The Demon-Eater: Hunting Shadows (Book One, Part One

The Demon-Eater: Hunting Shadows (Book One, Part One by Devin Graham Page A

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Authors: Devin Graham
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lords, catching another glimpse of the wide-eyed,
rosy-cheeked lady, who was doing well to look everywhere but the crowd built up
before her.
    She ran a hand though her raven black hair,
which had partly fallen loose from the bun it had been styled in,
before adopting her poised posture again. With tired eyes, and a
bored expression on her face, it seemed keeping her back straight
and her head up had become quite a task. She looked undeniably
stressed, bored, and not open to conversation at all.
    Inside, Gabriel cringed.
    Tick-tock,
Demon-Eater, the others whispered. Tick...tock.
    Gabriel set his jaw. He would have to be
blunt, then.
    He took a calming breath, as he maneuvered
through the mass of assembled noblemen, choking the air with the
scent of their perfume. They all stood a short distance from Lady
Renette's table, but none of them approached, for to do so without
being called forth by one of her servants would be highly improper
and offensive. Gabriel had never really been one to follow lordly
tradition—which was acceptable, being that he was a fake lord—;
however, to ignore it now could save Duke Hort, or—if Renette was
offended and turned him away—could lock the duke in his ill
fate.
    Gabriel approached the table.
    The lady's stewards looked to one another
with disbelieving expressions, clearly unsure what exactly they
were to do if a lord broke protocol. Of course, being stewards,
they did no more than continue with their incredulous stares.
    Lady Renette frowned deeply, somehow
managing to take on an even more rigid posture. She was rather
pretty, despite the fact she had not yet quite grown into her
woman's body.
    “ I'm sorry, sir,” she said in a firmness that seemed to
contrast her youth and petite figure, “but I do not believe you
were called for.”
    “ No,” Gabriel said, trying to think out his next words
carefully. “However, there is something rather pressing I need to
discuss with you, my lady.”
    “ You do realize, you are perhaps the half a dozenth person to
say that very thing tonight,” Lady Renette said. “Admittedly, you
are the first one to have the gall to say it to my face, instead of through the ears
of my servants.”
    A slight smile touched Gabriel's lips.
    “ If it weren't important,” Gabriel began, “would I have risked
my image of propriety and bypassed your stewards?”
    The lady pursed her lips at him, looking him
over. Then her eyes passed to the crowd of noblemen behind him.
    “ Sit,” she said, finally.
    “ Thank you,” Gabriel said, taking a seat.
    Lady Renette cracked a sly
smile. “No, thank you .”
    Gabriel furrowed his brows. When, after a
few snide remarks, the lords began to disperse from the table, he
realized he had been used to ward off the other hopeful nobles. To
them, Lady Renette had made her choice and it had not been
them.
    Father Truth, Gabriel thought, she's
known me for less than a minute and she has already used me for her
gain. A true noblewoman, indeed. He found
himself more amused than upset.
    She stared at him for a few moments, but did
not immediately move to send him away, and so Gabriel relaxed a
bit.
    “ I
am William Baryon of House Baryon,” he said, glancing back at the
still dispersing assemblage of noblemen, some of them turning their
noses up indignantly toward him. Very tall children, indeed. He
turned his focus back to the lady, Renette.
    “ I
am Renette Bawdlin of this very house,” she said bleakly, as though
the words had been rehearsed again and again, until they no longer
held any meaning. “I suspect you will want to speak of my father's
estate, Mister... William did you say?”
    Renette seemed to be trying—poorly—to hide a
particular emotion beneath her forced expression. Annoyance.
Gabriel's smile broadened.
    She doesn't believe what I
said, he realized. That I actually have urgent news.
    “ Perhaps,” one of the stewards began, sidling closer to the
table, “my lady would like to call a guard to

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