Page 122 of Their Demon

The pace of her hobbling picked up, and I got ahead of my brothers and ran to her, catching her just before she collapsed. I lowered us to the ground so I could hold her better. She was still cradling the colorful egg in her arms.

“I did it,” she said between her heavy breaths. “I really did it.”

“You did, princess.” I moved stray hairs from her face, kissing her forehead. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Something happened down there. There w—”

“Shhh,” I said as I brushed hair from her face. “Don’t tell me here. We can talk about your underwater adventure later, okay? For now, let’s just focus on getting out of here.” She nodded, and I wrapped my arms around her to hug her, happy to feel her against me once again.

“The egg.” She flexed her shoulders, pushing my arms away and gesturing to what she was holding. “It’s fragile. We need to get it back to the water soon.”

I nodded. “Let’s show my father, and then we’ll get it back to the water.” My heart warmed at her concern. She was so worried for that egg, more so than herself. Her kindness would never cease to amaze me.

Nicholas and Aiden showed up on either side of me.

“Little one…” Aiden greeted her with a smile. “You did it.”

“Of course she did it,” Nicholas said to him. “What do you need from us, baby?”

She looked down at the egg, and I swear, I saw movement. “Can you carry it for me?”

Nicholas nodded and took the egg from her, cradling it with the same gentleness she had.

I started to pick her up, arms under her shoulders and knees, but she put a hand on my chest, stopping me.

“I want to walk to him.” She was dead serious, her gaze now set on her destination: the stage.

“Take her other side,” I instructed Aiden as I helped Lillian to her feet.

He stood at her other side, helping her to her feet. We tried to hook our arms behind her, to give her something to lean on, but she swatted us away, insisting on doing it herself.

I was so proud of the woman she’d become, not that she was any more captivating than the day we’d met her. It was amazing to see her so strong, so capable of handling herself. She’d been handed one of the worst lives I could have imagined for a human, and to top it off, Satan himself had set his sights on her. Her body had been pushed to the brink multiple times now, yet she stood her ground and was marching her way to face the King of Hell himself.

“What does he want with the egg?” she asked under her breath as we walked through the parted crowd, Nicholas leading the way.

I shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure. It wasn’t even his trial; one of the lords came up with it. I doubt he even wants the egg. He just knew the trial was basically impossible. He was banking on it.”

“You sure showed him, little one,” Aided added. “He’s fucking pissed.”

He sure was. When we reached the stage, he looked like he was about to spew fire from his mouth. He kept his composurefor the crowd, but I knew him well enough to know he was angrier than I’d ever seen him.

He sat on his stupid chair, hand tucked under his chin as he glowered at us. I saw Lillian stand taller out of the corner of my eye and did the same. He was as good as fucked. She only had one more trial to go, and then, there would be nothing he could do to her.

Nicholas handed the egg to a guard, who took it to our father.

“How did you do it?” he snapped, eyes on Lillian.

She took a second to answer, making him wait. His face twitched.

“I swam down, saw the egg, grabbed it, and swam back up,” she replied like she was describing any old Tuesday morning.

“Who helped you?” he bit back rather quickly. His heavy, angry breathing was audible.

I tried not to react, knowingsomethingmust’ve happened down there, given what she’d started to tell me on the shore. Her expression didn’t falter, not even a little. The woman had turned into a fucking pro.

“I rowed out there myself,Your Majesty. Who could have possibly helped me?”

My father’s face began to twist, turning purple as he looked out over the crowd, like he was trying to remind himself to not lose his shit right here. He looked like he was ready to kill her right where she stood.

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