Page 39 of The Demon Crown

“How are you going to get him to admit to that?”

Greed flicked the reins, and his nuckelavee lunged forward toward the town. He could already feel its heaving breaths as long strings of drool landed on the sand. The beast knew this was a fight they were about to run headfirst into, and it was pleased.

“Let me deal with Oryx,” he growled. “He’ll confess to everything.”

And if he didn’t, then Greed would get his satisfaction one way or another. The advisor had no idea what monster he’d unleashed.

They thundered through the sand covered streets. People leapt out of their way, landing in pottery or even the few stalls where people were selling food and what looked like muddy water. He didn’t care. Soon they would have enough food and water to last them a lifetime. He’d send it from his own personal stores if only to gather their trust once more.

He was just as greedy with the attention of those who lived in his kingdom as he was with everything else he owned. They would show him fealty and they would love him. Because he was their king and no one else would ever surpass him.

Not even their advisor, who thought that he was better than the very demon king who ran this kingdom.

They raced to the house at the very end of the city. The one that was larger than all the rest. And though Oryx did not decorate his home on the outside, nor had he left any plants, it was cleaner than all the others. It was clear his house had wealth and power.

The small courtyard out front even had a water fountain. Though it did not flow over the top and bubble down, there was clean water in the basin of it. Considering the blockades made of twisted metal that surrounded the property, Greed had a feeling that water was for the inhabitants of that house and no one else.

Sighing, he drew his steed to a halt outside the home and dismounted. A small crowd had already gathered in his wake, the people of this town watching him with shock and awe.

They knew what their king looked like. They knew who the monolith of a man with flaming red hair had to be.

“Is that Greed himself?” someone whispered.

Another person hushed them, but yet another voice lifted. “That is! It’s the demon king!”

He turned toward them, a frown wrinkling his features as he watched them. “Where is your water?”

No one replied.

He tucked his hands behind him and started toward them. A few of the villagers skittered back as they realized just how large he was the closer he got. “I won’t ask again. My guards and I look for fresh water. You should have this. Where is your water?”

A few people in front of him flicked their gazes at each other. A man and woman, wearing matching red scarves over their heads that had faded into a dull rust color. Their skin was burnished by the sun, dark and leathery from years of burning in the desert heat. Neither of them would tell him anything.

But the little girl who clutched at her mother’s dusty brown skirts? That was the one who would tell him everything.

He bent at the waist and held his hand out for her. Her wide, dark eyes took him in. He must appear even larger at her height, his bulk spreading out on the sands and his smile a little sharp as he tried to gesture her forward.

“Please,” her mother whispered. “Please, no.”

“I have no interest in your daughter other than for answers.”

The woman shook and placed a hand on her daughter’s chest, holding her child away from the demon before her. “I... She’s not good eating, m’lord. All bones, this one.”

He flinched and glared up at her. “You think I’ll eat your child?”

“We’ve all heard what the demons do with children they get their hands on.” She swallowed, but a hardness straightened her shoulders. “I’ll not have my child subjected to that end.”

“I’m not hungry,” he snarled. “I want someone in this fucking cursed place to tell me where the water is.”

His voice thundered and roared, too loud for anyone to be convinced he didn’t want to hurt them.

But it was the little girl who pointed at the house behind him. “It’s in there.”

Greed closed his eyes and took a deep, quieting breath. “Is it, now? Little one, how often do you get to drink that water?”

“It’s for the lord of the town,” she whispered, then hid those big dark eyes behind her mother’s skirts. She still finished telling him, though. “We get our water from the rain.”

From the rain?

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