Page 58 of Demonchild

She lingered at the window a moment longer, thinking about what Wulfgang had said at dinner. Was it really true that the queen of Galadon was in league with a demon? Only a few shortmonths ago, Malissa would have dismissed such rumors as mere fantasy, but now she knew better. Demons were very real, and she was about to unleash another one upon the world.

She turned away from the window, walked to her wardrobe, and opened it.

From the upper shelf, she took down the satchel with her candles and book and set it on the floor by her feet. Then she took out her black gown and laid it out upon the bed. She had come to think of it as her good-luck gown. Along with the satchel, it was the only thing she would be taking with her tonight.

She was unhappy to be leaving her mother’s books behind in the royal library. Beliath could conjure her new clothing, but he would not be able to replicate those books, which were one-of-a-kind heirlooms. Malissa had considered taking some of them with her, but the extra weight would only slow her down, and she didn’t want to take any chances. She would have to leave the books. Perhaps, once Beliath was free, they could return to the castle and steal them back, but that was a something to worry about later. Right now, all that mattered was getting away from Drachenval with the baby safe inside her.Thatwas a treasure worth more than any books or gowns or gold.

Malissa stripped off her sleeping robe and placed it on the bed in front of her. Then she started to reach for the black gown. Before she had a chance to start putting it on, however, the door to her bed chamber crashed open behind her.

CHAPTER 30

Malissa spun to face the sound, raising her black gown to cover her naked front.

She half expected to see a pair of guards standing in the doorway, come to stop her from escaping. Or perhaps Dr. Jaeger, come to silence her before she could reveal his disloyalty to the king.

What she saw, however, was the king himself.

Wulfgang stood in the doorway, breathing heavily from his climb up the stairs. He had a candelabra clutched in one hand, and the flames lit his face from below with an eerie, orange glow. Somehow, he looked even worse than he had an hour before. His white hair stuck out at wild angles from beneath the rim of his crown, and his eyes were bloodshot and crazed. Malissa could smell the wine on his breath from across the room.

“My wife,” he slurred. “My faithful wife…”

He stumbled toward her, and Malissa tried to back away, but she soon found herself cornered, with the bed on one side of her and the bedside table on the other. Wulfgang leered at her drunkenly.

“My lovely Indira, why do you hide yourself from me so?”

“Malissa.”

“Eh?”

“My name is Malissa.”

“Ah, yes. Of course, of course…”

He clumsily set his candelabra onto the table beside her, nearly scorching her bare arm in the process. He smelled as if he were sweating pure wine. Malissa desperately wanted to get away from him, but at the same time she didn’t wish to raise his suspicions. In his drunken state, Wulfgang had not seemed to notice that the gown she was clutching to her body was not the same one she had worn to the feast.

“Let me look at you,” he said. “Let me look upon our child.”

Not yours, Malissa thought.

The idea was even more repulsive to her than the sour stench of his wine-laced breath. She kept her black gown clutched tightly in front of her, and Wulfgang’s features twisted with drunken frustration.

“Let mesee!”

He grabbed Malissa’s gown, and with surprising strength he ripped it out of her hands, leaving the front of her body exposed to the candlelight and his wild, bloodshot eyes.

“Wulfgang,please!” Malissa gasped.

She wanted to cry for help, but she knew it would be useless. What would the guards do? Stop the king from having his way with his bride? Of course not. Besides, her immediate goal was to get out of the castle, and it was going to be a lot harder to do that with a bunch of damned guards standing around.

She covered her naked breasts with her hands, but the king wasn’t looking there. His eyes were on her belly. Although shewas only in the third month of her pregnancy, she looked as if she were approaching her sixth.

“My heir,” the king said greedily. “My heir.”

He swept his bony fingers across Malissa’s skin. She wanted to swat his hands away, but she thought better of it. Doing so would only anger the man, and delay her escape. After a moment, he lifted his eyes from her belly and gazed into her face with a look that made her recoil in disgust.

“My lovely Artemesia,” he said. “I knew your fertile body would give me an heir.”

He slid his hands over her own, which were still covering her breasts.

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