He had to let out the breath he’d held to answer. “I am real. As real as you.”
Slowly, as if she might run—or attack—he lifted her palm from his belly. He laced his fingers through hers and raised her hand to his chest. Against her knuckles, his heart pounded. The reverberations echoed through her veins.
“As real as you,” he said. “See?”
She nodded in time to their linked pulse.
She might have stood there as day turned back to night, entranced by his touch, but he untangled their fingers. “Can we go find the other talyan? Don’t be afraid. They won’t hurt you.”
The loss of his touch stung like ichor burns, and she tensed again. “They’ll want to.”
“They’re just nervous.”
“Of me?”
His lips quirked, and suddenly she wished she’d touched him there instead, to feel that soft curve. “You are very scary.”
She lowered her head, letting her hair fall over her eyes.
“Alyce, I was teasing.” He hesitated. “Well, exaggerating. Or maybe … Never mind.”
That was the problem. She rarely minded. His mind, though, whirred with every word he said, taking him farther away from her.
Her chest tightened with dread. So long alone and adrift … She couldn’t lose him, not when she’d just found him. But Thorne had tried to warn her. Even the devil knew she wasn’t suited for proper company, despite the unstained frock. How sad that all those times she had fought him, when she’d clung to the ongoing battle as a reason to exist, she’d also been pitifully thankful that he had not feared her, that he didn’t think her a worse monster than himself. Damned with faint praise by a man possessed. She took a sidling step away.
Sidney followed. “Alyce. Look at me.”
She did. Or she looked at his mouth again. Words came from him so fast and furious, faster and more furious than the devil’s. Yet she very much liked his mouth.
When she focused on his intent brown eyes, a hint of heat uncurled through the fog that had been her only companion, and she grasped at it like a lifeline.
What did Thorne know anyway, him and his devil’s whispers? Well, he had mentioned that one thing, that thing old as evil. That required no words at all. And as the wanting burned away the confusion, she’d never felt more human, more alive.
Maybe the devil had one good idea.
She rolled up to the balls of her feet and pressed her lips to Sidney’s.
So soft—his lips were every bit as soft as she’d remembered from that first fleeting kiss. And wonderfully warm, they curved around hers, like a secret smile she could feel but not see—a smile only for her. She supposed she could get used to being teased.
“My Sidney,” she whispered against his mouth. Or she meant to. What came out of her was a moan, even softer than his lips.
She reached up to sink her fingers into his hair. The russet locks were just long enough to tickle the backs of her hands and send delightful shivers through her. Then she remembered the rest of his hair, the light sift of curls on his chest, and tighter lower down, and she wondered where else that might tickle her, so she let her fingers trip over his breastbone and down his belly. Ah, rougher than the silk of his hair, but every bit as pleasing to her touch.
His fingers wrapped around her upper arms. Good, or she might have fallen as her knees weakened. Mouth to mouth, their breath swirled and merged, a close, sultry mingling that promised deeper intimacy if they just—
He pulled away, and their lips parted. “Wait.” He locked his elbows and his grip on her arms kept her from stepping back into his embrace. “Alyce, wait.” His grasp wasn’t really strong enough to stop her—and shook slightly besides—but she waited because he’d asked. “What are we doing?”
“I know the answer to this one,” she said quickly.
His laugh was no more steady than his grasp. “How did you stay so innocent with a demon inside you?”
She froze. “I am not innocent.” The eerie shiver in her voice made her wince. She didn’t want to display more of her oddity to him, but neither did she want him to believe something of her that wasn’t true. “You said we would learn together. You will not hurt me with your trials. And even if you do, I will heal.”
His fingers tightened reflexively, then slipped slowly down to rest just above her elbows. “Hurt you with my … Alyce. I swear I won’t let that happen. Not to you.”
He closed his eyes, as if reaching inside himself—for patience, maybe, or tolerance, or another reason to push her away. Whatever he was looking for in there wasn’t about her, because she was out here.
She rolled her shoulders against his hold, and his eyes popped open. Through the dark depths, his willpower glinted at her, just as a fire-blackened iron, nicked by some harsh blow, revealed bare metal.
Whatever forces had shaped him were more merciless than mere demons.
Since he still held her at arm’s length, she raised her hands to grasp his forearms, pressing the pulse points of their wrists together. She scolded herself for taking advantage of him. It had been so long since anyone had spoken kindly to her, she had been selfishly basking in his attention. It was past time she gave some back. “Who was hurt, Sidney, that makes you afraid you will break me?”
His heartbeat raced against hers. “No one’s going to get hurt. Everything will be okay. We are both here for a reason, you and I, and figuring it out is the only trial we’ll be undergoing.”
“Maybe we are here for this. To kiss.”
He did kiss her again, on the forehead this time. It was sweet, but not as sweet as on the mouth.
Oh, she had never had such a wicked thought. This strange rush through her veins that blushed over her skin—it must be the demon that possessed her.
For once, she was rather glad of the devil inside.
She tilted her face up to him, wishing she were taller. She could take him down, as she’d done the devil-man at the gate, but she’d never pitted herself against an opponent she wasn’t trying to incapacitate. Perhaps now was not the time to practice. But maybe soon …
He gave another low laugh, somewhere between shaky and husky. “Stop looking at me that way.”
“I am scary,” she reminded him.
He stared down at her, then gave his spectacles a nudge higher on his nose. The reflected light disguised his eyes. “Right then. Let’s go see who else we can trick or treat.”
He donned his shirt, and she helped ease the long sleeve over his wounded arm. Though the blue-and-white-striped cotton was finely woven, it was not as soft as his lips. She restrained a sigh to see that lovely warm skin hidden away.
“It will be okay,” he told her.
His anxious tone told her he was trying to reassure himself as much as her. “I won’t hurt your friends again,” she said. “I surprised the one because he was tired and distracted, and when I stepped in front of him, he dropped his cigarette down his shirtfront.” Otherwise, he would have been able to kill her with one blow—maybe two if she’d ducked. The lethal energy in him was much stronger than anything she could summon. “If they want to destroy me, I cannot stop them.”
Leaving off buttoning his shirt, Sidney pulled her into his embrace, though she felt him cringe at raising his wounded arm. “I will stop them.”
She nestled into his side and took the opportunity to slip her hand across his bare chest. Her hectic pulse settled into time with his. “I trust you.”
His breath hitched under her palm. “You’re going to kill me first, Alyce.”
She tilted her face up to his. He did look flushed. “Fever,” she guessed. “The devils are rotten with pestilence. I did not get to you soon enough.”