Page 125 of The Demon's Discovery
Vassago helped me to my feet, his hands traveling over me warmly, checking for any injuries. His mouth descended on mine, his arms wrapping around me fiercely.
“I’m sorry,” he swore, breath warm against my ear. “You’ll never know how sorry I am, Greta.”
“I’m okay,” I assured him. “I’m okay.” The second time may have been for me, but I think it helped us both. I reached down through my pocket, disheartened to find my blade missing from its sheath.
Ris’s voice boomed around the room. “If you areeverfound to be disloyal to the Sylvanus crown, you will meet the same ends as your husbands.”
“You heard him. Now leave!” Magnus boomed, opening the door enough that the remaining women and children could hustle through.
“You aremysubjects! You will remain until the ritual is complete!” the false king demanded, desperation edging his voice. They all ignored him and fled. “I have not waited this long and come this far to lose toyou, Ris Sylvanus. I have made too many preparations! The kingdom is mine!”
The door closed again, and without human witnesses, the whole feel of the room changed.
“Now that there is no risk of collateral damage…” The brunet demon advanced almost playfully, his sword swinging around in circles as the green-eyed man flashed around the room several times. He walked forward at a sedate pace, eyes on Ris. “Your father did always laud you for your dedication to strategy,” he grinned.
“Father was not the strategist,” Ris corrected. “Mother was.”
“I know. I think that’s perhaps why he admired your inheritance of the trait. He was dedicated to her like nothing I’ve ever seen. Drank buckets of ale just to survive another night without her.” The brunet demon clenched a fist over his heart in a gesture of respect.
“I’m clearly rusty, but I appreciate the compliment.”
“Shut up! Nobody cares about his dead parents. This is my realm! My throne!” the usurper shouted, standing with his feet wide, arms extended. “And I can already feel the transformation happening. You’re. Too.Late.” His laugh was even more unhinged than usual, the sound scraping across my bones. Wings exploded from his back, willowy bones under a thin membrane of brown scaly flesh. He flapped them, rising several inches off the ground. “I can’t jump.” His face fell, but only briefly. “It’s working! I have wings! Surrender, cousin, and we can end this.”
“Never,” Ris snarled. “This belongs to you,” he said, handing me the Dark blade. “Something seems wrong. Those are not what royal wings normally look like. We need to hurry.” He made eye contact with Vassago, who released me and gave a short nod.
Rylan joined Magnus, and Calla lingered behind the false king with me. She cautiously extended her magic, trying to do the same kind of thing to him she’d done to the clergyman. He must have sensed it, because he spun, blade singing as it cut through the air above our heads.
Seir grabbed out with his tail, lashing it around one ankle, pulling him off balance. Vos roared, and spun, swinging out ineffectively with his sword. Seir and Rylan circled him, Magnus rising enough with his own wings that he was able to loop a length of chain around Vos’s throat. As he screamed from the iron searing his flesh, the two demons both leapt. Each grabbed a wing with one hand while swiping their swords across the backs of his knees with the other, rendering him immobile.
“How dare you!” he roared, stumbling.
Magnus grunted, yanking at the chain to pull Vos close enough to also circle his chest, leaving him without use of his arms as well. He hung there, legs useless, Magnus keeping him upright.
“Belmont? Do you know where my book is?” Vassago asked. The raven knocked, swiveling his head in a nod. “Would you please show Seir where to find it?”
Seir grinned and followed the bird from the room. Rylan shifted so he would be able to back Magnus up if needed.
“Kneel, Vos,” Ris ordered.
Vos had no choice, thanks to his injuries and the force Magnus put behind pushing him down, but he let loose that terrible laugh again. His ring burned what felt like into the bone of my finger, and I couldn’t understand how his enchantmentwas still working. Calla stepped over to her husband’s side, her green earth magic adding to the bonds along with a slight electrical current from Rylan.
“I am king here,” he insisted, voice shaking with an edge of defeat.
“If you were, you would not be on your knees.” Ris crossed his arms, examining Vos closely as he walked a circuit around him.
“You can’t kill me! If you do, you’ll die or be exiled,” he argued.
Ris tutted with his tongue. “You think you know the ancient magic well enough to correct me, Vos? You don’t even understand all of it.”
“Of course I do! Everything I’ve done was to get to this point. My whole life dedicated to taking what is mine!”
Ris leaned down into his cousin’s face, expression tight with anger. “And yet you still don’t understand! Those wings were certainly not royal. Your crown never formed either.”
“What’s your point?”
“You were never going to be king. No elixir could make you worthy of the throne, Vos.”
“Worthy! There is nobody more worthy than me. I trained beside you, I learned everything I needed to know, I kept quiet despite all the insipidtalkingyour father loved to do. I was patient! There was no part of the enchantments I didn’t learn. The throne should have belonged to me! It would have been mine ages ago if not forher.” He sneered at me. “You were going to run away with your little stone kin lover, and I would ascend in your place. That was theplan. Then she was born and ruined everything!”
