Page 7 of Demonchild

“How did you come into possession of this book?” the demon asked.

“It was my mother’s.”

“So, your mother was a witch?”

“Yes.”

Malissa felt a twinge of uncertainty, but she hoped it didn’t come through in her voice. The truth was, she had never really known her mother. There had always been whisperings that her mother had dabbled in the dark arts, but Malissa had never really believed those rumors—until she had found the grimoire.

If Beliath noticed the uncertainty in her answer, he did not pursue it, and Malissa experienced a wave of relief when the demon changed the subject, though his new line of questioning was no more pleasant than the previous one.

“You said you want a baby,” Beliath’s voice purred. “Why come to me? Surely yourhusbandcan provide one for you, no?”

Malissa sighed.

“King Wulfgang is much older than I am,” she explained. “And I am not his first wife. He’s had a dozen wives before me, and all of them havefailedto give him an heir.”

“I see,” the demon said. “It sounds as though this Wulfgang has incredibly bad luck when it comes to picking a fertile wife.”

There was an ironic note in the demon’s voice indicating he knew the real problem, theobviousproblem. If one scatters seeds on a dozen different fields, and they fail to bear fruit, at some point one must suspect that the problem lies not with the soil, but with the seeds themselves.

Of course, no one dared mention that to the king.

“My husband is a pious man,” Malissa went on, infusing her words with some irony of her own. “He would never choose to divorce a wife simply because she did not bear him any children. The Ecclesiarchy would frown on such behavior. Fortunately for Wulfgang, divorce has never been a necessity. His first wife wasthrown from her horse and broke her neck. His second died from eating tainted food. It seems that some poisonous mushrooms made their way into her supper, but not anyone else’s. His third wife was taken by a melancholic mood and stabbed herself in the heart, though the poor woman made quite a mess of it, I’m told. The palms of her hands were covered with cuts, almost as if she’d been trying to defend herself from an assassin, but I’m sure she only fumbled with the knife.”

“I see,” the demon said. “And I suppose your other nine predecessors also met with similar untimely fates?”

Malissa nodded.

“And now you’re afraid that such a fate is waiting for you.”

“The king told me as much. He has been away for some time now, gone to fight the Galadonian armies in the west. When he departed, he kissed me on the cheek, then whispered in my ear: ‘When I return, dear wife, I hope for your sake that you are big with child.’For your sake!He actually said that!”

“He also said he wanted you ‘big with child,’ but he didn’t specify it had to be his own. You’re a comely woman, Malissa. Surely you would have no trouble finding a virile young man to give you what your husband cannot? A randy young stable boy, perhaps?”

Malissa flushed with shame.

Such an idea had occurred to her, but she knew it would never work. The timing was all wrong.

“The last time Wulfgang bedded me was the night before he left for war, and that was nearly three months ago.”

She shuddered at the memory of that night, and the many nights of unwanted coupling that had preceded it. Her body had loathed the feeling of that cold, loveless man on top of her and inside her, but she’d been forced to accept it, the same way she’d been forced to accept his hand in marriage when her own father had sold her to him like a whore.

“So let me get this straight,” the demon said. “You need a healthy child in your womb. You need it to gestate in only six months, rather than the usual nine. And, presumably, you need it to be a male, so it can be your husband’s heir.”

Malissa nodded.

“That is a tall order, woman. And a rather selfish one, if I may say so.”

“Selfish?”

“You’re talking about bringing a new life into this world. A soul who will suffer and wither and die. And you’re doing it merely to save your own selfish hide.”

“That’s notfair!” Malissa cried, tears springing to her eyes. “I never asked to be put in this position, and I’mnotbeing selfish! I do want a child. I will love him and care for him, just as I would a child begotten in the… in thenaturalfashion.”

A silence descended over the clearing. Aside from her own racing heart, the only sounds Malissa could hear were the sizzling wicks of the candles and the cry of a night bird way off in the distance. She could feel the demon’s eyes examining her, peeling away layers of her the way a man might peel an apple with a blade. It made her tummy flutter with fear… and other feelings she didn’t care to examine.

“Very well,” the demon said at last, “I will give you what you ask.”

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