Page 93 of Better in Black
“Demon?” Simon murmured, as they carefully closed in, weapons drawn.
“Greater Demon,” Izzy whispered, and Simon nocked an arrow on his bow. “She’s clearly very powerful. And she’s talking.”
Shewastalking. “You bastard, Krog,” she was hissing, as red sparks flew from her clawed white hands. “You swore you would stand by me for eternity. Now you leave me with no explanation? Tell me you cannot bear to be in my presence? I willrendyou.”
“Maybe she’s not after all romance,” said Isabelle. “Maybe she just wants to rend Krog…”
“Who’s Krog?” said Simon. “Another demon?”
But they had moved too close to the demon-woman in the park. She whirled on them, her long white hair flying around her. She bared her shark’s teeth.“Shadowhunters,”she snarled.
Everyone was always hissing or snarling the wordShadowhunters,Simon thought sadly. Why was no one ever yelling “SHADOWHUNTERS!” in excitement or relief? Or glee, even?
“Are you here to slay me? To put a final blade through the broken heart of the demoness Ajatara?”
“Maybe?” Isabelle said. “It sort of depends on what you’re up to. Is it just the weird lyrics and the candy vandalism? Because—you might not know this—but it seems like you’re causing a lot of fights.”
Ajatara smiled a bitter smile. “Idoknow it! I have brought this hellstorm of heartbreak down on the city, so that all may suffer as I am suffering!” She was screeching, Simon thought, but she was also—crying? There were tears streaming down her face.
Simon and Izzy exchanged a glance. “Demons cancry?” he asked.
“It’s a trap,” Izzy said. “And an offensive one, thinking she can weaponize the presumption of female vulnerability. She’s not going to fool us into thinking she’s some damsel in distress.”
Simon raised his bow and aimed at Ajatara. But the demon collapsed to her knees, and held out her arms to him. “Kill me, yes,” she said. “Put an end to my torment.”
Simon sighed. He’d never killed a demon who wanted to be killed before. In fact, a demon who wanted to be killed seemed like maybe it was a trap.
He lowered the bow, though not very far. “All right,” he said. “Why don’t you tell us what’s going on?”
—
“For generations, Krog and I have been happy in our love,” Ajatara said. “We have turned my realm into a hellish paradise, every creature great and small a servant to our bliss—”
“Sorry,” Simon interrupted, “but can we maybe start at the beginning, like, who are you? Also, what is a Krog?”
“Who am I? I am Ajatara, lord and mistress of an icy realm of pain and horrors, duchess of sorrow, former consort of Belial. Surely you have heard of me?”
“Uh, sure,” Simon lied. “Keep going.”
“Krog, of course, is my consort. My handsome prince of darkness, despite his occasional toadish ways. Krog is devoted to me. Our black dead hearts are intertwined, as if staked together by blade and barbed wire, and this is how it has been for more than a century, and must be forevermore. Except. Yesterday Krog told me he couldn’t stand the sight of me now that he knows what I’ve done.”
“Really? What did you do?” Izzy demanded. Simon elbowed her. It seemed slightly ill-advised to be blunt with a Greater Demon.
“I’ve done nothing!” Ajatara wailed. “Nothing that should trouble Krog or make him doubt me!”
“Well, you are a demon,” Simon pointed out. “You’ve probably done a lot of evil things.”
“Of course I have, you pebble-brained Shadowhunter. Kroglovesit when I do evil. Last week I burned down an orphanage for his birthday!”
Izzy played with her whip. “Maybe we should just kill her now?” she suggested.
“Kill me if you like,” said Ajatara listlessly. “I go to my death gladly, knowing the world will suffer the same torments I suffer forever. You think you have seen dreadfulness? It has only begun. My destruction of this realm will follow the path of heartbreak. First, the small cruelties, the doubts that grow. Then the anger that tears, that rends. Whole countries shall be torn apart. Then, at last—desolation.”
Okay, that does sound bad.“To clarify,” Simon said. “If we kill you, this whole desolation thing will keep happening?”
“It will only get worse, Shadowhunter,” Ajatara said. “But go ahead and end my existence in this world. It matters not to me.”
“But whythisworld?” Simon said. “Why not rain down destruction on some other world?”
