Page 123 of The Demon Court

Or, in a sense, a way to get them both out of this predicament.

“Affection,” he called out, his voice shaking with excitement. “Come here. I need you to tell me you see the same thing I see.”

The spirit floated over the floor, even larger today than before. It was now almost up to his shoulder, although it had forgone the human visage. Today, it was merely a column of light. No features. No face. Just light that glided over the floor toward him. “What is it?”

“I think...” He ran a hand down his face and then shook his head. “Just read it. Please.”

The spirit hovered over his shoulder and read through the tome. It was in a very ancient language, one that only the spirits knew how to read at this point. Humans had long lost their old languages, and this was from a time when they remembered that spirits existed.

“You can pull the curse out of her?” Affection asked. “I didn’t know we could do that.”

“Spirits can reach into parts of this realm that humans cannot. Apparently sorceresses are known to live in between the realm of mortals and spirits. Their magic is from that realm, stolen from us.” He thudded a hand to his chest, and stood up from his desk with the book splayed open in one hand. “If I can reach into that realm and grasp whatever curse remains in that area, which it should still be, then I can rip it out of her.”

“Wouldn’t that have the chance of hurting her?”

“Perhaps. But it is a survivable wound. At least, that’s the thought.” It didn’t say much about what would happen if he tore a curse out of a mortal. But it had been done.

This journal was from another spirit who had taken mortal form. A spirit who had wandered the kingdoms so that it too could experience the world that only mortals had experienced. Though it had not wanted to become anyone other than a passing figure in their lives, it had seen much and grown stronger with each passing day.

“What kind of spirit was it?” Affection asked, its voice grave with the question. “Perhaps it is a spirit of deception and we should ignore the tome.”

“It was a spirit of delight,” he whispered. “All it wanted was to experience the mortal realm and to give them more of that emotion. It appears that it was in a traveling show. It created magic for the mortals to watch and it had come upon a man dying from a curse that had been laid on him by a simple hedge witch. It pulled the curse out of him and created a blackened spot on the land that would never grow.”

“A black spot?” Affection’s column of light shuddered. “I have seen none of those in this kingdom, Lust. It’s too great a risk.”

And yet, they had waited for too long already.

He hadn’t seen her in two days, and he feared that was because she didn’t want him to see her. The curse could already be wasting her flesh from her bones. She could be weak and in bed, just as Lara claimed she was.

The only person Selene would let in her room was Lara, and that was suspicious enough. The other woman had never been a friend to his sorceress, and he’d grown tired of waiting.

“It’s a risk we have to take,” he muttered. “If we don’t do something, then we’re just waiting for her to die. I have to tell her.”

“Tell her what?” The doors to the library burst open and Greed strode in with one of his personal guards. The other big one was missing. “Are you talking about your little captive in your room?”

“She’s not a captive.” Lust waved the book at Greed. “I’ve found it.”

“Found what?” His brother meandered through the library, seeking out the plate of food that had gone largely untouched all morning. He picked out a fluffy pastry and broke it apart in his hands. The flakes drifted down on top of the thick layer of pages that littered the floor.

“The way to break her curse. We can rip into the realm where that curse exists. If I pull it out of her and force it to exist here, in the mortal realm, then it will only affect whatever I place it on. Earth. Stone. Whatever can be destroyed other than her.”

Greed popped a piece of the pastry in his mouth and loudly chewed. “The curse already exists in the mortal realm. You said she’s dying.”

“But that’s energy that is being sucked out of her, not a malady that can be cured with potions or... bindings...” He growled. “Why am I explaining this to you? This will work. And now I’m wasting time.”

Greed nodded at his remaining guard and she stood in front of the door with her arms crossed over her chest. As if that would stop him. As though she could force a demon king to remain in a room if he didn’t want to remain there.

Lifting a brow, he eyed his brother. “What’s this, then?”

“Are you sure you want to save her?”

“It’s never been a question.”

“I want to know why.” Greed dropped half of the pastry back onto the tray and wiped his hands on his thighs. “She’s a mortal. She’s going to die anyway, maybe not now, but certainly in fifty years. A drop of rainwater in a giant lake of our lives. That’s how long she’s going to last. Why prolong the inevitable?”

The thought had crossed his mind, but he refused to think about it. She would die someday, and he would have to watch her die. But even then, he would fight for a few more days, a few more hours, a few more seconds just to stare into those night sky eyes.

“She’s mine,” he growled. “And I will not give her up.”

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