Page 84 of The Demon Crown

His roar of rage that anyone would see her in such a state of undress, anyone other than him, had sent her fleeing back into the crowd. And so he spent his evening fighting, seeking her out, and never quite getting close enough.

Until the last of the Horde gathered onto their horses and fled. They let out whooping calls as they ran, clearly still pleased with the damage they had done. A few women were strapped to the back of the horses, but there was nothing they could do. Greed didn’t have his nuckelavee. Even he could not run as swift as a stallion across the sands.

Exhaustion ran through him as the fight slowly leaked out. He staggered toward the center of the crowd, his brother in tow looking far too put together for a man who had fought for hours on end. Gluttony only had one single dot of ash on his cheek, where Greed was smeared in blood, mud, and ash. He likely looked like he’d crawled out of a grave.

Staggering, he sat down next to a familiar face and took the water Altan offered him with a grunt.

“Thank you,” Altan said, his eyes skating through the much smaller crowd of people who were splayed around them. There was nothing but destruction left.

“Don’t thank me for this.” Greed gestured to the shambles of what had been a lovely festival. “There is nothing here to be thankful for.”

“They are alive,” Altan said. “Less of them, but more than there would have been if you were not here. You see that, don’t you? Their lives are worth being thankful for.”

Ach, he didn’t see it. Greed had never understood the mortal obsession with life and living. All he knew was that his people had been attacked, and he had lost Varya. Both of which were harsh blows to his pride that he was unsure he could forgive.

With another grunt, he laid down and threw his blood smeared arm over his face to hide from the rising sun. “Tomorrow, I hunt. You will join us.”

Altan hesitated. “I do not know what this hunt is.”

Greed didn’t even have to respond. He heard Gluttony drag something over to the both of them and then sit upon it, as if he was too good to sit on the ash smeared sand. But then his brother responded, “He means we’re going to find who did this and Greed will punish them in the old ways.”

“Who are you?” Altan asked.

Curious how his brother would respond, Greed lifted his arm to look up at Gluttony’s far too pleased grin. So this brother was not going to follow Wrath’s rules, after all.

“Gluttony,” his brother replied, holding out a long nailed hand as his red eyes flashed. “A pleasure to meet you, sand walker.”

This was all going to shit. With a groan, Greed dropped his head back to the sands and ordered, “Someone find me pants.”

ChapterTwenty-Nine

Varya kept her distance for the better part of the day. She was so angry at him that every time she even thought about him, her hands shook.

How dare he suggest they run? How dare he ignore that their people needed help? His people! Even more so than her own, because he was their damned king! He was the only person who should actually care about their fucking well being and instead, he’d suggested they run because it was a losing battle.

Losing battle, her ass.

And it just made her even more angry because everything had been sogood.

She hadn’t realized it could be like that with a man she arguably didn’t know yet. Every time they started talking about something serious, they always devolved into touching each other and then tongues tangled until her whole mind went blank. She forgot that she wanted to ask about his brother or why he’d given Ivo and Morag bodies. Or were there more spirits wandering around than she had ever realized?

There were a thousand questions she had meant to ask him before she’d fucked him and that had all gone out the window the moment his mouth touched her skin.

And he’d gone and screwed it all up. He’d broken that rose-colored spell that she’d woven through her own mind. Varya had believed maybe he was a good person hidden underneath all that bravado. Maybe this would work if she just put in a little effort and ignored a few key factors.

Of course, that wasn’t the truth. Of course he hadn’t changed and nothing could be farther from the truth if she thought he was a good person. He was still a demon king. Still the embodiment of greed, and if he didn’t get what he wanted, then he would just take it.

There was a reason this kingdom was broken, and he wanted it to be every reason other than himself. Because looking at his own flaws, his own failings, was so much harder than finding someone else to blame.

“There,” she whispered, tying a binding tight around a little boy’s arm. “Good as new.”

It wasn’t. She needed to go searching for some magical artifact that still had enough magical juice to heal half a town. There were so many people who were still coughing or still had glistening skin from the burns that would take weeks to heal.

Not enough. She hadn’t done enough, and that grated on her. If Varya could just get a horse, then she could start on her journey. That map was probably still in Altan’s house, so she could make a quick stop and then she could be on her way. The treasure would be hard to find. Anything related to healing had already been used up. So it might take her a couple of tombs, but she’d find something. She always found what they needed.

But then she saw him. Greed. Stretched out beside Altan while a young man with bright blonde hair and freckles laid a fur over that impressive cock that had done such magical things to her all night. And just like that, something softened in her chest.

He had been a beast protecting her people. Even if he hadn’t wanted to fight on their behalf, he had. He’d fought and torn and roared out his rage so all who tried to attack him knew exactly what was coming for them.

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