8 #2
The guards throw the severed heads in front of us. Their smell overwhelms me, and I turn away from the sight. Darya’s claws hold my shoulders tightly to prevent my body from following my gaze.
“And,” the Kraldem resumes, looking at the ceiling, “we are not yet finished.”
Darya moves his claws, and the wide grin spreading across his face freezes my blood.
I want to break free, but I’m not sure which way to run.
The demon holding me has extended thin, sharp teeth, and his mouth seems to be adorned with black, fresh blood.
The shrill, whistling sound escaping its throat fills the entire chamber.
And then hell breaks loose.
The demons run or fly away in desperation.
It’s futile. Random spikes strike them down.
I observe that the area where they meet their doom is precisely where they attacked me.
Darya knew exactly who wanted to get closer to me and is now hunting them down.
Even those I didn’t notice in the crowd may be among them.
The spikes hit the ground with a loud thud. The Kraldem watches the entire massacre, uttering only a single hiss. However, anger and sadness are concealed in his features.
The chaos slowly subsides as the bloodbath ceases. The surviving demons kneel before Darya.
“I sincerely hope, emías nosoik – my demons – that we understood each other. You may go,” he says.
The harshness disappears from Darya’s voice, replaced by overwhelming calm and barely palpable grief. He has just destroyed his demons because of me. I stiffen as I realize the implication. The rest now want to kill me, not only out of hunger but also hatred.
The demons fly out through the open ceiling of the throne room or disappear into the tunnels. The rocky space slowly empties, leaving only Sylla, Hépotisz, Lizander, and the blue giant below us.
I whimper as Darya suddenly pulls me into his lap. I try to resist, but his strong arm holds me in place. I glare at him, but he just smiles, playing with my purple hair.
“I love the way you fear,” he whispers in his deep voice, sending shivers down my spine. How can his voice have such an impact on me? “Your scent is exquisite in this moment,” he adds, drawing closer; sniffing my neck, making me freeze. “Infernal.”
I gulp loudly as his nose caresses my neck. Someone clears their throat, and I look at Lizander.
“Léthé is here,” he says. All five demons fix their gaze on the wall where a wide waterfall cascades to the ground, disappearing under the rock. Seriously, things just keep popping up here…
The waterfall swells, and the water is no longer swallowed by the earth. Instead, the river seems to come to life, sliding towards the throne room. It stops in front of the stairs, rising, condensing into a sphere.
The water globe explodes, and from the foam emerges a black and red-winged demon woman.
Her long, wavy hair reaches her knees, its color resembling coral in the ocean, absorbing shades of red, pink, and orange simultaneously.
Her dark attire reveals more than it covers, with a deep neckline extending down to her navel.
Her wide hips contrast sharply with her slender wasp-like waist. The outfit is practically lingerie, leaving her thick thighs exposed.
On her dark, smooth skin, water droplets shimmer brightly.
Her lips are as thick as mine, only wider and framed by lush eyelashes. Somehow familiar…
She’s the woman who nearly drowned me in the bathtub. I recognize her confident grin. I start to squirm at the thought, and Darya drags his claws along my back, playing with a strand of my hair.
The beautiful demoness’s confident steps momentarily falter as she looks at me in Darya’s lap. Her eyes flare up as if she’d prefer to drown me again. Wonderful. I’ve given her a reason to kill me, too.
Reaching the throne, she kneels.
“Kraldem,” she addresses mockingly, looking into Darya’s eyes without lowering her head. “It was a dazzling performance. Good to know you’d kill anyone for your new trophy.”
Darya smiles.
“I don’t remember ever having a trophy,” he replies, causing the woman’s lips to briefly part in thought, but the next moment, she confidently smiles again.
“Then perhaps you could introduce her.” She looks at me with her coffee-brown eyes, which I feel could pierce through me.
I wonder what Darya would do if he knew that this woman had already tried to kill me. Would he destroy her, too?
“I don’t think I need to introduce the one who will help us win a several-thousand-year war that—”
“We were not waiting for something like her at all!”
“A war,” Darya emphasizes, his voice so deep that the woman falls silent, “whose outcome depends not only on her.” He turns his head aside, coldly assessing Léthé. “But on every task I give you. So, tell us, Léthé, what you have found out about the location of the herebias.”
It doesn’t escape my notice that Darya commands her as if narrating the next move.
The mermaid’s jaw tightens, but she nods, her eyes lowered.
“They reached the zone of Polémous,” Léthé announces.
