Page 6 of Demonchild

The blood returned to the little queen’s face, and it kept on returning until her cheeks were as rosy red as two clouds at sunset. She seemed to be holding back her words, as if they were a living creature trying to escape from her mouth. Then she blurted them out all at once.

“I want you to give me a baby!”

CHAPTER 5

Malissa immediately regretted what she had just said. She wished she had worded it differently, wished her voice had not been so rife with desperation. But then, shewasdesperate. Nervous too. And who wouldn’t be? She was, after all, conversing with a demon.

Or at least she had been… until now.

As soon as she blurted out her desire for a baby, Beliath had fallen silent, but Malissa could still sense the demon’s presence lurking within the darkstone ring, even though she couldn’t actually see him.

She shivered, but not from cold. The night air was warm against her bare skin. Around the clearing, the forest was as dark as sin, but those shadows no longer filled her with fear. The real horror was right there in front of her, in the center of the darkstone ring.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting, Malissa mustered the courage to speak again.

“Will you grant my wish?” she asked.

“Perhaps,” the demon answered, and Malissa’s skin goosed at the sound of that disembodied voice. “But first, I have some questions for you.”

Malissa stood up straight and tried her best to look regal. It was not easy to do without any clothes on.

“I did not come here to be interviewed,” she said. “I came to make a deal.”

“And perhaps you shall, but as I have already stated, you have no power to command me. You may summon me, and you may banish me, but what happens in between is dependent upon many things.”

“Such as?”

“Before I make a deal with a mortal, I like to know who I’m dealing with.”

“I already told you, I am Queen Malissa of Drachenval, wife of—”

“Silence!”

Beliath’s roar seemed to shake the very pillars of the darkstone ring, and Malissa felt it rumbling deep within her bones. The fact that she couldn’t actually see the creature making that sound only made it that much more terrifying. She almost took off running into the forest again, but she forced herself to remain steadfast.

The demon could not harm her as long as the magic barrier contained him. Otherwise, he would have done so already. Malissa was sure of it.

“Very well,” she said. “What do you wish to know?”

“Are you a priestess?”

“No.”

In spite of the circumstances, Malissa was almost tempted to laugh at the absurdity of the question. She had read about the priestesses in her grimoire. Woman-mages who spoke withspirits. Their ancient religion had been dead for a long, long time, replaced by the order of the Ecclesiarchy. There were no priestesses anymore.

“A witch then?” the demon asked.

Malissa shook her head. “Until tonight, I have never performed a magic ritual of any kind. I wasn’t even sure if such things were really possible.”

“Then how did you summon me?”

“The grimoire,” she said, nodding toward the leatherbound book lying atop her satchel, just outside of the perimeter of the darkstone ring.

“Ah,” the demon said, with a hint of amusement. “Of course. Books are such dangerous things. The priestesses who bound me here never used them. They preferred memory and word of mouth, lest their secret knowledge fall into the wrong hands.”

Was the demon suggesting thatherswere the wrong hands? If so, he was probably right. Malissa knew she was meddling with powers beyond her understanding, and she couldn’t help thinking this whole thing had been a terrible mistake.

But it was too late to turn back now.

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