Page 121 of The Demon Crown

He remembered seeing his brother. Greed had charged down an alleyway at the sound of screams, only to find Gluttony with his back pressed against a wall and his fangs dug deep into a man’s neck. His brother sawed his teeth through tendon, all the way to bone, gulping at the blood that gushed out from a severed artery in the man’s neck.

They’d locked eyes. Two monsters who were likely more plague on their kingdom than they were saviors. And yet... This was their moment. Their chance to prove that they were more than just nightmarish creatures from the depths. They were men who would stop at nothing to save their people.

He’d left Gluttony in the shadows and returned to the fight with renewed vigor. He hadn’t seen Varya, but he already knew why that was. She was helping to get the survivors out to his waiting scouts that would bring them to the castle where it was safe. Where his army already had fortified the walls and stood at the ready to battle any and all who thought to attack Greed’s home.

One by one, he would get these people safe. He would.

Greed didn’t know how long he’d been fighting when he first came across the Horde leader. The man stood in the center of so many dead bodies, surrounding him in piles where they had tried their best and failed. His massive chest heaved, those gigantic arms somehow seemingly even larger from the use. And he held a hammer in his hands. A hammer that looked rather familiar.

“You,” Greed snarled.

The Horde leader turned with a grin on his face that was full of malice. “So we finally meet, Greed.”

The screams swirled around them, a breeze kicking them up along with a massive amount of sand that coiled around the man’s legs like a snake. Greed wasn’t afraid of him. But he was afraid of the bright light that appeared behind the Horde leader. One who smelled of spice and who had illuminated his future.

Varya stood behind the Horde leader with her blade already raised. She locked eyes with him, and he knew what she wanted. She wanted him to let her take on this behemoth of a man and to continue getting her people out.

He wouldn’t. Not when it was such a risk for her.

But she took the choice from him. Varya let out a scream of rage, a battle cry like the warrior goddesses of old as she charged at the Horde leader. The man barely even turned. He reached out with his hand and caught her by the throat, watching for Greed’s reaction.

“Make your choice, demon king.”

There was no choice. He would murder this man and he would feed his heart to his bride. The battle form he was so comfortable in grew even more powerful, stronger, larger, throbbing with the need to kill.

But then he heard her. “No!” Varya screamed. “Get them out!”

And he saw the rest of them in that moment. All of his people who were still failing to beat back the Horde. And he knew... Damn it. He knew he had to keep his promise.

Gluttony drew up behind him as the Horde leader backed away from them, using Varya as a human shield. She watched him with eyes that glimmered with rage. Not for him, but for the man behind her.

Greed pointed at Varya, his claw curled and warped. “Stay alive, woman,” he snarled. “I’m coming for you.”

And then he turned this attention to the people who needed him more. Even if it broke his heart to let her go.

ChapterForty-Three

She wasn’t afraid. Varya thought maybe she should be. She knew what to expect in the clutches of the Horde, and worse, she knew this time she wasn’t getting away. They knew she had led Greed to them, and they would want reparations for that.

The Horde leader threw her into the arms of the big man who had been punching through the walls of people’s homes. He gave her a far too pleased grin before wrapping her up in his arms and tossing her onto his horse.

The town burned behind them, but she quickly realized she wasn’t the only one who had been captured. Other men and women sat before the Horde members on their mounts. Most of them were listing to the sides, their bodies limp and unaware. She wondered how they’d knocked them out when she couldn’t see any blood on their heads.

The man holding her leaned forward, looming his entire body over hers and dragging her tightly against him. She felt his hand curving around her ribs, cupping her breast in one hand with a satisfied growl.

“Do you want to be awake for this?” he growled in her ear. “Or do you want to be the like the others?”

She knocked her head back so fast she caught him off guard. The back of her skull connected with his nose, and she heard a satisfying crack before his roar of rage.

The Horde leader rode up beside them, laughing at her antics. “I should have warned you, that one bites.”

Though she could still hear the man behind her swearing, he kicked his horse forward. She rode away from her home, though she knew she wouldn’t be gone for too long. Greed wouldn’t leave her behind for much longer than he had to, and she wasn’t all that worried about him finding her. He had their scent, after all, and she’d long ago learned to not question her demon king.

So she bided her time as they raced across the sands. She found all the markers that would let her lead them back home if some of the other prisoners happened to awaken fast enough for them all to make an escape attempt. And in between those thoughts, she planned how to stay alive.

She could use the map to her advantage. She knew where it was, so it wasn’t all that much of a stretch for them to believe her. They wouldn’t keep her alive for that alone, though.

The man behind her didn’t grope her again, perhaps fearing what other parts of his body she would harm. But she wouldn’t put it past him to try the moment they stopped.

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