Page 59 of Dating the Dealing Demon

“Hello, Mother.” Theo’s calm voice contrasts starkly with his mom’s pinched expression.

Monty swoops in front of me, changing from his dragon form to land in my lap as a ball of fur with raised hackles and bared teeth. I don’t question his choice of appearances.

“Everyone leave us,” the queen announces. “Except family.”

No one moves.

She seethes, bright electrical pulses flickering around her claws.

“Not your dominion,” Theo tells her. “While hell bows to you, those seeking sanctuary at Shadowvale swear allegiance only to me.”

“You’ve no idea what you’ve done,” she says with such a hiss that I wonder if Theo’s mom can shift into a snake the same as Monty can switch into mongoose form. “You’ve unleashed a weapon—one that could end our kingdom. If not our entire kind.”

A weapon? I mean I’ve had stabby tendencies since meeting her son, and I’ve set off a few teensy fires in the lab, but those hardly qualify.

“And I should care because?” Theo waves away her concerns. “Father disinherited me, remember?” I can’t decide if his flippancy in light of such serious accusations pisses me off or turns me on. They stripped my demon of his crown, but obviously, they can’t take away his colossal ego.

His mother comes closer, and I wonder how she gets such a perfect red sheen across her claws. Are they coated in actual blood? “If you insist on an audience for family business,” she says, “then it’s not on me when the entire realm learns you’ve been stupid enough to go and actually mate the human I used as a hiding spot for deadly demon magic?—”

“You did what?” Theo’s tone goes icy.

Which seems ironic given the boiling rage pouring through my veins. What is it with this woman and humans? I’m done—done—playing nice. “You human-hating, insult-slinging?—”

The queen cuts me off. “Why do you think I made a deal with your grubby, penniless family? I needed somewhere to stash a magic that might as well be a cross between the bubonic plague and a nuclear weapon for our kind. Somewhere that wouldn’t risk such a curse being passed on tomychildren.”

Gilly stalks from the bar, a glass gripped tightly enough in her hand to turn her scarlet knuckles pink. “What do you mean passed to your kids?”

Her mother looks to Theo. “Son, please, do we need everyone to hear something that will have them plotting to kill your human?”

My brain’s spinning on the fact she can’t even call me his mate when it skids to a halt on the last. “Wait.” I push at Theo. “Plotting to kill me? The king, your husband, hisdad, painted a target on his back to grab the kingdom’s crown. Why wouldanyone come after me? I’m…I’m no one.” The harsh truth leaves me on a whisper.

Theo’s wings tuck close around me. “You’reeverything.” Raising his voice, he says, “Can everyone else excuse us for some unexpected family business?”

Those he has granted sanctuary file out of the room quickly and quietly with concerned glances cast our way.

“You have a supportive following,” I tell him.

“So do you.” He sounds so convincing, and his certainty cuts through my anger and sadness with the sweet possibility that maybe I’ve found new friends here.

Nic crowds closer, looking as worried as Gilly seems pissed. “What do you mean, Mom?”

“Dupree needs to leave,” Gilly snaps. Theclankof glass against wood as she slams down her drink underscores the command.

“But I’m family.” Dupree gives his classic smarmy smirk. Theo’s cousin definitely doesn’t do it for me. If he hadn’t saved me from those cyclops, I’m not sure we’d be friends. While he’s entertaining, any idiot can see that right now isn’t the time to stir up trouble with the few of us left inside the casino.

Theo’s mom ignores them, staring into the distance and pressing her lips together as if trying to keep from sharing whatever lies beneath the ominous crap she’s been dishing out. “There’s a hereditary power in my line, one that destroys. If it had passed to one of you, my children, you wouldn’t have been able to control it in infancy. Your father and I would’ve been forced to…” She closes her mouth, seeming to shrink in on herself.

Nic glances to me. “The demon court kills children whose powers can’t be controlled.”

Her words hit me like a punch to the chest. “That’s horrific.”

“It’s rare,” Theo says, pulling me as close as we can possibly be. “But it happens.”

Nic shakes her head. “There’s no way you could’ve known any of us would inherit that magic. Theo has Brimstone fire, I have Infernian earth powers, and?—”

Gilly interrupts. “I have none.” Her gaze swings to me, the scarlet spinning into flames. “You stole my magic. All these years, I thought I’d been born less because I didn’t come first, but no, it’sinyou.” She curls her lip. “How could you give away my birthright, Mother? And not tell me? Not tell any of us?” Backing away one slow step at a time, she shakes her head in a frantic, furious version of Nic’s earlier movement. “I can’t handle this. I can’t. Not right now.”

Theo stands, pushing me off his lap and curling me tight against his side. “Gilly, don’t?—”

---