Page 91 of The Demon Crown

The snake hissed, the sound blasting Varya’s hair away from her face, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Not quite as brave as she’d thought she would be in facing her end. But then an answering roar screamed out in rage and she knew exactly who had come to collect her.

On the opposite side of the gully, Greed and his brother rode on their lightning fast mounts. The third beast had joined them, its teeth flashing and leathery skin rippling in anger. So it hadn’t run away from her after all. It had just been returning to its master.

She shouldn’t feel such relief seeing him there. He glared at her attacker as though his eyes alone could slice through the beast. The cobra turned its attention to Greed, those black eyes locking onto him as prey.

He swung off his mount without hesitation and sprinted toward the snake. Though the surrounding scales tightened for a mere moment, the beast seemed to realize that Greed was a greater threat. Casting aside its desire for food, it launched itself at the demon king.

Greed’s form changed mid stride. His hair burst out around him in a wild mane, his claws wickedly sharp, his body massive, his tail flicking behind him as he used the snake’s body to catapult himself toward the creature. They met in midair, both roaring in rage and shaking with power. She’d never seen anything like it. Because Greed might be smaller, significantly, but he moved faster than the snake could track.

His claws dug beneath scales, shifting before the snake could snap at him. He climbed the long body of the snake as if it wasn’t even moving. And all the while, Gluttony sat there on his horse, grinning.

The brother caught her looking at him and then gestured with his hand. Did he want her to come up there? With an enraged demon king who was currently battling a snake as large as his castle, and what? Wait for the demon who was so clearly bloated with rage, like the good little girl she was?

Crossing her arms over her chest, she let the lantern dangle on her right side while staring up at Gluttony. Not moving. Making her point known.

He nodded at the other side, toward Altan, and then lifted a clawed hand to point at the massive writhing tail in her way. Right. Well, maybe he had a point. That didn’t mean she had to like it.

Grumbling under her breath, she ducked beneath the massive body that was having to move now to avoid every slash of the demon’s claws. It hissed, venom dripping all over the ground, and she kept an eye on the drops that were the size of dinner plates. Varya danced out of the way of each of them, nearly crushing herself in between two mounds of scales before she got herself to the edge of the dune.

And then she started up. Hand over hand, dragging herself through the sand that wanted to drag her back down. She slid a few times, but she’d been born in this environment and knew how to move when she had to.

Crouched on her hands and knees at the top, she dragged in a few lungfuls of air before shakily rising to her feet. Lantern hanging from her fingers, she watched as Greed landed hard on the ground at the same moment the snake let out a long hiss and dove into the sands.

The beast retreated.

Greed himself was slick with sweat, not a wound on him or a bruise that she could see. His hair was plastered back from his face as he spun and advanced on her, so angry that she knew he wasn’t quite himself.

“What are you doing here?” he snarled.

She held up the lantern, not trusting herself to answer him without starting yet another argument that would only end in her tossing him onto his back and stealing another mount from him.

He ripped the lantern from her grip, hissing at her. “This? This is why you risked your life? Yet again?”

“It’s the Lamp of Origins.” As if she knew what that meant.

“And it’s been useless for years,” he said, before crushing the metal in his grip. The lantern folded in half like paper, then dropped onto the sand and rolled back into the pit. “Get on the horse.”

Her knee jerk reaction was to say she didn’t see a horse, but Varya knew better than to poke a beast who was quite literally frothing at the mouth in front of her. “Absolutely not.”

“Get on the horse, woman!” His voice thundered almost as loud as the snake, and for once, Varya didn’t think she should argue.

ChapterThirty-Two

Greed was so angry he couldn’t even speak. What had she been thinking? Not every treasure on this forgotten planet was worth risking her life for and hadn’t he just said that she was risking her life for the wrong reasons?

Even now, with his arms barred around her, clutching the reins so tightly they were cutting into his palms, he wanted to argue. He wanted to remind her that she was always risking her life as if she punished herself by doing so. Here she was, claiming to do this for her people, and yet she was trying to gather up the Lamp of Origins, of all things!

That lamp hadn’t been useful in years. He’d been there when all the magic had left it. Though it was useful in its time, it was quite literally junk now.

And she’d have known that.

If she had fucking asked him.

Grinding his teeth, he could hear the sounds that his jaw made, but he didn’t care that she might be able to hear it as well. She deserved it. She deserved to wonder if he was angry at her, or what she could do to make him less angry.

“Greed,” she started, then stopped talking when he answered with a warning growl.

He didn’t want to talk right now. He didn’t want her to say a word when she’d done the one thing he couldn’t forgive. She’d almost killed herself again. If he hadn’t been there, that massive snake would have consumed her body. And worse? He was probably the one who had given the desert enough blood to wake the old ones.

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