Page 32 of Judge of Saints and Sinners

Or was that mine?

“Did you have good dreams?”

Judge smiled. I could feel it. Something in the air changed around us, maybe in the way his body shifted ever so slightly against mine. “I did.”

“What were they about?”

He grunted, “Another visit to the living world, another soul to steal at the end of a bargain.”

I snorted, my eyes still closed as I focused on the gentle rumble of his voice along my spine. “That doesn’t sound like a good dream to me.”

“Humans… So judgmental.”

“Sorry for my fully intact morals.”

“Says the girl who was stealing from an enforcement officer.”

There was humor in his voice. I was dying to turn and see if he was smiling like it felt. But if I did, I suspected it would ruin the moment. So I stayed put, soaking him in.

I didn’t have anything to say to that for a long moment, and then I asked, “Do you think I’ll go to Hell?”

His sharp intake of breath was undeniable. My heart skipped a beat as I waited for his words. “Judge?”

“No, little thief. I don’t think you’ll go to Hell. Or the correct terminology would be that I don’t think you will go to Tartarus.”

I felt his heart against my body. The steady beat.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. “You sound so sure.” Thump. Thump.

“I’m quite sure,” Judge said, and something in his words told me this topic was getting too close to something he didn’t want to talk about. He moved away so that his heartbeat was no longer recognizable. My body chilled, a spike of worry drilling its way through my chest.

Unable to resist, I rolled to face him. His heavy bicep moved to cushion my head in an instinctive gesture that made my heart nearly explode. Blinking up at him, I asked, “Are all demons like you?”

To my surprise, his mouth curled in a tiny, nearly indiscernible smile. “No one is quite like me. Human, demon, creature.”

“Creature? There are more…types of things like you?”

Judge studied me closely as he nodded.

“Wow. I can’t believe the whole rest of humanity is missing out on an entire world.”

Judge breathed out in a short laugh, “Once we were more frequent visitors to the living world, your world, but we got too caught up fighting our own battles that we didn’t have enough power or time to insert ourselves back into this world.”

“What are some other creatures?”

“Hmm.” Judge hesitated, and for a moment I worried I’d pushed too much. But then, he leaned in, as if telling me something in confidence. “There are entire tribes of succubus and incubus creatures.”

“Oh my God. The sex dream things? That’s real?”

He grinned, white teeth flashing, “And just as smug and sure of themselves as you’d imagine. And there are mahrs in my brother’s court. They help to manage dreams. I already mentioned the reapers. Those are exactly as pictured in all your scary movies. And as for demons, the demons are not like me. They are…less human.”

I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out and running a finger down his cheek. “You look so human sometimes. Beautiful but human.”

His hand left my side to capture my fingers, bringing them up by his mouth, where our eyes met in a brief, hot moment before he turned my wrist to plant a kiss against the lily ink on my wrist. “I am no human.”

My words rushed out before I could stop them. “Do you really look like this?”

Judge smiled this time, actually smiled, and it felt like the wind was knocked from my lungs. “It took you long enough to ask, little thief. But yes. This is one of my forms.”