“Are we being a little melodramatic?” Ezra asked carefully.

“Not even slightly! Ez, I think I’m falling for him!” I snatched up a cushion, hugging it to my chest. But that didn’t help. My heart was thrumming with new vigour. I pressed my face into the cushion and muffled a scream.

The lounge dipped beside me, and Ezra stroked my hair. “Isn’t that the whole point, though? You meet someone, you have chemistry, you get to know them, you rip their clothes to shreds in a night of passion … you fall for them. That’s the end goal in all of this, isn’t it?”

“Not when they’re trying to steal your soul, it isn’t!” I blurted.

It felt like all the air was sucked out of the room. I clapped my hand to my stupid, oversharing mouth while Ezra’s eyes went so wide, I was sure the whites were showing all the way around.

“What did you just say?” he whispered.

“Nothing!” I babbled, leaping up and escaping to the laundry, where a bemused Luci was demanding free-range time. With shaking hands, I unlatched the cage as a shadow appeared in the doorway behind me.

“Jem, I swear you just said … did you just say he’s trying to steal your soul?”

I scooped Luci out, apologising silently for using her as a buffer, as I stood and pushed past Ezra, popping her down on the lounge.

“I’ve got loads of costumes to make today!” I grabbed my yarn basket from the floor, depositing it on the lounge, too. I very studiously kept my back to Ezra, who I just knew was standing right behind me, waiting for me to spill the beans. “Sooooo much crocheting to do! Honestly, I’m just super busy!”

“Jem.” His tone stopped me in my tracks. “I think you need to start from the beginning. And tell me the truth—all of it.”

29. A How-to Book on Seducing Human Maidens

Chapter 29

A How-to Book on Seducing Human Maidens

SJ

“Oooh! Beez! Wake up! Boss is back!”

I stepped out of the portal to find two very excited Hell Hounds, their tails thumping on the stone floor, their red-tinged eyes aglow with what was clearly their delight. I was in no mood for them or their antics.

I opened my mouth to dismiss them, but Beezle spoke first. “You’re in trouble with Hellen the Horrible!”

“Yeah, Boss, she’s been hounding us about your whereabouts all night,” Bub added. “Get it? Hounding? Because we’re Hell Hounds and⁠—”

“He gets it, Bub,” Beezle yipped sharply as I turned my back on them and headed straight for my bedchamber, shucking the human skin as I went.

I did not want to deal with my Hounds. I certainly did not wish to deal with the pushy demands of my sister.