Page 7 of Taken to the Shadow Realm

Oros turned around and motioned for the human worker to get a chair. He quickly went to work, the scent of his fear lingering in the air, causing some eyes to linger on him. When he noticed it, the human made quick work of concealing it.

Smart.

I allowed my eyes to linger on him. If the humans didn’t have powers or turned out to be unusable by their owners, they could be brought here for work. But it was a dangerous game for a human to be surrounded by all those bloodthirsty demons just waiting for them to slip up so they could sink their teeth into their flesh.

Still, no one cared about what was good for a human. If they were useless to the demon who purchased them, why not put them to work? Or at least, that’s what the majority thought.

Something I didn’t have a need for. Such a waste.

Aris finally sat down, her eyes still lingering on the twins.

“Answer the question,” Oros demanded as soon as she sat down. There she is. The enforcer.

“I heard there was a spirit seer here,” Aris said after a minute, having no choice but to answer the royal’s probe.

A spirit seer?

If I could feel pity for the demon, I would. She had purchased multiple humans long ago, but none of their souls made it to my realm. That means they must be stuck inside her realm, forever to wander the ground.

To bring a spirit seer there would certainly give them their own little dose of hell.

It hadn’t crossed my mind until that very moment that it might be in my realm’s best interest to ask what she was doing with all those souls.

Oros threw her head back and let out a laugh that was so loud it caused others to turn to look.

“And what would you need with a spirit seer, hm?” she asked.

Aris looked uncomfortable with the question.

“To eat them, of course,” she said quickly. “Maybe steal their power if I am able to.”

A lie. I could see it in her face. Why would she need to lie?

“Didn’t you stop eating humans?” Eros asked, their eyes never leaving Aris’s face. It wasn’t surprising that the more cunning of the twins would catch her in her lie.

My eyes scanned the rest of the group as their conversation was quickly boring me.

There were many powerful demons packed in here, all their barely viable souls touching my shadows.

I could feel them brushing across the tendrils, and as soon as they did, I was able to latch on to every small detail there was to know about them. What they wore, how much money they had in their pockets—I had no problem stealing a few gems and some royal coins as I searched. The issue was how much I would be able to. It was minuscule to what I potentially needed. I didn’t have enough, not with this crowd. Not with the rumored powers of the humans.

There was only one way I would be able to win. Something that could cost me.

Eros let out a hum.

I inched closer to the group, letting my shadows conceal me. They were still going on about the humans.

“Aris,” I called, letting myself step out of the darkness only enough so she could see my face and half my body. I needed an escape plan after all if things went to shit.

Her eyes widened in surprise before a tenseness fell over her face.

“Yien,” she greeted, her eyes shifting to me.

“I need your help,” I said, letting the words settle between us.

It had been a few weeks since I first decided that I was going to try and purchase a human. In that time, I had made many deals with the demon realms, helping get rid of some of their less-than-welcoming wandering spirits. It gave me some money, but not enough.

Aris, on the other hand, had a lot of it.

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