of his feet as the steel bowed under his weight. The kitten inside was plastered into the farthest corner, hissing and spitting with terror.
“Zylas!” I shouted, sprinting toward him. I grabbed his arm. “Get away from her!”
As usual, my best efforts couldn’t budge him. His tail lashed in annoyance, clanging against the bars. The kitten arched her back and spat more loudly. The poor thing was scared out of her mind. Zylas peered down through the bars, head tilted as he observed the small, terrified creature.
Protective fury singed my blood and I didn’t even think to use the infernus command. Releasing his immovable arm, I grabbed his tail with both hands and hauled the demon backward with all my strength.
Next thing I knew, I was on my back on the floor and a hot, heavy weight was crushing me into the musty rug. Pain throbbed through my face.
The weight vanished off me and a weird dual sound filled my ears—high-pitched hissing and low-pitched snarling. Something wet ran down my face.
“Payilas zh’ūltis! Eshathē hh’ainun tādiyispela tūiredh’nā ūakan!”
Zylas’s face appeared above me, his eyes blazing. I pressed my fingers under my aching nose. Blood coated my fingers. I was bleeding?
“You are bleeding,” Zylas accused angrily.
I pushed up onto my elbows. When I’d pulled him backward off the crate, he’d fallen on me, his miserably hard head smacking into my squishy human face. I gingerly prodded the bridge of my nose, but it felt solid. Not broken, thank goodness.
“What is wrong with you?” His snarling voice competed with the noise from the spitting kitten a few feet away. “You pulled on my tail.”
He sounded outright offended. My lips twitched and I might’ve giggled if my face weren’t hurting so much.
Since my shirt was already ruined, I balled up the hem under my nose and pushed to my feet. Taking Zylas’s arm, I dragged him out of the room. He followed me to the bathroom and stood in the doorway as I grabbed a wad of tissue. His nose was wrinkled in distaste; he hated the metallic scent of human blood.
“What is wrong with you?” he repeated in the same acid tone. “Why did you do that?”
I whirled on him, furious all over again. “You were tormenting the kitten! What’s wrong with you?”
He bared his teeth. “I was looking at it.”
“And she was terrified of you, which you knew perfectly well! You were frightening her on purpose!”
“You are wasting time.” His crimson eyes glinted with impatience. “All you have done is waste time. You promised to send me home. You promised to find the grimoire and remove my House’s name. You have done none of that.”
“I warned you it would take a long time.”
“I thought it would be slow because it is difficult, not because you are hardly trying.”
“I am trying!” I flung the bloody tissues into the garbage and wet a cloth to clean my face, my hands shaking. “You haven’t been helping! Bullying Amalia, interrupting me all the time, and now you’re torturing the kitten too.”
“The kitten is worthless. It’s a distraction.”
“Saving a life isn’t worthless!” I swallowed hard, tasting blood in the back of my throat. “Do you have no heart at all, Zylas? Are you that incapable of empathy?”
“I do not know that word.”
“Of course you don’t.” As I wiped the blood off my face, I decided I would deliver the kitten to the animal shelter tomorrow. She’d be better off there than exposed to Zylas’s whims. “Leave the kitten alone. I’ll take her away in the morning so she won’t be a ‘distraction.’”
He watched me from the doorway. “What is empathy?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“I can understand anything you can.”
I shot him an icy look. “You’re a demon, so no, you can’t.”
“Explain,” he growled.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because when it doesn’t make any sense, you’ll say ‘zh’ūltis!’ and decide I’m the dumb one, even though the problem is you.” I rinsed out the cloth and turned to the door. “I’m leaving the bathroom now.”
He didn’t move, gazing at me with an unreadable expression. “Tell me what empathy is.”
Stubborn demon. Jaw tight, I folded my arms over my bloody shirt. “Empathy is the ability to understand and share what others feel.”
His eyebrows drew down in confusion. “Share what others feel?”
“Yes.” I pushed on the armor plate over his heart and he stepped back, allowing me across the threshold, but he followed right on my heels as I returned to my bedroom.
The kitten, exhausted and huddled in her bed, watched us with wary green eyes.
I opened