Page 44 of Of Nine So Bold

“The so-calledNine,” I scoffed. “And how easy it is to simply snuff you out.”

My magic drew down upon her location. Already, some of the humans with her had made themselves my subjects. It was nothing to shove the melting remnants of one of their feeble minds out of the way of my will, erasing all that was left of the commoner called Jakob and replacing that withme.

Sight, blurry and wild, became clear to me, revealing the scene. My trees. My apples. Humans, giants, and a vampire were surrounded by them all. Some strange slip of smoke darted around as if it was alive and possessed its own mind.

But up above the head of my pawn…

Disgust filled me. That child was so helpless, she was beingcarried. But the creature holding her was… odd.

Wait. Was that ademon? How had she come acrossthat?

I chuckled to myself. Several decades ago, there’d been rumor one might have slipped into this world, but the stories had never been substantiated and the Jeweled Coven eventually dismissed it all as the fantasy of villagers who’d had one too many drinks. Prior to that, demonkind hadn’t been seen in centuries. Not outside of fading illustrations on crumbling manuscripts.

But, oh, to makethatcreature my subject…

I focused more power upon the lulling song of my spell. The monster’s face twisted with resistance, but the struggle was fruitless. I could already see I was winning. Demon or not, he would bend to my will.

And as for the pathetic girl in his arms…

My subject’s lips curled when mine did. “I see you, Gwyneira,” I said.

At my command, the man leapt.

The demon’s wings beat harder as he fought to rise in the air. My pawn grabbed the creature’s ankle and began dragging him back to earth anyway.

Anticipation shivered through me. I could feel this demon’s power. It was like staring into the heart of a volcano.

Forget bending him to my will. I would consume this power. Drain it. Make it part of my essence the way I’d done with?—

Me.

I flinched. What the?—

Rage twisted the demon’s face. With more force than he should still have been capable of summoning, he kicked my subject’s grip away.

“Mine,” the vicious beast snarled.

Cursing to myself, I refocused on claiming my victory. The demon could actually talk, and he dared use his words to resist me.

When I killed Gwyneira, perhaps I would make him watch.

“Dead,” I promised him.

I smiled as I made my pawn speak my spell out into the air. Meanwhile, I could feel the Voidborn still hiding out inside one of the other humans. That insidious spy of mine was biding its time, pretending quite convincingly to be horrified by what was occurring.

Once my magic was done destroying this pathetic excuse for the supposedNine, the Voidborn would make sure any of the humans left were bent to my will.

What an overblown fairytale this prophecy had been.

“No…” Gwyneira’s little presence in the infinite dark whispered the plea at the same time as her dying body did. Crystalline glints of light drifted around her, like specks of dust glittering in moonlight.

Her presence melted away, lost to the darkness completely.

Contempt filled me. That was it, then. She’d thought to challenge me, and in the end, she was no more permanent than a snowflake on the breeze.

What a pathetic little?—

Pet.

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