Page 125 of The Demon Court

And suddenly he remembered where the name demon kings had come from.

They were demons in that time. They were villains who devoured all who stood before them and fought. He remembered the blood coating his claws as he plunged his hand into the hearts of the wicked and those who would not bend.

He remembered the screams as they ran from him. His brothers at his side, all of them equally terrifying and monstrous and horrible. They had ravaged these floating isles, stomping them into the dirt beneath their feet as people screamed from inside their graves.

They had destroyed everything.

And then this battle form had receded, and they had fixed all that they had broken. Each of his brothers. All of them lingering in their kingdoms until there was but one left. Wrath. The beast had stood on his own to destroy a kingdom beneath their feet, who was the only one that kept the behemoth in the darkness at bay.

He stretched his hands, feeling those large claws clink as they touched the darkened plates that protected him from any attack. His brother looked so small now.

“You let her go,” he snarled, his voice so deep that he barely recognized it. “Where?”

“The Tower.” Greed bowed his head, showing his brother his neck as though Lust had turned into a wolf that desired prey. “She is safely there, and still alive.”

“She will not be for long if Minerva has her way of it.” His eyes found the guard who had taken her there, and he felt his lips peel away from his teeth in a snarl. “You will give that one to me.”

“No,” Greed replied.

“I will take his heart.”

“You will not.” Greed’s voice was firm, though it shook slightly. “We have not taken battle form in years, brother. What has this woman done to you?”

He opened his mouth to unleash all his rage upon his brother. Selene had done nothing to him, but the world had done so much to her. And now his own brother had sent her to her death. Alone. She would be alone when she died and that—

He felt a tendril in his chest snap. Staggering back, he pressed a clawed hand to his heart because he had no idea what it was.

Until the rush of nothing filled him.

That thread inside him, which had connected Selene and him together, had broken. Like someone had snipped it with scissors, she was gone.

And with that, every part of him that remained aware of who he was or what he was doing disappeared. He threw his head back in a roar that shook the castle’s foundation, and then he was moving. Running. Racing faster than light itself to get to her because he could not feel her.

His heart thudded in his chest, the beat of it a lonely call. She couldn’t be dead. Not yet.

Or he would bring that Tower to the ground, stone by bloody stone.

ChapterForty-Two

The journey nearly turned her insides out. Greed’s guard, a man who refused to share his name, set a pace that would have killed even the healthy. She pressed a hand to her chest and kept going, no matter how hard it became to breathe or how her lungs screamed.

Though she didn’t like the pace, she could admit he was doing the right thing. With every step, she felt herself growing weaker and weaker.

It felt like they had been walking for days, though she knew they’d only stopped for one night. And every second of that night, she’d flinched at the barest sound near them.

Greed’s guard had made fine work of setting up a quick shelter. He’d only grunted when she thanked him and then pointed to the small mat of leaves and moss he’d made for her. She fell asleep fitfully, certain that every sound was Lust coming to get her. She feared he’d drag her out of the little lean-to and throw her back to his castle, where they would both have to suffer through this mess.

But every time she’d awoken, Greed’s guard had been there. The man’s eyes glowed with the firelight, and he never once looked back at her. Instead, he stared into the fields around them. The muscles in his shoulders were never relaxed, his body never once at ease. He always looked like he was ready to kill something.

That shouldn’t have been as reassuring as it was.

The sun had barely lifted on the horizon before he woke her. A gentle, but firm, hand on her shoulder and a quick shake, so she knew there was no arguing.

Selene rolled back to standing and knew her time was even shorter than she’d imagined. Her face felt cold, and her hands were difficult to use. Her fingers were so stiff she could barely hold on to the walking stick the guard made her.

By the time the Tower came into view, the icy winds whipping at the cloaks around their shoulders, she saw worry in the guard’s gaze for the very first time.

He looked her over, then looked at the Tower on the horizon. “Can you make it?”

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