Chapter 5 Raven
Raven
“Princess,” the ugly motherfucker of a demon purred in a rasping voice, reaching for me with a clawed fist. “It’s time to come home.”
“Nope.” I swatted it away and took a giant step back. The demon rolled its eyes, exasperated.
“Your father has been searching for you since news of your existence reached us. Staying is not an option, princess.”
“Huh?” I understood the demon just fine, despite his overly long fangs and propensity to lisp. Maybe it was a demon thing. He’d benefit from a dental makeover, for sure. The fucker had a seriously bad case of gingivitis.
Managing oral hygiene must be a bitch with teeth that long. I squinted hard. Was that a bit of stringy meat wrapped around his freakishly large incisor? Gross.
The demon cursed in a language I didn’t understand. Not that I needed a translator. It wasn’t hard to figure out that at least one demonic word in his invective meant cunt.
“Don’t fuck with me, princess! If I fail in my mission, the king will flay me alive and roast my body in hellfire for all eternity!”
“Sucks to be you, then,” I chirped. Dammit, I needed to find my way out of this shadowy place before this demon dragged me to hell. I had a feeling I wouldn’t like it there.
No lie, a warmer climate would suit me given how much I was not enjoying the current temperatures, but his casual reference to hellfire and torture didn’t make the hell realm sound like a wellness retreat for exhausted witches.
And the goddess knew I could do with a stay in one of those right this minute. Facing off against a demon had me all stressed out.
“Who is my father anyway?” I’ll admit I was curious despite a desire to put several thousand miles between me and the demon who, apparently, wanted to kidnap me.
“His Royal Highness, our Demonic Overlord, Nymon, King of the Hell Realm.”
“Wow,” I gasped, doing a grand job of acting impressed. The demon folded his arms across his scaly chest and threw me a smug look.
“This makes you a princess of the realm, and the heir to the throne.” The demon’s smile turned into a sneer. It was pretty obvious he didn’t see me as the next ruler of hell. Well neither did I, so it seemed we were on the same page.
I pretended to consider his statement while frantically trying to figure a way out of this mess. Only I couldn’t hear anything beyond my own chaotic heartbeat pounding inside my chest. No yelling or screaming. Not even the roar of a hellhound.
Were Adam, Zane, and Willow dead? My lip wobbled, but I pushed that thought down. Now was not the time to have a breakdown. The demon already thought I was pathetic and weak. Okay, so I was both those things, but fake it until you make it, right?
“And what if I choose not to be the next ruler of the hell realm?” I hummed thoughtfully, as if it was a rhetorical question. “I mean…” I ran my eyes down the demon’s body. “You guys are not my type, so opportunities for, um, fun, will be limited.”
The demon hissed at my insult. “How dare you!” he seethed. “I am much in demand with the females in the hell realm!”
“Really?” I scoffed. “I find that hard to believe given your questionable level of oral hygiene. Bad breath kills the mood, dude.”
The demon frowned and poked at his teeth before hissing again.
“Enough! I don’t have time for this impudence!” He lunged forward to grab me at the exact moment Kenji blinked into view, landing in my arms with a huff. The demon’s claws hit an invisible barrier. The look of confusion on his face would have been comical if not for the extreme danger I faced.
“You need to channel my power and blast that ugly cuntosaurus with your fire magic,” Kenji advised in a way more serious tone than I was used to. Kenji rarely did serious. Mostly he just mocked me.
“I already tried! It didn’t work!” The demon launched another attack at us, growing angrier by the second. I guessed his all-access pass to the human realm was about to expire. I hoped that meant he’d soon explode and die horribly, but it didn’t seem like the goddess was on my side right now.
“Try again, witch, before we both become demon chow!”
I focused on the magic kernel in my chest. It sputtered into life, and with Kenji in my arms, it burst out in a chaotic fiery tsunami.
The demon turned into a flaming torch. He screamed and flapped around, desperately trying to extinguish the flames.
