Page 50 of The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate
The single word cracked through the room, breaking the spell. All around us, beings of different types inhaled sharply in a mixture of surprise, fear, and excitement at what might come next.
I didn’t stop. I kept walking toward the door, Lily on my arm. Where she belonged. Her fingers draped over my forearm, her presence in my mind. Herbodynext to me. That was as it should be. Together we would leave that room, and I would make that human woman my princess.
If she let me.
I felt the flicker of magic a moment before the doors closed shut, blocking our path.
“What do we do now?” Lily asked, clutching at me nervously.
Who could blame her? She’d been through so much, and now, with what she likely saw as safety mere feet away, it was being robbed from her once more. I turned on the speaker, the one who had closed the doors and was making Lily once more feel in peril.
“I have won,” I bit out, throwing the words at Dannorax like knives. “I challenged your lackey. I fought him in your courtroom. I used the proper rules. You willnotdeprive me of what is mine.”
The dragon huffed and stirred, his long neck uncurling until his head was halfway across the giant courtroom, built big enough to accommodate his lizard bulk. It was rare to see him move so much, and many of the room’s occupants visibly flinched, expecting me to be disintegrated on the spot.
“I am overruling the trial,” he said. “Until I can decide what shall be done.”
“What’s done is done!” I shouted at him, tightening my grasp on my axe. “I fought for her. I won. She is mine!”
“In most situations, that would be true,” Dannorax answered slowly, his head undulating back and forth slightly, giving him an almost snakelike trait. “However, were you not the one responsible for bringing her before this court in the first place? And did you notfailin your duty, Belial? She was to be brought for punishment. And you sought to protect her instead. Now you wish to claim her, to be the one to inflict her judgment? How can this court have any faith that you will do so properly?”
I stared stiffly. “I won. She is mine.”
“And I say otherwise,” Dannorax growled.
My temper flared, and I took a half-step toward the dragon’s head. “That goes against all convention! I was bringing her here. I just didn’t move as fast as you wanted, but a timeframe was never stipulated. You cannot break the law.”
“I AM THE LAW!” Dannorax bellowed, the force of his voice driving Lily and me back several steps. Others in the room screamed, some ducking for cover. Most of the other jury members grimaced unpleasantly at the noise but stood still, dispassionately observers.
None of them would side with me.
“You cannot have her,” I growled.
Dannorax rose on all fours. The room darkened, and magic filled the room. One or two members of the jury shifted uncomfortably.
“You would seek to stand against me?” the dragon asked.
I gripped my axe firmly. “You know you would be weakened. That it’s possible you might even lose,” I told him. “Are you really willing to leave yourself so exposed around so many …opportunists?”
That was the politest term I could come up with for some jury members, who would certainly seek out Dannorax’s spot. I knew he wouldn’t be willing to risk such a potential loss.
“You think I wouldfightyou to try to win?” Dannorax chuckled. He lifted a paw.
I gripped my axe with both hands, ready to charge—
And with a shriek, Lily was ripped away from me by his magic. A giant dragon claw wrapped itself around her midsection and squeezed until Lily shouted in pain.
“Put. Her. Down.” I snarled, wings spreading wide, fire filling my eyes, lining my blade.
“Take one step toward me, and I will cut her in half,” Dannorax snarled. “She is nothing to me. Thus you have no reason to doubt I won’t do it. And if youdobest me in the combat that would follow, you would still have to live with the knowledge that her death wasyourfault. Can you do that, Belial, fifth son of Lucifer?”
The words crashed into me with their intended effect. I staggered mentally. How could I have been so dumb to leave her unprotected? Of course he would strike for her first and not for myself. Anyone could have seen that coming.
Anyone but a demon who had never had to look out for anyone else in their life. Who was so focused on what he could do that he forgot it wasn’t just about him anymore. That there was someone else.
Someone I just lost.
For the second time, I stood by, unable to do anything as Lily was hauled away in front of me. I was getting sick and tired of that image. Something had to be done about it.
