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Whirling around, I hovered above the forest floor. Without bothering to restrain my scorn, I met the eyes of the one called Dex. “I am not Roan.”
The man paused, but there was no fear in his eyes. Even as I hung in the air above him, my naked form coated and dripping with the blood of my treluria’s enemies, he showed no hint of being intimidated. No, there was only assessment in his level gaze, as if he was merely fitting me into a plan in his mind. “Then what do we call you?”
“I am the demon.”
He nodded slowly. “Okay. Will Roan return soon?”
I growled. His question only confirmed what I already knew. Only the broken one had value to them.
But that only made them fools too.
I dove swiftly and snatched the nearest of the remaining attackers from the earth.
“Demon!” Dex snapped. “Stand down.”
I turned an incredulous look upon him. “Why? They shot my treluria. Now they must die.”
Again, Dex paused, his brow flickering lower for a heartbeat, and since he already knew she’d been hurt, it could only have been the fact I’d called her my treluria that stopped him.
But whatever he thought of that was immaterial, and reading the expressions of others was a pursuit I scarcely bothered with, so I simply turned my attention back to the man hanging from my fist.
“Niko’s missing,” Dex said. “We need a few of these bastards alive in case they know where he is.”
I disagreed. The one called Niko had hurt her. Been cold and angry with her. He deserved nothing.
He was hurt too, the broken one whispered in my mind.
Like that mattered.
Scorn came from the broken one. Scorn for my thought, for my rage on her behalf, and it burned. I only wanted to protect her, and the boy had caused her pain. Why was that math not simple?
Because it will hurt her if he dies, the broken one replied.
Growling, I raked my eyes over the forest, finding no trace of the boy. The princess was unpredictable, it was true. She would want the one called Niko to be unharmed even though he’d caused her pain.
Fine.
“Put the man down, demon,” Dex said.
“Only one needs to be alive,” I snarled. “The others can die.”
“Unless the survivor lies,” he pointed out.
His words were infuriating.
Especially since they contained logic.
“Very well.” Letting the air spill from my wings, I dropped to the earth and dug my clawed feet into the loam. Pulling the soldier in my fist closer, I bared my teeth and stared into his watery blue eyes, ignoring the giants as they made protesting noises. “Do not lie or I will eat you.”
In my grip, the man trembled, incoherent sounds of fear coming from his lips.
“Where is the boy?” I demanded.
The man whimpered. The stink of piss seeped out into the air, and I glanced down to see the front of his pants becoming wet.
With a disgusted noise, I tossed him to the earth and reached for the next soldier.
Dex stepped in front of me. “If we may?”
