Page 26 of Infernal Secrets

It seemed he moved past whatever tempted him earlier in favor of disdain. All the better. Even if we left, if the council discovered Cyn had murdered a human, the outcome would be catastrophic. I didn’t want to think about the aftermath, much less her coming to harm.

I stood, moving to the counter beside Cyn, where he studied the book. “Don’t take Zeke seriously. You know he only sees you.”

He glared up at me before flipping another page, dismissing me without a word.

Okay then.

I looked up and found the human staring at me. I really needed to ask her name. Reducing her to a species didn’t feel right. I wanted to know everything about her.

“Do you want some?” She held up a plastic bag full of pizza slices.

“I had dinner, but thank you.”

I arched a brow at her small laugh. “Something funny?”

“Never pictured a demon would say thank you—or even act like y’all do.” She glanced at Cyn and Ezra. “Well, some of you.” She shook whatever thought occupied her mind, her eyes lingering on my brothers. “What about you two? Pizza? If I’m entertaining demons, I might as well feed you all. It doesn’t seem like you’re going anywhere.”

“Ezra doesn’t like pizza,” Zeke said, stealing her attention and hopping up to sit on the counter next to where Cyn hunched over the book. “That’s Cyn’s favorite kind.”

“Demons eat pizza,” she said with a soft laugh, pulling down two plates from the cabinet. I liked the sound of her laugh. “Microwave or oven?”

“Microwave.”

“You have those in…” She paused, mouth parted, meeting Zeke’s eyes. A little divot formed between her brows. “If it’s not Hell, then where are you from?”

“Elyrdin. And yeah, we have everything you have here on Earth and then some. Microwaves, computers, TVs, cars…”

“Cars?”

“Yeah, only inside Elyrdin. It’s dangerous to have something so noisy outside the city. But inside the walls? It’s a lot like Earth.”

“Right. Why am I not surprised at this point?” She frowned at Zeke. “I have stools on the other side of the counter, you know.”

Zeke grabbed an apple from a basket on the counter and tossed it at Ezra, ignoring her comment. “You need to eat something.”

Ezra sniffed the apple, glancing at the human as she frowned and turned away when he took a bite.

It didn’t surprise me that Ezra wanted to ice her out after discovering she caused our current misfortune. Still, it didn’t sit right with me. She seemed to be a victim of someone’s meddling herself.

A human getting her hands on a book branded with such an important mark couldn’t be coincidence. The book shouldn’t even exist on the human plane. Someone wanted her to have it, and I needed to find out who meddled in the human world before Ezra’s father did—especially if that interference triggered a false bonding instinct.

“So what’s your name?” Zeke asked around a bite of pizza.

She paused, holding the handle of the refrigerator. “What?”

“Your. Name.” He smiled. “I don’t think you want us to keep calling you ‘the human,’ do you?”

Her nose wrinkled. “No, I guess not. It’s Raelynn.”

“Raelynn,” he repeated, dragging out the second half of her name as if testing the sound on his tongue. “I like it. Can I call you Rae?”

She shrugged, opening the refrigerator. “I don’t see why not. My friends do.”

“So we’re friends then?”

“I already said we’re not friends.”

“But you said I can call you Rae.”