Chapter 4
Ihadn’t realized I’d fallen asleep. That never happened to me. And in enemy territory, no less. Shame hit harder than fear when I opened my eyes, head resting on the bend of my knees.
Jolting back to life, I scanned the room. My captor was gone. He’d left me unbound and alone, but I suspected that someone was stationed outside the door. Boris, if I was lucky. It was too early to test my luck, so I stayed in my corner.
Learning who guarded the door and when would be a task for another day. Patience and clever maneuvers would be my greatest weapon. I wasn’t destined for death—not yet, anyway—so proper vigilance was necessary.
And that was when I noticed the plate of food at my feet. It was the same one I’d seen on the demon’s desk before sleep took me. The one I was sure he’d gotten for himself.
Why was it here?
I looked around, sure it was left by accident. But then I slowly reached for it. Slices of orange were arranged on the plate. Other fruit, too. Meat. Bread. It was a fucking feast, and I was too hungry to worry if it was poisoned. If it was, it’d be worth dying for.
Without any regard for how it made me look, I devoured everything.
I didn’t leave a fucking morsel that wasn’t an orange skin or bone.
It’d been the best meal I’d eaten in years, and I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t.
But it made me angry. Food like this was fought over—killed for—in my sector, and I’d been given it without thought. A slave. Their captive.
Why?
Carefully, I got to my feet with the plate in hand.
His desk was left unguarded. Papers and weird devices were left out.
Some of the parchment was folded and put in their place, but it wouldn’t require much to make it look like they hadn’t been touched.
They were beasts, though. I couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t somehow smell the espionage.
Until I knew what they could do, I’d be careful.
I eyed the desk with longing, then scurried to the bathroom to clean the plate and have it waiting for him.
He'd fed me. He didn’t have to, not like this.
I expected gruel or soup. Maybe even moldy leftovers.
Not a feast. Not this delightful meal I’d think about until the day I died.
The oranges were still a tingle on my tongue as I cleaned off the inedible scraps and washed the ceramic plate with care.
When I was satisfied, I returned to the room.
But the beast was waiting.
The plate I carried nearly dropped to the floor, but my reflexes—my fucking reflexes—kicked in. I caught it midair before it could hit the stone. The demon’s eyes followed its descent, then his mouth twitched. The muscles in his torso flexed and the blue in his eyes blazed.
Fucking shit.
I shut my eyes and cowered, sure I’d been figured out. Ready to fight. I clutched the dagger he’d given me, prepared to lose, but hopefully give him hell before I did. But he didn’t move. He stayed where he was by the door.
“Come,” was all he commanded.
I peered up at him in confusion. “Where?”
His lingering stare traveled down my barely clothed form. “Or stay. Your decision, human. But if you’d prefer clothes that don’t smell of filth, then you’ll do as you’re told.”
What he said didn’t make sense. Clothes? For me? Wasn’t I to be kept naked and at his feet? Wasn’t I to be no more than a slave for whatever he desired? Why would he clothe me? Why would he bother with me at all when I was nothing more than a vessel for his urges?
He noticed my hesitation, his jaw working in a slow back and forth as if he were at the end of his patience. Everything in his expression and body told a story of never-ending frustration. He’d like nothing better than to leave me here to rot.
But he didn’t.
And he didn’t lash out the way I expected a demon to.
His hand didn’t strike me, nor did his foot.
I wasn’t beaten for the troublesome thing I was.
Instead, he came over and crouched like he had with the dagger, his face suddenly at eyelevel.
He stayed that way for a moment, as if I were a puzzle he couldn’t figure out.
His head tilted to one side, studying me.
The scent of oranges wafted from him in waves like it had before. He smelled so good I nearly leaned forward. I wanted to shower myself in his scent.
His ocean eyes gleamed when they caught the room light, his dragon pupils widening. “Hmm.” He growled to himself. The sound wasn’t as terrifying as it had been the first I’d heard a demon do it. This time it felt…oddly sexual.
I shivered, but he’d already gotten to his feet and stormed off.
I considered not following, but if I was going to learn about them, I’d need to stay close.
This one hadn’t hurt me when he could have.
He’d fed me. Despite his callous stoicism and devil-may-care attitude, he was my best option for doing what I came to do.
So, I got to my feet and trailed after him. I held the dagger he’d given me protectively against my chest. The demons I came across seemed to react to the sight of it, many even coming to a full stop when their eyes landed on it, but I kept pace with the giant leading the way.
He was fast as fuck. You’d never know it by his size, but those powerful legs ate up the floor like he was flying.
As ironic as that was. The asshole had actual wings he could use to do that.
He didn’t bother to slow down for me. He expected me to follow just as quickly, and it was an effort to keep up even with my longer-than-other-female legs, but I did it.
I started to run a little every few steps to keep pace with the speedy brute.
He hadn’t looked back in minutes, so I felt safe enough to look around, cataloging the rooms and doors I saw.
I made mental notes of everything I could—their features, whether or not they were guarded, and their position within the renovated castle at the center of Sky Demons territory.
I didn’t have a sense of the grounds enough for it to be helpful right now, but slowly, I’d have a better idea of where everything was and what could be invaluable for what I wanted to do—an assassination or set-up to start a war between the factions.
I’d seen some of the castle before being carried inside. It was uncomfortably large and situated near a mountain range to give them some protection from enemies. Well, enemies like themselves. Humans were hardly a threat. But it was its own city.
