Page 58 of The Demon's Pet

Then again, if it was so unsafe, why had he left us here?

The minotaurs began sniffing and then looked up in the air where Sam was hovering, flapping occasionally.

The next second, Sam dove down toward us, landing smoothly. He unfurled his wings to the sides and moved forward threateningly.

“I knew we shouldn’t have stopped here,” he said as he moved in front of us all.

“You can’t kill us,” the lead minotaur said. “This is our territory. Give us the mortals.” It looked to me. “At least the girl.”

I guess they could tell what I was even in wolf form.

“I want him,” one of the minotaurs said, pointing at Sam. “He smells good.”

One of the other minotaurs agreed, while Sam put his hands on his hips and looked up at the sky like he was praying for patience.

“Os, lead Cleo and Griffin to the clouds,” he muttered.

Os’s light-purple wings unfurled, and he took off upward. Griffin shifted right after, turning into a gorgeous golden lion with bright-white wings.

I shifted out of my wolf form, keeping a wary side-eye on Sam and the minotaurs as I did so. The scent of musk in the air was getting stronger.

“Not fair,” one of the minotaurs said, trying to walk past Sam to get to me and Griffin as he lowered to a crouch and I grabbed his fur to climb up onto him.

“Come on,” Os said from above us. “In the air,now.”

I was barely on when Griffin took off, moving upward.

Os beat his purple wings, flew fifty feet up into the air, then paused, and we all looked down at Sam.

“I feel bad just leaving him down there,” I muttered.

Griffin grunted in assent. “Can he really take on all four?”

“Sam?” Os let out a laugh. “It’s nothing to him. He loves slaughter.”

Griffin made a grimace of distaste that was almost comical in his lion form. “Who could love ending someone’s life?”

I stared down at Sam, who was unsheathing not one, but two katanas. One sheath was the black and silver one I’d seen in the jail.

The other sheath was red and sparkled in the sun like it was made of crushed rubies. When the katana was drawn, the hilt glittered with red jewels between the black rope that crisscrossed over the grip.

“Okay, I wasn’t going to say anything about this guy having a slayer sword, but two? That’s just insane,” Griffin said.

“What are slayers?” I asked as we watched the minotaurs advance on Sam.

“The most powerful, brutal demons in existence. They protect their territory from celestials the way we protect ours from demons.”

That all sounded odd. If demons were so bad, why did they need to kill celestials to protect their territory?

There was so much I needed to learn, and it was clear that the tiny wolf haven I was raised in was unaware of all of it.

“Sam had two swords when he came to us,” Os said. “His father is… Well, he’s from the ninth celestial realm.”

Griffin let out a low whistle. “So he has elder god blood. Makes sense. Power just emanates off him.”

“Should we go help him?” I asked.

Both turned to look at me, puzzled.

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