Page 12 of Demonchild

After he was gone, Malissa remained standing in the middle of the room, her body perfectly still, her skin cold and taut. The confidence she’d been feeling a moment before had all drained away, and now she just felt scared and alone.

She had lied.

She had lied to Dr. Jaeger about her pregnancy, and soon that lie would reach the king’s ears.

The truth was, she had already bled twice since the king’s departure. She’d been careful to hide the evidence of her menstruation from her handmaidens, but she would not be able to hide her flat belly from the king when he returned home in three months’ time.

Perhaps even sooner than that.

Malissa considered her options. She could try to run away, but she knew it would never work. As soon as someone noticed her absence, Jaeger would send out riders to find her, and they would catch up to her in a day or two.

Besides, even if she did manage to get away, where would she go? Back to her father? No chance of that. Her father had always despised her for bringing about her mother’s death. He had beenmore than happy to sell her off to the king, knowing full well the fate that awaited her at Drachenval.

Perhaps she could fake a miscarriage? Wulfgang might keep her alive a little while longer in the hopes of impregnating her a second time. But Malissa didn’t even know where to begin with such a deception, and even if she did somehow manage to pull it off, she would only be delaying the inevitable.

At last, her mind settled on her final option. The one she’d been trying not to think about. The one that lay waiting for her within the darkstone ring.

Beliath.

Malissa remained standing in the center of the room for several more minutes. Then she went to the wardrobe by the wall and took out the satchel she had used last night. She had emptied it this morning, before the sun came up. Now she went around the room, regathering the various items she needed—the tinder box, the candles, and finally the book. Once she had everything packed away, she took the satchel over to the bed and slid it beneath the frame for safekeeping until nightfall.

Then she went back to her table and sat down once again before her plate of capon and carrots. The food had grown cold, but Malissa forced herself to eat it.

She was supposed to be pregnant after all.

CHAPTER 8

Once again, Beliath felt himself being pulled up out of the deep, dark down-below like a prisoner being dragged from his oubliette for questioning.

Once again, he was being summoned.

He may have been gone a moment or a millennium. It was so hard to tell when he’d had nothing but his own wicked thoughts to mark the passage of time.

It could not have been too long, however, for there was the same little dark-haired queen who had summoned him before.

There was Malissa.

In a way, she had never left. She’d been present in his thoughts during his time away, and his thoughts had been wicked, wicked thoughts indeed.

The forest was there too, the clearing, the darkstone ring, the candles—and that blasted barrier of containment which he could not see, but which he could feel humming between the stones. It was night again, and a quick glance skyward revealed the positions of the planets and the shape of the moon. They told him exactly one day had passed since the woman had summoned him last.

“I knew you’d be back,” Beliath said, “I just didn’t expect you to return quite so soon.”

The little queen jumped slightly at the sound of his voice. He was still keeping himself invisible from her tonight, so until he hadspoken, she could not have known if her summoning had been successful or not.

Her fright soon disappeared, however, and her expression shifted into that look of defiance Beliath had seen the night before. It was a becoming look for her.

“I didn’t return to have you mock me, demon.”

“I wasn’t mocking, woman. Merely making an observation.”

In truth, he was overjoyed to see her again. It was not simply about freedom. If she had not returned, sooner or later, someone else would have happened across the darkstone ring and summoned him, but it was Malissa he craved. There was something about the little dark-haired queen that put the steel in his loins as no mortal woman had ever done before.

Indeed, he was already erect and dripping with lust, though the queen could not see it.

Perhaps that was for the better.

“I take it you’ve reconsidered my offer?” he said.

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