Page 71 of Their World

“Have you heard news of my parents?”

“They’ve been imprisoned. Your father destroyed part of the city and your mother destroyed part of the castle while fighting King Jolmach. The Grand Advisor used a spell that stopped them and allowed their capture. I think they intend to use them as bargaining chips when they invade. To try to convince your people to hand you over.”

“Hand me over?” I asked. Why? Why did the Grand Advisor suddenly want me back?

“Over my dead body,” Mason growled.

“This doesn’t make sense,” I whispered. “What is his goal? What will he gain by me returning to your world?”

“Druth said it has something to do with a curse. One that the Third to Reign placed on the Grand Advisor,” Talrinir explained. “It apparently causes him a lot of pain and makes it difficult to sleep. There was a rumor that he has been stealing magic from other beings to help ease his pain. She said you are the key to breaking the curse and once broken, we can break the Grand Advisor’s hold on our people.”

“How will breaking his curse free your people?” Trey asked. “That doesn’t make sense.”

Talrinir shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s all Druth told us.”

“I don’t know how to break the curse anyway,” I reminded her. Pacing back and forth between the two groups, I tried to figure out what all this could mean. There were so many options and I didn’t truly know the Grand Advisor that well. “Talrinir, was there anything else Druth said?”

She tugged at her ears a moment and whined as she thought. “Oh!” she gasped and spun to face me. “She did say something about blood and shadows being the key.”

Blood and shadows?

I summoned the shadow snake and it blinked ruby eyes at me in its shadow body. “Do you know?” I asked it.

It bobbed its head.

My eyes widened. “You know how to break the curse?”

It bobbed its head again.

“How?”

The snake swirled until it became larger, then made an overexaggerated biting motion.

“You bite him?” I asked, confused.

“There must be a power the shadow can use once it bites and draws his blood,” Talrinir said and smiled. “That makes a lot of sense!”

Something about her statement and phrasing bothered me. I looked at her out of my peripheral vision and my eyes widened.

That wasn’t Talrinir.

How could I have been so stupid? Of course she wouldn’t be able to come find me. Especially not with two bull-headed demons as guards! Idiot. I was an idiot!

Mason, Trey, and Kayden took a step closer, sensing my fear.

“Talrinir, I need you to do me a favor,” I said quickly. I put one hand behind my back and waved at my mates to keep them away.

“Of course,” fake Talrinir said. “Anything for you, Princess.”

“I need you to tell the Grand Advisor that I will break his curse if he frees my parents, unharmed, and to this world. Okay?”

“I don’t know if he’ll listen to me,” she whispered. “Especially since he won’t want to give up your parents.”

“Tell him to release my parents, unharmed, and I will willingly return to the demon world, break his curse, and gift him a mana stone with some of my magic stored within it. He can use that magic to do whatever he needs or wants.”

Fake Talrinir’s eyes widened. “A stone with your magic in it?”

I could practically see him salivating.

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