Page 25

Chapter

Nine

PERINE WILDER

Peri walked cautiously into the crowd, scanning the vast ballroom for her family or Valus. Her argument with Brightmore had evidently loosened something inside her. Every emotion she usually kept carefully organised in the back shadows of her mind were surging forward. It was uncomfortably chaotic.

What had Brightmore done to her? Likely, he’d found it amusing to twist something in her, something that anyone else would have recognised as deeply distressing. Yet, a part of her couldn’t ignore the thought that maybe, she could run her fingers feather-light along his thick, silky braids—just once.

The moment the thought formed, Peri felt the full force of mortification.

Brightmore?

Him?

Absolutely not. “I do not find him—” She tried to finish her thought, but instead, her mind circled back to the fact that he had the most adorable dimples, and—Peri scoffed violently.

Motherless dragons! It was a low blow indeed—forcing her to think of him, of all demonkind, as beautiful.

Panicked, she drew several shaky breaths, fighting to rein in her spiralling thoughts until, at last, Valus’s familiar rusty hair emerged from the crowd. She wove through the revellers towards him, plastering on a smile and smoothing away her unruly curls. As she drew near, his deep voice stood out and her stomach dropped as she heard him say her name.

“Peri? No, she doesn’t even realise she’s attractive, you know what I mean? But that’s what I look for in a mate. I like them humble.” He took a drink. “Compliant.”

One of Valus’s younger friends tilted his head. “I heard she’s indomitable. One of the best in her class at the Academy. Not because of some abnormal brilliance, but because she studies non-stop. Pure determination.” He crammed some sort of herbed pastry into his mouth. “And that’s made her the darling of all her instructors.”

“Yes, well,” Valus said in a bored tone. “Then she can use that determination to help me finally become Sergeant Major of the militia like I should have been a century ago. She’s young enough it should be easy to redirect all that energy for something actually useful. She probably just needs a firmer hand.”

Her heart raced. She found that her hands had formed fists so tight that there were little moon-shaped indentions in her palms. Tears gathered in her eyes and she paused for a moment to furiously dry them.

Normally, she’d ignore Valus and let him babble on while she thought of other things. She’d become an expert at it over the last year. But this… this was different. He was supposed to be her mate, the one who valued her more than anyone. The last restraint on her formerly organised thoughts broke until her vitriol consumed her.

Without thinking, her feet moved toward him. She stepped right into the circle of his friends, her words tumbling out before she could stop them.

“I heard you talking about me just now,” she said. “I thought you were going to say something nice, but instead, you were—” Her sentences collided like one long, rambling word. “—Then honestly, I couldn’t stop listening, because I’ve never heard so many wrong things in a row. And furthermore—” Peri gasped for breath.

“I… I actually think I’m quite pretty. But beauty is subjective.” Her heart pounded in her ears as she tried to control the thoughts pouring out of her. “I’ve always thought my mate would think I’m beautiful, or at least sort of pretty. Anyone can be sort of pretty. Thinking someone is ugly is ridiculous, because maybe someone else thinks they’re lovely, right? See? Subjective. But I think objectively, I’m not ugly. I’m certain if you took a survey, you’d find at least—wait, sorry. You do know what a survey is, don’t you?”

She pulled a pen and paper from her satchel, scribbling a hasty graph. Her tone grew fully pedantic. “A survey is when you ask a group of people a question and then—no! No.” She stashed the pen and paper back in her satchel. “Never mind. It’s not worth my time. But seriously, you should read up on it. Basic knowledge, and all that.”

Before she could take a breath, she blurted, “Is this the longest you’ve ever let a demoness talk? I’m guessing it has to be, knowing you as I do. I should be using my time for more important things than surveys about beauty standards.” She scoffed, her frustration bubbling over. “What I mean to say is, it’s very rude, and frankly mean, to talk about me as if I’m some sort of commodity.”

Valus looked as if he were about to explode from outrage, his face grew darker and darker with anger the longer she spoke. But, every time he reached out to grab her, she danced away, slipping behind one of his friends, only to dive back into the circle again.

Brightmore had definitely done something to her. It was as though she were about to choke on her own thoughts, but instead of bile, her thoughts just kept tumbling out.

“I mean, seriously, the audacity! What has Valus even done with his life? Sure, his biceps bulge nicely. But, honestly, I think he’s…” Wait. No, she couldn’t say that. Peri slammed her hand over her mouth, but the words slipped out between her fingers. “…Extremely boring.”

Off to the side, someone spit out their drink and Peri had the thought that it might be good if she could stop talking now.

But, no. She could feel the deluge of thoughts pushing to come out and it seemed there was little she could do about it.

Her hand remained over her mouth, but the words kept coming, muffled yet clearly audible. “I thought I’d have a mate with whom I could have intellectual conversations, but… well, you can’t have everything.”

This was bad.

Valus was glaring at her as though he were ready to strangle her right there, in front of everyone. Regret crept in and she had the sudden urge to take back everything she’d just said. Cathartic or not, she never should have said it. Maybe she could fix this. If those idiots were to be believed—and in this one instance she decided they could be—she was first and foremost indomitable. She just needed to explain herself.

Dropping her hand, she said, “What I meant to say is… it’s obvious I was never going to be a submissive—No! I—I—”