I woke up feeling like someone else was breathing inside my chest. For a moment I lay still, staring up at the unfamiliar wooden ceiling above me, trying to figure out why my heart was racing. Then the memories came flooding back. The wedding, the prison. The demon. Right, Mal. I rubbed my forehead to try and clear my thoughts away.
The strange sensation returned, stronger this time. It wasn't pain exactly. More like an echo of something just outside my own emotions. Calm and focused. Something was watching. My eyes dart open.
Mal stood near the window with his back to me, looking out into the early morning light filtering through the thin curtains. And somehow I knew that the calm feeling wasn't mine. It was his.
"Oh," I muttered. The soul connection. I pushed myself upright slowly, the blankets sliding down into my lap. Every muscle in my body ached from the previous day, but at least I was still alive. Which was already an improvement.
Mal spoke without turning around. "You slept for six hours." I blinked.
"Did you just… feel that?"
He gave an amused chuckle " demons know how to tell time to…"
"That's disturbing." I let the tension drop from my shoulders that I didn't know I was holding. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stretched carefully. The small room was quiet except for the faint sounds of the inn downstairs beginning to wake up for the day.
For a moment neither of us spoke.Then something else hit me. "You watched me sleep all night, didn't you?"
"Yes." He seemed more interested in outside than what I was saying to him.
I squinted at him.
"That sounds creepier when you say it out loud." Mal turned slightly, leaning one shoulder against the wall. "You were having nightmares."
I froze. The memory of them rushed back immediately. Leanna smiling at the altar. Adrian refusing to meet my eyes. The guards closing the cuffs around my wrists. I looked away quickly.
"Yeah," I said quietly. "Well. That's probably going to happen for a while." Mal studied me for a moment longer than necessary.
Through the strange bond between us I could feel something else from him now. Curiosity. It brushed faintly against my own emotions like a ripple across water. I frowned. "Are you… feeling things too?"
"Mhm" His answer was cautious.
"That's not good."
"Why?" He really didn't seem to understand.
"Because I don't want my emotional disasters being shared with a demon king?"
Mal's lips twitched slightly. "You were also very angry."
"That part I'm fine sharing." I stood and walked toward the small table near the window, grabbing the pitcher of water sitting there. My throat felt like sand after everything that had happened. As I poured a cup, I noticed Mal watching me again. "You're doing it," I said.
"Doing what?"
"The staring thing." His eyes always lingered on me, they looked like they wanted to devour me in one bite, perhaps that's what he was going to ask for in 1 year when our contract ended.
"I am observing."
"That's just a fancy word for staring."
Mal didn't deny it. I took a long drink of water before setting the cup down. "So," I said, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. "Let's talk about the giant problem we're currently facing."
"You mean the kingdom wanting you dead?"
"Yes." He didn't have to be so straightforward in moments like this.
"That is a significant problem."
I leaned against the table. "Running forever isn't an option."
"I suggested that." He nodded at me.
"And I rejected it." Did he want his snack to stay safe in a room hidden away?
Mal folded his arms. "Yes, you did…"
I took a slow breath. "They framed me," I said. "If I just disappear, everyone will believe I actually tried to assassinate the king."
"That does appear to be their plan."
My hands tightened slightly against the table. "I'm not letting them get away with that."
Mal watched me carefully. "So what are you planning?"
I hesitated. Because saying it out loud made it real, and I was scared. "I'm going to prove they set me up." I tried to stand tall and confident.
His eyebrows lifted slightly. "Ambitious."
"I don't have much choice." My posture already starting to fade.
"That will require evidence." He ran his hands through his silky black hair.
"And powerful enemies will attempt to stop you."
"Yes." Did he think I hadn't already mulled over this 1000 times in my head?
"And you intend to do this anyway."
I just nodded.
Mal was quiet for a moment. Then he smiled slowly. "I approve." That surprised me. "You do?"
"Revenge is far more entertaining than hiding."
"I'm glad my potential emotional collapse is entertaining for you." I rolled my eyes at his carefree attitude.
"It is." He chuckled.
I sighed. "Of course it is." But even as I said it, a small part of me felt oddly reassured. Mal didn't treat me like someone fragile. He treated me like someone capable of fighting back. Which was exactly what I needed right now.
I crossed my arms and began pacing slowly across the room. "They planted the dagger in my room," I said. "Which means someone had access to the palace." "And whoever made that dagger used forbidden magic." Mal raised a brow at me . "So we start there." Mal tilted his head slightly. "With the dagger."
"With whoever made it," I corrected. I stopped pacing.
"What?" I could tell Mal was thinking about something serious for a change.
"Well cursed weapons like that are not made by ordinary craftsmen."
"Then who makes them?"
"Black market mages."
My eyebrows rose. "Those exist?"
"Of course."
"Why does that not surprise me?" I huffed, nothing could surprise me at this point.
Mal leaned away from the wall. "And if we find the mage who created the dagger…" "They can tell us who ordered it." Understanding lit up his expression.
"You are clever."
"I prefer the term desperate." I laughed with a tinge of self pity.
"Both appear accurate."
I smiled slightly despite myself. For the first time since the cathedral, the crushing weight in my chest eased just a little. A plan. It wasn't perfect. But it was something.
I walked toward the window and looked out at the waking city beyond. The capital stretched across the horizon, rooftops glowing gold in the rising sunlight.
Somewhere inside those walls were the people who had destroyed my life. Leanna. Adrian, my father. Whoever else had helped them. I felt anger flare again in my chest. This time Mal felt it too. I knew because his voice carried a faint edge of approval when he spoke behind me. "That emotion," he said.
"Yes?"
"Thats one I like." His eyes were sparkling like the night sky.
I crossed my arms slowly. "Good." Because if everything went the way I was starting to plan… They were going to feel lots more then I currently was.