🥀
~~~

I hated the way he was staring at me.

His gaze was intense—filled with longing, desire, and something even deeper. It felt as if he wanted to close the distance between us, to pull me into a world where no one else existed but us.

As if holding me in his arms would mean something. As if I meant something to him.

The thought irritated me. It confused me. And, more than anything, it hurt.

A tear slipped down my cheek. I wiped it away quickly, refusing to let him see it.

"Devon, are you even listening to me?" Evelyn snapped, her voice sharp with impatience, pulling me back to the present.

Tearing my focus from their conversation, I studied the boy instead.

He was fidgeting with his fingers, a nervous habit I hadn't noticed before. But then, something happened—each time he moved them a certain way, tiny droplets of water appeared.

I stared, mesmerized before my gaze drifted to his features. His dark hair was nothing extraordinary, but his eyes... they were unlike anything I'd ever seen. A deep, hypnotic blue, streaked with hints of white, like lightning trapped in a storm.

"Evelyn, I..." Devon started, but she cut him off.

"Don't," she said firmly. "You're coming. End of story."

He exhaled in defeat. "Alright then."

I stepped back as Devon approached the child. His black hoodie was pulled low over his face, and when he crouched to the boy’s level, he kept his gaze down, deliberately shielding his eyes.

"Can you place your hand in mine, child?" Devon’s voice was softer now, almost gentle.

The boy hesitated, then obeyed.

Devon held his tiny hand for only a moment before letting go. He straightened and turned to Evelyn. "His parents aren’t far," he said, "but there are a lot of hunters in the area."

Wait. Did he figure that out just by touching him?

What else could he do that I didn’t know about?

"So, we take him to his parents and move on," Evelyn said simply.

"I can’t go," Devon replied.

"Of course, you can," she shot back, clearly not understanding his hesitation.

"Evelyn, I don’t—"

"Nothing bad will happen, Devon," she interrupted. "They know this is a neutral land. Besides, we’re just returning a child to his parents."

Devon’s gaze flickered to mine. I saw the battle in his expression—the unspoken weight of whatever he wasn’t telling her. Then he looked away.

Evelyn took that as his agreement and started walking forward. "Shall we?"

I lingered for a second, wishing—for the tenth time tonight—that I had just stayed in my room and let the world go on without me.

~~~

The walk was torture.

My feet ached, my head throbbed, and hunger gnawed at my stomach. Every step felt heavier than the last as if I was dragging myself closer to my own death.

Meanwhile, Evelyn kept talking about nothing in particular—just mindless chatter meant to fill the silence, which could even bore the gods. It did nothing but irritate me.

Every so often, she would link arms with Devon or hold his hand, her smile wide and beaming.

I didn’t know her on a personal level, but her feelings for him had been obvious from the start. The thought unsettled me, though I refused to dwell on why. I had more important things to worry about.

“And then the general and the seer called me,” Evelyn continued, oblivious to my growing irritation.

I groaned.

Both of them turned to look at me.

“What’s wrong, Kira?” Evelyn asked.

You.

“I haven’t eaten all day, and I’m exhausted. Where the hell are this child’s parents?” I snapped, my patience wearing thin.

Right on cue, the boy started crying.

Before Evelyn or I could react, Devon lifted him in his arms, his voice steady and reassuring. “Hey, it’s okay. Your mommy and daddy are really close. I can feel them.”

I hated how, despite everything, my heart softened a little at the sight.

People always refused to believe this side of Devon existed. But here it was—kindness, patience, warmth.

A woman’s voice suddenly rang out.

“Oh my! There he is!”

We turned as two hunters rushed toward us, relief written all over their faces.

“We’ve been looking everywhere for our son,” the woman gasped. She stretched out her arms. “Where did you run off to, Caleb?”

Devon handed the child over without hesitation.

“Thank you,” she breathed, clutching her son tightly.

Her husband nodded in appreciation. “We’re grateful.”

I nodded in return, and Evelyn offered them a warm smile. But Devon stayed silent, his face turned to the ground.

Then something shifted.

“Wait a minute,” the father muttered.

A strange look crossed his face as he studied Devon more closely. Suspicion darkened his features.

A gust of wind picked up, and before any of us could react, it yanked Devon’s hood back.

The woman’s sharp scream pierced the air.

Gasps rippled through the gathering. Hunters turned. Humans froze.

The father’s face twisted in rage. “You!” he roared. “How dare you touch my son?!”

The woman recoiled as if Devon had infected the boy with something vile. She frantically checked Caleb, running her hands over him as if expecting to find some kind of wound.

Evelyn stepped forward. “Sir, he only brought your son back,” she said quickly. Then, lowering her voice, she added, “Don’t make a scene.”

The man let out a bitter laugh. “A scene?! This thing had my son in his arms, and you expect me to—” His voice cracked with disgust.

“I didn’t harm your child,” Devon said evenly, though there was an unmistakable warning in his tone. His crimson eyes burned brighter.

“That’s what he says.”

“We should take this to the general!” a female hunter declared.

“Forget the general! He let him in in the first place!”

“I say we kill him!”

“He’s a demon! A threat!”

“He should be burned alive!”

The shouts came like a wave, each one hitting harder than the last.

Evelyn stepped in front of Devon, fury rolling off her. “You will do no such thing,” she snapped. “If it weren’t for him, none of you ungrateful assholes would even have a safe land to live in!”

Murmurs of resentment spread through the crowd.

Then, a sneering voice. “You only say that because you’re fucking him.”

I turned toward the source of the voice—a female hunter, her lips curled in disgust. “You could have any hunter, any human, but you spread your legs for a demon? That’s just pathetic.”

Laughter erupted.

Evelyn’s fists clenched. “Say that again.”

Before she could strike, someone else scoffed, “Who’s the other one with them?”

The attention shifted.

To me.

The wind ripped my hood off.

Silence. Then—

“Oh, look at that.” The same mocking voice. “The whore, the demon, and now the abomination. You three make the perfect little group.”

Laughter again.

I refused to react. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. But the words stung, burrowing under my skin.

The crowd wasn’t just angry anymore. They were out for blood.

Then—

“What the hell is going on?!”

The familiar voice boomed over the noise.

The crowd stilled. Heads turned.

The general stood at the edge of the gathering, his presence cutting through the hostility like a blade.

Evelyn stepped forward, rushing to explain.

I turned back to Devon.

He was already gone.

~~~
A/N

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