“At least I didn’t flay you first!” It wasn’t my proudest moment. Kicking a demon while he was down was the sort of thing a witch like Demelza would do. But he deserved it. He’d called me a cunt in demonish. At least I thought he had.
The demon was too busy melting like a wax candle in a heatwave to reply. Kenji and I both watched in horrified fascination while he sank to the ground in a puddle of goo.
It reminded me of a children’s movie Willow and I had watched, where a wicked witch melted. I’d complained at the time that it was liable to give human children PTSD, but Willow had claimed it was a classic much loved by human children.
It was obvious human kids were psychopaths in training if they enjoyed watching witches melt.
By the time the demon fire died, leaving nothing but an oily stain on the ground, I felt sick.
“Are there more demons to melt?” I asked Kenji, but he didn’t reply. I looked down to see he’d fallen unconscious in my arms. “Kenji?” I whispered, praying there were no more demons. I didn’t feel so good.
Kenji didn’t move.
The shadows shielding me faded, revealing a grassy plain strewn with dead hellhounds and demon corpses. But I could barely summon the energy to care about any of that. Not with my familiar lying in my arms, faking death.
At least he better be faking it!
I refused to accept Kenji had sacrificed himself to save me.
“Kenji!” I collapsed to my knees in the charred grass. Rain joined the tears trickling down my cheeks. “Don’t leave me, Kenji!”
My familiar stirred. “Goddess, save me from dramatic witches,” he muttered before opening his eyes and stretching. “I was just taking a nap. You took a lot of my magic. A kitsune battery has its limits, you know.” Then he peered down at himself and preened. “Ooh, I leveled up!”
“Oh my goddess, Kenji, I thought you were dead!”
“Pfft. It would take a lot more than you stealing all my power to kill me, witch.”
“I didn’t steal your power; you offered it to me!” I grumbled, squeezing my familiar so tightly he squealed.
“Put me down before you squash my poor bruised body! I need food. Expending this much magical energy has left me weak.”
“It’s late. The kitchen will be closed.” Kenji struggled so hard I dropped him. For a kitsune that had acted dead less than two minutes previously, he seemed perfectly well now. Not that it stopped me from feeling guilty.
But before I could wallow in my guilt, a bear and an incubus came charging over, both of them covered in gore. I tried not to heave when the bear scooped me up in his arms and growled.
“You survived,” the incubus said, stating the obvious before wiping his bloody hands on the grass. He looked over at the oily stain on the ground and frowned. “What happened?”
Kenji yawned. “Off to find snacks. Make sure you take a shower before you come to bed. I’m allergic to demon gunk.”
From the way my bear had me pinned to his chest, I highly doubted he’d let me go back to my room.
“I’m fine,” I told Zane. “Where’s Adam?” And Willow. I couldn’t see either of them. Oh my goddess, were they dead? I tried to struggle free from Maverick’s bear hold, but he tightened his grip and growled. “Let me go! I need to find Adam and Willow!”
“They’re fine. Montgomery and Vane are talking to them.” My heart slowed down in relief. “And Alaric?”
Zane smirked.
“He’s fine. And so is the merman.”
“Good. It’s, um, great they are well. And not dead.” I avoided Zane’s gaze. Yes, he probably knew I liked them, but I wasn’t about to admit it in front of Maverick. Not with him so upset.
A small witch came running across the field. “Raven!”
Oh my goddess, what a terrible friend I was. I’d completely forgotten to ask about Glynda.
Glynda skidded to a halt and stared at me in shock. “Your hair! What have you done to it?” I blinked, not understanding what she meant.
“You have more silver streaks now,” Zane said. “It’s kind of sexy.”
My bear growled threateningly before shifting back into a naked male. Glynda immediately averted her gaze, which I was grateful for. Naked Maverick was a lot, and as much as I adored my witch friend, I wasn’t altogether comfortable with her ogling my mate.
