She turned around with a frown, trying to understand.
For once, he elaborated without prompting. “I used to start battles with other demons if I heard they had good shit. Then I stole it and stashed it. Sometimes I’d camp out for a couple days to guard it if I thought they’d come after me. That’s why I built the bed.”
She surveyed the pile with renewed awe. “You must have fought in a great many battles to have amassed this much bounty.”
He shrugged. “This is one of the smaller stashes.”
“Wait— There’s more?”
He nodded.
“How much more?”
Another shrug. “I have a couple dozen more spots like this. I hid some so well, I forgot where they were. And I had a lot more shit when I still had my territory. I lost it all when we defected.” His jaw clenched like he didn’t like that.
He was…a hoarder.
A giant golden-eyed demon-crow hoarder.
She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again.Okay. That’s fine.Humans came in many varieties, so why not demons? She imagined that his life had been very unstable, and she couldn’t imagine the trauma a demon amassed after thousands of years in Hell, but it had to be astronomical.
A compulsive urge like hoarding treasure was probably an outlet of sorts—a fixation with possession in a place where one could lose everything in a moment—and far be it for her to judge him for that.
Sunshine had plenty of her own baggage, and she knew what it felt like to feel singled out. To be looked at sidelong. To be the object of pitied whispers and stares. To hear uncomfortable silence fall whenever anyone accidentally brought up the past.
She spun back around with a smile, determined not to let Raum glimpse her sympathy. It didn’t take much to figure out he would detest such sentiment.
“This will make an excellent base,” she declared, turning her back on the treasure horde. She went to the table, unfastened her cloak, and draped it over the back of a chair. “What are our next steps?”
He narrowed his eyes with that distrustful look he often got. “You stay here while I fly to the edge of Murmur’s territory. I need to figure out what we’re dealing with.”
“How to breach the wards, you mean?”
He nodded.
“Can you carry me with you like you did to get here?”
“My demon form’s recognizable. If I go in crow form, it’s safer.”
She’d thought as much herself as they flew here, but that didn’t mean she liked the idea of being left alone.
“I’ll put the ward up again when I go,” he said like he knew her thoughts. “No one can get in.”
She didn’t like that he read her so easily. “I am capable of defending myself.”
“You’re still an angel in Hell. That’s why you blackmailed me in the first place, right?”
Their stares locked as the reminder of what she was holding over his head hung between them. No matter what happened, no matter what adventure they undertook to procure the book…they would never be true allies.
“You’re right,” she said. “I will stay here for that part of the task, butonlythat. My statement earlier stands. I must be involved.”
“Suit yourself.” He strode toward the door. “Need anything before I go?”
“You’re leaving now?”
“What else would I do?”
“We just got here. Don’t you want to rest?”
