Page 28 of The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate
While the actual enforcers of dragon justice were all big, brutish minotaurs, Triuk was humanoid. He was decidedlynothuman, but beyond that, nobody was really sure what he was. And Triuk never said either.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, voicing my curiosity just as he opened his mouth to begin speaking.
The irritation at being interrupted was evident in the slight narrowing of his eyes, but I let it slide off me with the merest hint of a smile. There had never been any love lost between Triuk and me. For whatever reason, he resented demons immensely and had always refused to show me the proper respect due my position on the jury.
In return, I did everything I could to antagonize him.
“There was a surge of power nearby,” he said. “I was following it, and it led me here.”
“You were following it?”
He nodded. “Yes. I was in the area with a team, gathering up an unauthorized magic user for trial, when I felt it. It headed north, but before I could go far, it started to come back this way before fading.”
I grunted. We both knew it was me. I wouldn’t deny it. There was no point. The magic was fairly easily identifiable as demonic. We were both fishing for more information, however, and neither was willing to give up on it.
He wanted to know what had caused the outburst. While it was his job to investigate such occurrences, the fact that I outranked him where we were meant I wasn’t obliged to give him an answer. Yet by not doing so, he would certainly inform Dannorax of what happened.
What I was trying to figure out was whether he truly was there randomly. Or whether Dannorax had sent Triuk to ensure I was following through on my word to punish Lily appropriately for her transgressions.
A hint of a sneer crossed the gray-clad man’s face as we had an unspoken conversation, each trying to figure out the other’s motives.
My hand curled into a fist as I pictured driving it through his face. It would give me no small pleasure to punch Triuk into the next realm.
He noticed, and the fingers of his right hand tightened around his staff until a single wisp of smoke curled up from the top. A warning, but not one that would intimidate me.
“Is there an issue here?” he asked after a moment.
“None at all,” I said with false politeness.
“Are you certain? The pulse of your powers will have been felt by many. What is causing you to lose control?”
“I am under control,” I replied, spreading both hands wide.
Triuk clenched his jaw at my non-answer. “Very well. See that it stays that way.”
“Oh, I will,” I promised.
The gray-man nodded sharply. “Very well. What is it you’re up to here anyway, Belial?”
I held back a grimace, wishing he hadn’t asked that question for several reasons. First, it indicated that Dannorax hadn’t sent him. True, it could be a red herring of sorts, but something in his tone told me it was true curiosity that led him to ask, not deception.
Because of that, I was in a quandary regarding my answer. If I didn’t answer, I knew he would go to Dannorax and inform him of what had happened in an attempt to find out and also make my life more miserable. Little did he know, but he would succeed.
Going to Dannorax was the worst option. I was supposed to be torturing her, serving her justice as befitted the Twisted Court. If he found out I was delaying bringing Lily in on purpose, things would go bad and fast.
Which meant I had to convince Triuk that I was doing everything for a reason.
“Just setting this particular criminal up,” I said, jerking my head back over my shoulder.
“Setting them up for what?”
I grinned even as my stomach churned. “The sweetest punishment of all,” I replied. “Betrayal.”
Chapter Sixteen
Lily
Betrayal?
