Page 82 of The Demon Crown

“We can’t.” But then she looked at the front of the tent, completely engulfed in flames, and nodded. “Right, no other option. Do you—”

Her voice was thick and raspy with smoke, but he lifted a clawed hand and flashed her a rough smile. “Go.”

He watched her as she moved, crawling low to the ground and using the sand to her advantage. She grabbed a few skins as she went, placing them over her back to help with the heat.

Smart, his woman. She knew how to take care of herself, and something dark and ugly rose in him. Whoever had given her reason to learn those skills? He would destroy them. He would rip them apart with his hands right after he held the still beating heart of whoever had set his fucking tent on fire.

She reached the edge before him, but not by much. Greed sliced through the thin fabric of the tent and shoved her through first, and the flames roared higher behind them with the introduction of new, fresh air.

His back sizzled as nothing protected his skin from burning. It would heal faster than humans, and all it did was make him even more enraged. He needed to get them out of here. Now. And once the ashes had cooled, he would return here and start his hunt.

Or maybe he would start it now.

Greed rolled into a crouch at the first sound of her hoarse shout. A man stood over Varya, his face covered with the skull of a predator. The massive cat stalked the sands at night, and they were difficult to kill. It was not this man who killed it.

The idiot raised a sword over his head, but he didn’t have time to bring it down upon Varya. Greed lunged, his shoulder striking the man in the soft part of his stomach first. A loud exhalation of breath exploded before he hit the ground hard with Greed on top of him. And then all he could see or hear was a blinding red rage.

It was the battle that had always drawn him to this point. He loved the scent of blood in the air, the feeling of it slick on his hands, but most of all, he loved it when they screamed.

He was greedy for it, just as they were greedy for life. For there was no point in a mortal life when they were less greedy as they grasped onto the last moments, struggling and fighting.

He palmed the man’s head with both of his hands, grinning down into his face as the man’s eyes bulged in fear. Hard fists struck his ribs, over and over again, but he could not escape his fate. Taking in a deep breath of all that greed, the demon inside him whispered for death.

And so he squeezed.

He crushed the man’s head between his palms, lip curling in disgust at how easy it was. How quickly the man died and barely even fought as the skull mask cracked and then the next hidden underneath.

Blood coated the sands, soaking into the ground as the desert devoured this life that had been sacrificed to it. It was lovely. It was beautiful. It was...

“Greed,” Varya croaked, her voice still raspy. “We have to go.”

Ach, he’d gone and done it now. Glancing over his shoulder, he tried to see just how terrified she was of him now. And though there was a look of wariness on her face, she didn’t look... frightened? That was good, wasn’t it?

He stood, stretching out his long limbs and holding them carefully at his sides. Blood dripped down his claws, and his battle form shimmered underneath his skin. He had a hard time convincing himself to not change right here and right now. He didn’t want to frighten her, but he also saw what had happened.

Behind her, the entire encampment burned. Tents everywhere were on fire. Voices lifted in a symphony of screams as a horde of masked warriors descended upon them. Even as he watched, the silhouettes of people fighting appeared. And lost. The masked creatures always seemed to cut down anyone who stood in their way, far faster than the civilians who tried their best to fight. They were unprepared.

And they would lose.

It was a bitter end and one that he knew he couldn’t spare them from. Before her, he would have stayed. He would have soaked in all the greed for their lifeblood, and the enemies greed for their death. He would have consumed so much power that he’d be glutted with it for days on end. But now he had her. He had to worry about Varya and her life because if someone ended that... He already felt his muscles tense and his fangs grow even longer in his mouth.

“Come,” he snarled, his tail lashing behind him. He grabbed onto her arm and pulled her away from the madness, no matter how tempting it was.

But she dug her little heels into the ground and pulled back against him, surprisingly strong in her fervor to get him to stop. “Wait, where are we going?”

“Home.”

“No, we’re not going home! We can’t. They need us, Greed.”

Him, a thief, and likely two guards who were watching in the shadows would make no difference here. Was she blind? She could see the numbers as well as he could. “That’s a losing battle, treasure.”

Those eyes that had been so full of warmth just moments ago suddenly widened with an emotion that felt a little like... disgust? “I can’t just leave them and run.”

“Battles are best chosen when one knows that injury will not occur.”

“You’re a demon king. Surely you can fight a few humans off.”

A few, yes. Perhaps even some of them would run if they saw him. But these were the same people he suspected had the spells that could knock him out cold. And then what would any of them do? The rescue would fail. He’d end up back in the clutches of the bastards who broke his tail, and then they would have Varya.

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