Page 94 of Prince of Demons
He ignored her. They all did.
Georgia choked back the sob threatening to spill out and pressed her hands to her lower abdomen, not to shield a fetus that might not even be there, but to hold in the gut-splitting terror. “Mallorn… you can’t let them do this. Please. Please.”
No one so much as looked in her direction.
“We have much to prepare for tonight,” the King continued, as if she hadn’t even spoken. “Show our new friend to his suite, then prepare the Breeder for her auction. We can’t have her reeking of fear when our allies come to make their bids—we need them in a good mood to ensure they take the other news… with the correct understanding. If their attention is on the possibility of a submissive little mate, the peace treaty I’ve brokered with Kirigan should sound… more like victory than compromise.”
Kirigan?
No. That couldn’t be right.
She must have misheard. Misunderstood. The name echoed again—clear, deliberate—and the cold started at her fingertips this time, creeping up her arms like frostbite.
Not Mallorn.
Not Jimmy.
Kesh’s father.
“I still don’t understand why he would offer this deal,” Aragalan said, gaze sliding to Mallorn. “Offering the Breeder, agreeing to limit Kain’s territory to North America. They have one of our Stones of Power, the other is gone… We’ve lost two lords in direct combat to the younger son. Without this auction, if we didn’t secure a victory within the year, our support might have begun to slowly dwindle. So what incentive did he have to suggest giving us not only a ceasefire, but a Pure Breeder as well?”
“He offered for the same reasons I accepted. Kirigan is only a few centuries younger than I,” the King said, turning his black eyes to the broken woman on his lap. “I fought him at your mother’s auction, and even then, no lack of cunning, merely his youth that ensured my victory. Had he been older at the time, stronger… he might have taken her. He is… clever. The costs on both sides are already racking up, and no matter who wins in the end, this conflict depletes our numbers.
“The gods are watching us. Waiting. The second they see their chance, they will strike. Whoever is left standing will be wiped out. So, in the end, this is better for us all. Especially for you. Now go—take your mate-to-be to recover from the journey. She will need all her strength for tonight. Her submission underneath you after you win will be a beautiful seal to our new peace treaty.
Georgia barely registered the large hand curling around her arm and pulling her out the door. Acid shock churned through her system as the full scale reality of what he was saying sank in.
Kirigan hadn’t brokered peace with diplomacy.
He’d traded her for it.
46
Kirigan
Kirigan had liked the city, once upon a time. The noise and human decay had proven decadent hunting grounds and, as all demons, he’d been happy to indulge.
Nowadays, it was all static. Relentless impressions against his fraying mind.
He didn’t sit as he stared out the window at the bustling life outside, at the humans going about their lives. He hadn’t sat for hours. Not because he was tense. He didn’t feel tension. He simply didn’t trust what might surface if he allowed his body to relax. Right now, there was no room for the madness. No room to lose his grip on the carefully laid dominoes, lest one fall over too soon and spoil the picture.
Governor Maell entered behind him. No fanfare. They hadn’t bothered with that in centuries.
Kirigan didn’t look over. “I’ve heard what I needed to.”
Maell stepped further into the room. “They’re unified. Lords who haven’t been able to share a battlefield now trade intelligence. Half the court is tapping surveillance webs that haven’t been touched in years. Even the Lord of Nevada is in.”
Kirigan’s jaw flexed once. His gaze tracked a mother pushing a stroller on the pavement below, unaware she was passing so close to a demonic court.
Maell poured a drink from the dusty cart by the wall. “The Breeder was a catalyst. They’ll follow Kain blindly now. Whoever took her did more for your son’s consolidation of power than a decade of rule.”
Kirigan kept still. The darkness tightened around his spine. “Convenient.”
Maell watched him over the rim of the glass. “Yes. Almost suspiciously so.”
The mother disappeared around a corner. Kirigan finally turned around to look at the governor. Flat. Unblinking.
Maell didn’t press it, only leaned back against the edge of the bar cart. “I suppose, even if she were to turn up somewhere… unfortunate, say, mated to one of our enemies… she would be out of reach for good. This would likely keep them united under Kain’s rule. He did offer her to them, after all. If someone managed to sneak her out under their collective noses, Kesh can’t very well be blamed for losing her.”
