Page 36 of Immortal Throne

He snapped his mouth shut and nodded. “Fine. This way.”

Zane held out his spear, and for the first time, I was able to get a good look at it. It was over seven feet in length and made of some sort of black metal. More importantly, the weapon had a gnarly spearhead. When the morning light streaming in from the windows hit the edge, it shone, betraying the sharpness.

I shuddered. Fully aware I had no weapon to carry into these trials and some demons may not want me to compete, I stayed between Zane and Chupey. They walked with relaxed demeanors and bantered back and forth, like two long time friends would, regardless of being Hell creatures or the deadly challenges awaiting me. I wanted to take their nonchalance as a compliment, that they believed I’d win the Inferno trials easily, but I wasn’t feeling the same confidence. My nerves made nausea roll in my gut.

When we entered the throne room, I was faced with a dense crowd of demons of all shapes and sizes. The place was packed. Some had horns, some didn’t. Some had long hair that fell down their backs in soft waves, some had locs, some had short hair and some had no hair at all. They had a variety of skin tones, some similar to those found in the mortal realm, some completely different and foreign, like blue and green. They were all fit. And they all wore strappy, leather contraptions and combat boots. I looked like a cream puff in comparison. And no one who knew me would ever think or dare to compare me to a pastry.

Chupey was right, I stood out and may as well carry a neon sign announcing my humanity.

“Whoa.” I rocked back on my heels.

“The trials shall begin shortly,” a loud male voice boomed over the crowd.

The conversations faltered and died as everyone turned toward the throne.

Six demons stood on the dais. The male who spoke had two sets of twisted horns protruding from his head, much like Zane. He wore a long flowing robe the same color as clotted arterial blood and his red-slit eyes flashed with intelligence.

“That’s Malachi,” Zane leaned down to whisper into my ear. “He’ll officiate the first trial. Expect to use those brains of yours. Malachi likes riddles.”

“Do you two hang out?”

“Hang out?” Zane waggled his eyebrows at me. “Yeah, sure. That’s what we do.”

The demon in question turned away and raised his hands, his robe falling back to reveal forearms corded with muscle. Magic flowed into the room, brushing over my skin.

I gasped. Something inside me rose up to answer the call. I clenched my hands, my nails digging into my palms.

Pain answered. I frowned and looked down. Blood dripped from my fists. Opening my palms revealed four small puncture wounds. My normally short nails had elongated into talons.

Talons.

Chupey bumped into my legs. “Better put those away.”

“How?” I hissed.

“Relax.”

Oh yeah, sure. Relax. Because that was a totally natural response to have when faced with talons growing and demon portals.

I squeezed my eyes shut and took long, deep breaths. My fingers tingled and when I opened my eyes, I found my normal nails had returned.

“Why do I need to hide them? Didn’t you already criticize me for looking too human?” I whispered to my familiar. “And it’s not like anyone else is hiding their demon shit.”

“You look human, act human, and insist on dressing human,” Zane whispered. “May as well embrace it and let them assume you’re weak like a human. It’s not the approach I would’ve taken, but in hindsight, it might be for the best. Let them underestimate you.”

Oh. That made sense. Unlike everything else. I still had so many questions, but one thing, in particular, kept bothering me. “I’m still pissed Ryker lied to me.”

Chupey cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

“He said I had two weeks to present myself to the council. If I had listened to him, I would’ve missed this entirely.”

“He didn’t lie,” Zane said.

“What?”

“He didn’t lie,” he repeated, only slower. “Until yesterday’s announcement, you still had two weeks to claim your inheritance—sixty-six days and six hours after the time of your father’s death.”

“Then what changed? How’d they know to start now? We’d just arrived when Chupey got the memo about the trials.”

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