Page 44 of Demon Food

He sucked another drag from his herbs, humor dancing in his expression as he exhaled smoke. “You’re right. I have no idea. I’ve never been seduced before.”

My tongue skated over my teeth. No, I supposed he hadn’t. Which was why he was a dying virgin. I just had so many questions. I really did. Questions like, What is wrong with you? You have everything given to you. You have no regard for any of it? Have you a slow and painful death wish?

But as much as my curiosity was killing me, let his motives die with him. I really didn’t want to give him a reason to change his mind. My very presence in this room could change it. Any second, he could smell me, and that would be it.

Fuck. I had to get out of here.

I darted toward the windows, my chain scraping and winding behind me. Then I realized I’d already tried the windows and we were far too high up.

So, I darted back toward the door, gripping the handle to pull it open again, but I stopped myself from pulling because he was right. Even if there was one less, they were highly trained palace soldiers. It would be difficult to seduce all of them.

“Calm down,” Alek said, inhaling a drag of his herbs as he shook his head. “Your heart is going to explode⁠—”

“Well then stop listening to it. Why can you hear it so well anyway? Ignore it. It’s none of your business.”

“You don’t understand. There is no ignoring it, human. It pounds in my ears.”

He was right. It was pounding in mine, too. “I’m going to fucking die in here.”

“You’re not going to die,” he said. “You need to breathe⁠—”

“I’ll never see my brother again.” Everything inside me was beginning to spiral. “The last words I said to him were awful. Just awful.”

“Breathe, Feloré.”

“I can’t fucking believe this is happening. I can’t⁠—”

Breathe. I couldn’t…breathe.

“Hey,” Alek said, but I couldn’t hear him. Not really.

My heart was thudding. It felt like it was clawing up my throat, a deafening sound, sealing off my ability to speak. I’d never experienced a panic so all-consuming.

It was engulfing me, scratching at my insides. I would never escape this room. I would never see Landry again. The pain of it was relentless.

“Feloré,” Alek said, wincing as he pushed himself up to his elbow. “Look at me.”

But I couldn’t. It was like looking through a shrinking tunnel, only the ceiling was tightening, and the walls were taking all the air, sucking it in with their inhales, constricting smaller with each breath out.

“You’re okay,” he said, his voice gentle as he extended his hand toward me.

I inherently backed away again when his eyes changed, the fire behind them like a yellow stained glass.

“Easy,” he whispered, pinching all five fingertips together. “Calm.”

He opened his fingers. The room opened with them.

I gasped when my throat unsealed, when my eyelids widened, and my lungs filled with balmy air. It was like a warm and persuasive hand was holding my heart, caressing it gently with fingers of silk, with a feathered touch that stoked peace in its wake.

I staggered backward a step, smoothing my hands down my throat and chest. For a moment, this entire nightmare felt manageable. Like I could handle it. I was alert and clear-eyed. I was not filled with dread.

The sensation ceased its hold on me, but the effect lingered.

Alek broke into a rough coughing fit that had him leaning over, one hand smearing into the pool of blood as he coughed harder than I’d seen him do yet.

He’d done that…for me.

I stood in itchy stillness, a part of me longing to go to his side and do whatever I could do to help him as he coughed and coughed. Unfortunately, the only help I could offer would also sign my own death warrant.