Page 49 of To Break a Dark Cage

Though she almost didn’t recognize him.

It was his voice that gave him away. He was sitting in the middle of a clearing, talking with someone outside of her line of sight. He looked…healthy. She couldn’t count his ribs or the ridges of his spine. His eyes were both there, as were his horns and his fangs. He didn’t look like a half-starved, mangy, demonic alley cat. He still was very much a monster, but a healthy one. His ribs weren’t showing, and his coat was shiny and clean.

And if she wasn’t mistaken, whoever he was talking to, he was smiling at. That was even weirder than the purple sky. She crept closer, peering around the tree to see who it was.

It was another demon, one that looked similar to Grinn, at least in species. But this one was smaller in frame and didn’t have horns. The voice was decidedly feminine, and she was lying on the edge of the clearing, telling Grinn some sort of story about hunting the wildlife. They were laughing about it, though Gwen was too far away to really make out the details.

That must be his wife.

It was a second later when there was a rustle in the bushes behind Grinn. His ear turned to listen to it, but he ignored it. A pair of small, glowing red eyes appeared in the long grass. A smaller demon jumped from the underbrush, snarling, and tackled Grinn’s flicking tail. He roared in fake pain, and fell over, tussling with the smaller creature.

Another creature bounded from the grass, joining in their sibling’s game with Grinn.

It was his whole family.

It reminded her of watching a pride of lions at the zoo.

Her heart broke. Absolutely shattered in her chest. This was why he hated Avalon so much—this was why he wanted the whole place to burn. Because this was what they took away from him.

Grinn sniffed the air, his ears going flat. He snarled, low in his throat.

Uh oh.

Those red eyes focused directly on her.

Oh, shit.

She backed away, hoping maybe he’d?—

“You!” he bellowed.

Nope.

She shrieked as he ran toward her, the world fading away as he did. The phantoms of his family disappeared with the landscape. And as he ran, his body changed back to the version she recognized. The world was suddenly a dark cave, barely lit by faintly glowing moss along the walls.

“I’m sorry!” She threw her arms up over her head, not wanting to learn what would happen if he mauled her in their sleep. “I didn’t mean to?—”

“I thought I was finally rid of you!” he snarled, pacing around in front of her, clearly furious.

Lowering her arms, she took a step away from him. “I wasn’t trying to—I don’t know why or how I’m here. I’m sorry. I really didn’t want to intrude.”

“The only thing I thought I had left was the sanctity of my own mind. And here I am, robbed even of that.” He huffed, dark smoke curling from his nostrils. The cracks in his horns were glowing red, as if the insides of them were made of molten rock. Maybe they were. “Leave me be, you insipid child, and stop haunting me!”

“I—I don’t want—I don’t know how—I didn’t do this on purpose.”

He stalked away from her, his tail swishing angrily behind him. He sat by the edge of the wall, sulking. “If you even think of mocking me, I will tear your limbs off, and we shall see what kind of permanent damage I can impart on you, dreams or no.”

“I…why do you think I was going to mock you?”

“Why do you think?” He rolled his one good eye.

His family? She frowned. “Having people you love and miss doesn’t make you weak, Grinn.”

“It has been well over a thousand years since they have gone. Yes. It does.”

She wanted to hug him. But she knew that really would get her limbs ripped off. She leaned against the wall and wrapped her arms around herself instead. “No, it doesn’t. They were the only things in Avalon you cared about, and they were brutally taken away from you. I don’t blame you for hating everybody.”

“Finally, she speaks sense.”

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