“You don’t get to call my mate sexy.” Maverick threw Zane a warning glare while tugging me back into his grasp.
I let him, even though I was ready to leave this cursed field.
Preferably before the headmaster appeared and asked how on earth I’d killed a high-ranking demon or what the cursed shadow fog was.
I had no answers to either of those questions. Had anyone else seen the shadows? I probably ought to ask Maverick or Zane, but before I could open my mouth, I spotted Adam and Willow heading our way.
Adam scowled at the sight of a naked man with his arm around my chest, but the relief in his eyes when he saw me unharmed softened my irritation at his earlier high-handed behavior.
“Thank the goddess you’re safe. I thought…” He closed his mouth and glanced at the others. Willow stood behind him, and when I looked closer, neither of them bore any signs of a demon attack. Not like the rest of us.
“Are you alright?” I blurted out, still low-key panicking about Kenji almost dying, everyone nearly dying, and not having a clue about anything. “I lost sight of you.”
“We’re fine. Nothing we haven’t dealt with before.”
I wasn’t sure how to react to that. Aside from the one time I encountered a hellhound—and still had PTSD from the event—I wasn’t aware of any other demon attacks. It made me wonder what else Adam had hidden from me. Willow too.
“You need to come with me, Raven.” Adam held out his hand, ignoring Maverick.
“She’s not going anywhere,” Maverick said. A low growl rattled through his chest.
“Raven isn’t safe here.” Adam waved a hand across the scene of devastation. “As you can see, the wards are ineffective.”
Glynda took a few steps back while Zane hummed and cocked his head to one side. I tried not to notice the way his black hair flopped over his pale eyes. Despite the blood spatter, he looked hot as hell.
Okay, so hell was a poor word choice given recent events. I didn’t want to think about hell. Not now that the demon had planted the idea in my head that perhaps I was next in line to become the queen of hell.
I almost snorted at the thought.
How ridiculous.
“Here is the safest place for the witch. Her mate will protect her.”
I noted Zane didn’t include himself in that statement. Had he changed his mind about me? Understandable if he had. No sensible being wanted a demon magnet for a mate.
“Her mate?” Willow’s eyebrows shot up. She stared first at Maverick, then at me. “You mated a bear?” she spluttered, aghast.
“And? You did bad things with a wolf last year.” We both ignored Zane’s laughter.
“Wolves are for fun, not for life, Raven. I thought I made that clear.”
“Maverick’s a bear, not a wolf.” From Willow’s scowl, she didn’t understand what point I was making. Honestly, neither did I, but her attitude pissed me off. The bear was my mate, whether or not she approved.
“The shifter can’t be your mate, Raven,” Adam said, his jaw ticking. “Witches and shifters don’t mate.”
“Witches and shifters have formed soul-bonds in the past,” Glynda piped up, but Adam ignored her.
“She is my soul-bonded mate.” Maverick’s tone made it clear he didn’t care what Adam thought. “Montgomery is aware. If you take Raven away, she’ll get sick.”
“Then I’ll heal her.” Adam shook his head dismissively. He tried to pull me away, but Zane shoved him back, no longer so amused.
“Be careful, incubus,” Adam warned, raising his hand to cast magic. “Raven is my responsibility. I will not leave here without her.”
“No!” I’d had enough of people telling me what to do. I wasn’t a child anymore, and I could make my own decisions. “I’m staying, Adam. Maverick is my soul-bonded mate. The incubus too.” I didn’t mention the possibility that I had two more mates. Since they refused to accept me, I would ignore them.
Adam lowered his hand and forced a brittle smile. “Raven, dear child, please—”
The headmaster’s voice boomed across the field.
“Everyone inside the main hall while the security mages clear the area. You have five minutes before we assume you’re dead and notify your next of kin.”
Maverick picked me up, apparently unbothered by his nakedness. He turned his back on Adam and Willow and carried me toward the main building with Glynda jogging behind.
I didn’t dare look back at Adam and Willow.