Several Rebels had been claimed in the Choosing, so it’d be important to find them and see if they’d successfully secured lines of communication with the Rebels back home. Our group didn’t necessarily have a name, just an identity.
I didn’t realize the demon had stopped until I collided with his back after checking out an open room full of curious artifacts. I smacked my nose hard enough to bring tears to my eyes. Was this demon made of stone? Why did it feel like I’d run right into a wall?
I braced for impact. I’d take the full brunt of his hit this time. It’d be important to know how painful his blows were at full strength for any future beatings. But after a few seconds of nothing, I cracked an eye open and saw that we were now the main attraction in a growing crowd of demons.
Onyx’s arms were crossed, his head tilted again. The dragons around us were frozen with fear, their arms laid across their chests in reverence, heads bowed. A few had male humans on their knees, leashed and kept silent.
I hadn’t seen any humans since my capture. I was surprised so many existed within these stone walls. But of course they did. The grounds were massive. They received human sacrifices across their territory every decade or so.
Tributes.
Some of the humans looked like the ones that were prostrated on their knees in the room where my fate was decided.
But quite a few were in…clothes? Healthy?
On their feet and standing next to their demons?
Most of them were female. All, however, were wearing the same expression—pure terror.
Every single demon’s eyes were on Onyx, their humans’ eyes dropped and turned away, as he stood in front of me, his enigmatic irises fixed to my face.
But he didn’t beat me. Seconds ticked on, and all he did was stare. I peered around, agitated by the lack of action. The lack of anything, really.
I’d been prepared to get hit. Getting beaten was what I knew. Even the leaders made sure we never went a day without pain to center and ground us. But this was…disconcerting. Why wasn’t he doing anything? What was he waiting for?
“My Liege,” someone muttered, his sleazy eyes taking a pointed path down my body.
The large demon who’d called out had dark skin and gold-colored irises. His dragon features were more pronounced than some of the others. He’d let his horns protrude from his bald head, and his wings were folded against his back. Like Onyx and Boris, this one’s ears were pointed.
Within these walls, very few felt the need to disguise themselves, and it was how I told them apart from the humans at their beck and call.
The golden-eyed demon had his claws sunk into the shoulder of his human slave. The poor man had his head down, bleeding and unmoving. The sheer cruelty of this demon was in his sneer.
When I caught his gaze, he pushed his claws in deeper and waited for his human to finally make a sound. When the brutalized man did, the demon punished him with a hard kick that could easily shatter bone.
He wanted me to see what he could do, how helpless we humans were against them.
And once I found their weakness, he’d be the first demon I killed.
I vowed it as the brutality continued until his slave begged for the demon to spare him.
The monster seemed satisfied by the plea and finally stopped.
A bloody stream saturated the abused man’s shoulder.
Hatred consumed me, so vile it burned its way up my throat.
The asshole licked his dark lips with a pointed gaze my direction, and while internally I cringed, it didn’t reach my face. It never would. That look of his was what I was used to. His brutality was the thing of legends. The fall of our ancestors. This demon was what I expected when I came here.
The manifestation of evil.
“Would you like me to deal with that human for you?” he asked my silent captor, pretending it was out of service and not self-interest.
Fucking beasts.
I’d nearly forgotten where I was. I’d seen the evilness of men and what they did to women and children.
Humans could be just as wicked as demons.
I’d seen them break a few Rebels in our group.
It took a long time to separate our hearts from our bodies.
Not every woman could. It eventually drove them mad.
Not me. I’d disconnected a long time ago. Sex was my weapon now. A tool. A mere inconvenience. If anything, I’d died the day my sister was taken.
As if the question snapped him out of whatever stupor he’d been put into, the vicious leader growled.
It was a thunderous noise that echoed in my very bones.
My legs quaked, but the demon who thought himself the cruelest in the room had already taken several steps back, afraid of what his leader could do to him.
Coward.
My captor’s head whipped the direction of the retreating demon, blue irises glowing in fury. “Do you think I’m incapable of handling one human by myself, Vektor?”
Vektor shook his head violently from side to side. “Of course not, my Liege.”
“Then I should think you’d leave me to it, yeah?”
It wasn’t a question; it was a warning.
Vektor bowed his head and then dragged his whimpering human with him the other direction.
I had to shut down my empathy and detach from my heart.
I’d channel all that rage, all that hatefulness, into killing that particular demon one day.
I was set on it. He’d be the one I bloodied my hands with when it was time to start a war.
Once I discovered how to kill them, he’d be my swan song ending.
Drag marks of blood were left in the human’s wake, and I closed my eyes, hoping the human’s death was swift and his pain was ended sooner rather than later. I hoped it wasn’t dragged out the same way he had been. It was all we human captives could hope for.
A quick death.
When Onyx’s eyes swept the space, the rest of the demons scattered. In no time at all, we were alone again. I ignored the tight constriction in my throat.
I’d seen people tortured, people left dying or dead, but it never got any easier. I hadn’t become immune. Numb, but not immune. I stored each moment in a box inside my head. I’d only open that box when it came time to kill. Then my rage would find its outlet.
It’d fuel a bloody revenge.
“You really know how to clear a room,” I murmured before I could catch myself.
Fuck, I knew better. If he hadn’t planned to hit me before, he would now. But to my eternal confusion, he didn’t. His lips twitched in that odd way of his. The eyes that watched me weren’t angry or frustrated. They were amused.
“It’s a gift,” was his surprising reply before he walked into the room we’d stopped in front of.