Page 106 of Kingdom of Rot & Ruin
“Maybe fire,” she suggested half-heartedly, tossing the remnants of her bone into the large fire. It sizzled where it hit the flames, the last scraps of meat and juices hissing and burning up.
“Zephyr,” she began quietly, so as not to attract anyone else’s attention, “while I appreciate you volunteering to lead the refugees to a better home, you know you can’t do that. What about the …” she gestured vaguely to my sleeves, under which we both knew my demon transformation was already beginning.
Fuck her.
I smiled widely. “Ah Mari, don’t worry about that. I’ve found a solution!”
Her lips parted in shock. “To stop the change?”
My smile hurt my cheeks. “I have you to thank, really. You said ‘we don’t have magick’. Do you remember?”
She clearly didn’t. Oh well.
“Anyway, you were half right. Humans don’t have magick. But those with noble blood do, you see? The witch gifted it to us along with the curse. We can’t change into demons without some kind of magick in our veins, can we? I’m so thankful to you for this realization, I am willing to drop our little feud and lead your little muddies to freedom.”
Mari nodded dumbly.
I kept my tone light. “Well, as I lay there hoping I wasn’t bleeding internally, I realized that if I had magick, maybe I could try some of the white and black rituals written down in the book. So you see, our little squabble was necessary for the greater picture.”
“And did you try any rituals?” she asked, clearly wary.
I leaned back, crossing my arms over my chest. “Not thisspecifictype. There’s a lot you need to do a ritual. I will, though. I need a special … ingredient.”
“And this … ritual … will keep you from changing?”
I only grinned, gave her a patronizing pat on the head, and walked off. Shava followed behind me, glaring at her former friend.
Shava and I only managed a few stolen moments together before the ground shook, and the air filled with screams of terror.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I spat out, pushing Shava off me and yanking my pants up.
“I thought you said the queen wouldn’t attack?” Shava asked, frowning as she set her own clothes right.
“I said she wouldn’t attackyet,” I replied, irritated. Was every woman conspiring against me as of late?
The screams intensified as we stumbled out of the small crack in the side of the cliff, running back towards the refugees. The thundering in the distance and the accompanying wave of dust could mean only one thing.
“She’s attacking with her army! What a cunt!”
I echoed Shava’s thoughts in my head. Attacking unarmed refugees seemed a bit much, but I already knew she was a heartless, crazy bitch.
I learned that the day my mother died.
“RUN!”
People shouted and stampeded as the queen advanced, barking out orders. We made it to the edge of the crowd before Shava was seized by a frantic woman.
“Shava! I can’t find Poppy!”
I growled in annoyance. We were supposed to care about one stupid little girl ahead of the entire camp?
“Was she playing near the tunnel again? It isn’t safe with the dragons nearby!” Shava insisted. The woman’s face went white, confirming that the girl was likely down in one of the tunnels.
Shava took off, leaving both of us behind.
I sprinted after her, catching up just at the tunnel entrance and grabbing her arm. “What? Absolutely not!”
Shava turned on her heel, fire in her eyes. “She’s achild! How can you sentence a child to die?”
