Page 4 of The Lost Nation

“I’m sorry, but I...Ican’t.”

Benedict strode forward to meet me, and I resigned myself to fight. He always wanted to fight me, but I didn’t take it personally. I’d hurt hismate, after all.

“You arerejectinga mating bond.”He clarified.

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. I couldn’t look at Wren, I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t even look atmyself.

There was a noise, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of white tumbling towards us and landing in a heap. A female draken stared back at me, her dark hair cascading down to her waist, her wings flared as if ready to flee. Eyes as blue as the sea met mine, widening in fear. Then she took to the sky.

I closed my eyes and viciously shoved away my inner draken, who wanted nothing more than tochase, topursueanddominate.My muscles shuddered as I fought it, and I looked up to see she was long gone.

Good.

I turned back to the others shakily.“If that’s all?”

My voice wavered as I tried to keep my tone polite, since I didn’t need to give Benedict any more excuses to rip my spine out than he already had. I chanced a glance up, and balked at the level of awe onhis face. Then it disappeared, and the pissed off king was back.

“How do we heal the white magick?” He demanded, and my brow furrowed at the sudden change in subject.

I must have looked perplexed, because he continued on.“It has not acclimated to Wren’s body. She is suffering.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Wren wasn’t the kind of person who could willingly hurt anyone else, unless it was self-defense or for protection. Drakens were notorious for being able to wield blackandwhite magick effectively, but not everyone could handle the chaos of the white. In the end, the one thing Benedict and I always could agree on was Wren. Everything was for her. It always was, and always had been.

I sighed, thinking hard.“Focus on building her black magicks, and the white magick will dissipate when it figures out she’ll no longer feed it.I also think having her sing should help with the effects."

Similar situations had happened at the demon fortresses, but the other way around. Few demons had the balls to hurtthemselvesfor more power, but were more than willing to tortureothers. It was the great dichotomy of magick—black magick worked only on one's own self, using the caster’s blood and pain, while white magick relied on the pain and suffering of others.

Black was the absence of everything. It was order. White was chaos—it absorbedeverything.

Benedict frowned, likelyirritated hehadn’t thought of that. “Very well," he murmured.

I knew a dismissal when I heard one, even without him turning his back to me. Wren’s sobs filtered back up to me, and I winced.

“Wait.”I said.

Benedict paused, not even giving me the dignity of turning back around to face me. That was fine. I wouldn’t have either.

I turned to Wren.“I’msorry, but we’ve been through too much.You understand that, right?"

Beneidctkept walking away, no longer acknowledging me. Kieran pulled Wren away by her shoulders, and then all of them had their backs to me.

Fine.

I shifted back to the demon fortress in a wisp of shadows.

???

It hadn’t exactly been myplanto overtake the demon fortress, but I didn't have much of a choice when Wren and I killed Severn. The lieutenant of the Overlord had held vast power here in Dorea, though the rebels had recently taken back the city of Cantrada and it was once again under human power.I couldn't leave an entire fortress of demons alone and leaderless. Even if that leader had to be me.

I shuddered as I remembered how many demons I’d murdered to take command. Jareth’s betrayed face haunted me along with Wren's, and I wondered if it was just the beginning of a long list of regrets and dead faces that would follow me to my own grave.

No.You did what needed to be done to ensure there were no more kidnappings and forced breedings. To see what it is the demonstrulywanted, and work to create peace in Dorea while taking down the Overlord.

My racing pulse settled slightly. If I could clean up the mess here, I could get further insight into exactly what was going on with the Overlord. Because contrary to popular belief, he wasn’there. In fact, I had yet to find any evidence that even suggested he was stillalive.

The demon Overlord supposedly was the strongest demon in existence—all of the literature I’d read and the testimonies from the older demons in my fortress were in agreement. He’d had a massive amount of power, but no physical descriptions were written. Older demonswere unable to recall, and that in itself was odd.

“The others would like to know your plan.”

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