunately, engraving the runes was the final task, so she had time yet.
Aurelie sighed, ready to be on her way. “It was nice seeing you, Daisy. And thank you again for the hot chocolate, Des.” She wasn’tentirely sure how she’d gone from vowing to despise this man until the end of time to thanking him, but here they were.
“We’ll walk you back,” Daisy said, already linking arms with Aurelie. “And again, there’s no use arguing,” she said out of the corner of her mouth. “Des will insist.”
“I will,” he agreed from behind them.
Aurelie rolled her eyes but acquiesced. Perhaps he’d wait till she was back at campus to arrest her. She almost wished Daisy would leave them alone so she could confront him directly. At the same time, the thought of being alone with him again terrified her, given how absurdly she’d behaved the last time.
“How have things been on the demon front?” Aurelie asked. The gates loomed up ahead, representing safety in more ways than Aurelie could count. “Quieter?”
“Much,” Des answered from behind her. “I assume that has nothing to do with you staying behind the gates of late.”
She turned to scowl at him, and just as she was about to turn back, she caught a flash of red eyes in the dark.
Aurelie didn’t have time to scream or even think. Instinct kicked in, her hand reaching into her pocket for her iron blade as she placed herself squarely between Des and the demon.
“Aurelie, what are you—” Des cut himself off when he saw the creature for himself. It was anatia, crouching in the snow not twenty feet away.
From the corner of her eye, Aurelie saw Des reach for his sword, realize he didn’t have it, and swear before pulling his own blade from his coat. “What the hell is going on?” he asked as he stepped in front of her, much to her annoyance.
“You tell me,” Aurelie said, peeking out from behind Des. The demon was a boy, about seven years old, with dark hair and skin so pale it seemed to glow in the darkness. She knewnatiawere hungry, but to attempt to take on three adults was brazen in the extreme.
Daisy had deliberately separated herself from Aurelie and Des, hoping to draw the demon’s attention, but it was focused squarely on Aurelie. She could feel its eyes tracking her, the pointed red gaze impossible to read. For a moment, she had the terrible thought that it might attempt to speak to her.
“Aurelie, get behind the gates,” Des hissed, his stance low and wide. He was preparing to attack.
Normally, Aurelie would have argued for the sake of it, but something about this demon, the firstnatiashe’d ever encountered, was frightening in a way thesomniahadn’t been. Demons should look like monsters, not this eerie approximation of human children. And with those red eyes fixed on her right now, there was nothing she wanted more than to be behind the safety of iron. She turned and sprinted for the gates.
She screamed as a differentnatialeapt into her path, a girl that looked quite similar to the boy. Twins, perhaps. She heard Daisy call her name, but she didn’t have time to respond before the girl came for her, her sharp teeth bared behind her curled, snarling lips.
Aurelie was suddenly grateful for all her prior interactions with demons. Without them, she might not have anticipated how fast demons were. But all she needed was one cut. She ducked left, the demon missing her by inches, and whirled. Somewhere behind her she could hear Des and Daisy struggling with the boy, but she couldn’t afford to be distracted.
The girl leapt at her again, and Aurelie struck out with her blade, narrowly missing the demon’s shoulder. It seemed to rattle her, because she paused for a moment, head cocked to the side.
A soft, oddly resonant voice in her head said,It’s you.
And then something slammed into Aurelie, sending her sprawling into the snow.
Aurelie couldn’t breathe, and for a moment she was afraid she’d been attacked by some other unseen demon. She struggled to lift her knife and found her hands pinned at her sides. “Get off of me!” she screamed. Or tried to. Her lungs were being crushed under the weight of—
She opened her eyes to see Des looking down at her, seemingly as stunned as she was. His wide eyes were just inches from hers, and the fear she saw in them was almost as shocking as the feeling of his weight on top of her. She was fortunate she was on snow and had sunk down a couple of inches, or she might have been flattened.