“We knew this already, we already knew this!” the green gnome screeches, tapping his hammer-tipped staff on the ground, trembling. Who are they at war with? The angels? I mean, okay, sure, demons fight against angels.
“I’ll continue,” Léthé says disdainfully. “They say scouts were seen at the entrance of the Maavica Caves.”
This seems to surprise the gnome, but before he can say anything, Lizander beats him to it.
“On which side?”
“East,” Léthé informs him, while looking at Darya. “We sensed nothing in Gorgóna.” She pauses, then, after a while, adds, “Except for storms.”
Lizander once again outpaces everyone.
“Do you think they flew across the defense line?”
Léthé shrugs.
“How would I know? My job is to map the water, not defend the sky. Unlike yours.”
“Weren’t you persuasive enough?” Lizander smiles knowingly, causing Léthé to gulp.
“Which hell of Diávolo does this mean?” Léthé hisses at Lizander.
“The Kra-raldem reque-requested one ta-task fr-from you,” Hépotis answers, stuttering. “Ma-map Gorgóna, and a-ask Triton for ter-rritory…”
“That’s enough, Hépotis,” Darya says quietly. “I’m sure the River Goddess hasn’t disappointed us. I’m sure she has done everything I asked of her. Isn’t that right, my dear?”
Léthé hardens her gaze and nods slowly.
Darya wraps a strand of my hair around his finger.
“In the sky, we were never superior,” he begins.
“Just equal to the herebias. We must control the water. If you experienced storms in Gorgóna, although darkness is on our side, I doubt the wrath of lightning would discriminate. The herebias wouldn’t be foolish enough to cross.
But…” He smiles, and his claw glides over my shoulder, making even the smallest hair on me stand on end.
I catch myself gazing at him, realizing how captivated I’ve been listening to his words.
“Everyone may have hidden tricks if the goal is this valuable.”
Darya’s words make my heart pound. I look into his deep gray eyes, which are watching me with interest. At Léthé’s snort, I tear my gaze away. The woman rolls her eyes and surveys me with pity.
“This?” she says, gesturing casually towards me. “Do you think this walking skeleton will ever be strong enough to lift a dagger without cutting herself?”
Anger and hurt tense my muscles as I glare sharply at the demon. Does she think it was my damn choice to stay this thin?
“Would she really be the one to help us in the war?” Léthé continues. “I could drown her with just one finger…”
“Not everyone needs to be the size of a cow.”
The words spill out of me before I can think, and I’d gladly retract them, along with the lump I’m swallowing in my throat. Of course, I couldn’t remain invisible and endure her mockery. I had to snap back.
Léthé blinks a few times before distorting her face in disdain. I wait with bated breath for a spike from the sky to strike me, too. Instead, I only hear the green gnome’s laughter.
“Wonderful, wonderful!” he cackles. The blue muscular giant tightens his arms and just slightly turns his head, while Sylla continues to stare at Darya and me with an unchanged expression. I can’t make out where her focus lies.
The corner of Lizander’s mouth is upturned in a small smile, and Darya laughs.
“I disagree with you. I think she will become a great champion,” the Demon King declares cheerfully, and he starts stroking my back again, making my muscles tense. My face warms to his touch. A champion?
The demon smiles at me in satisfaction, as if he enjoys the fact that I blushed.
“This is not funny, Darya!” Léthé’s eyes spark, and Darya looks at her with boredom.
“This is our only chance – we’ve always dreamed of this!
” The mermaid’s voice dwindles to a whisper.
“Let me try! Let me try! I could do it, while this weak human would fail. May Diávolo’s fire burn her. Her hands are trembling even now!”
Now it’s my turn to be surprised. I didn’t notice that my left hand is shaking again, like when Darya pointed it out in the coffeehouse.
The withdrawal symptoms have apparently caught up with me.
The woman is right. I am weak. After my brother’s death, I struggled to keep food down.
Although they adjusted my medication, it only worked for a while, and I was left with the reality that if I wanted to vomit less, I had to consume less.
I try to control my arm, but it keeps shaking. I am too weak. Compared to these beings, I am just a mortal. And I have to be plunged into their war?
Darya looks at me for a while, but I don’t detect contempt in his eyes, just curiosity. He turns back to Léthé.
“You can’t do this,” he says. “Neither of you can. No one is as capable or would be as strong as Lotte.”
I laugh out loud. Does Darya think that the powerful demon woman who emerged from the foam, or the huge muscle-man, or even the killer-eyed Sylla, is weaker than me?