Page 62 of Demon Food

Every servant halted cold. Neopal swiveled to Feloré, gaping with huge eyes. It was as if the walls themselves held their breath.

Oh. SHIT.

“Not only is the king a raging lunatic,” Feloré continued, “but he’s a fantastical liar, too. That is who you think is divinely chosen? All hail.”

My eyes rounded further. Oh, shit. Shitshitshitshit. Slander was truly a black-and-white law. It was one thing to call a vultus a demon, but slandering the king came with devastating consequences for a human, and everyone here heard it. There was no room for mercy.

“Uh,” I started, aggressively smoothing my eyebrow. “Well, he’s clearly distraught, and can you really blame him? He’s been captured, taken from his home, and chained to this room. He fears for his life⁠—”

“Human, I must have simply misheard you,” Neopal said, his fiery gaze locked with Feloré’s. “Certainly, there is no way you just maligned the king’s holy and sanctified name in his own palace.”

I blinked helplessly at Feloré, hoping desperately it conveyed, Don’t be stupid, human. Apologize. Come on!

“Do you know what the punishment for such a thing is?” Neopal asked.

It was defamation to their bodies. It was the word DOG carved into the skin of their chest, telling every future vultus that legally, this human could be used, abused, tortured, or killed. Treated like a traitorous dog.

“Does it even fucking matter?” Feloré asked, his expression blazing and crumbling in defeat all at once. “My whole life has been a punishment, and I’m so sick of pretending.”

“So, you meant to slander the king?” Neopal asked, hand calmly moving to the dagger in his belt. “And you accept your fate?”

Feloré’s lips curled back in disgust. The word was there. Shaking but ready to be spoken. It was on his tongue. YES⁠—

Then it was gone. Because I fucking took it.

His eyes bulged as he froze, searching for his words in a panic to find them all deserting him, collapsing into limbo as his body transformed into a statue of stone.

My fingers shook from where I stood behind Neopal, taking command of Feloré’s pierced tongue. Then his whole beautiful mouth. I snaked my essence inside him, continuing to steal his words before they could even form, slipping my way down his throat and plunging all the way into his body.

He breathed me in. Then I was inside him. I was filling him. Possessing him.

His limbs were my limbs. His thoughts were my thoughts. And his heart… so wild and thrashing against both of us like it wanted to be free. Everything was glowing with life as I settled further beneath his skin until it fit me like a tailored glove.

Shhhh, human. I soothed his courageous, aching heart as I coaxed him from the brink of his own destruction. I will take over now. Give yourself to me.

I felt the moment he clicked into place. The moment he was mine. Gods. He was mine.

“P-please,” I made him mutter. “P-please, no. I’m sorry.”

I’d never felt something so intimate as commanding him, viewing this world through his lovely eyes. I could feel the desperation in his bones. The pain and heartbreak. I could feel devotion for certain people whose names and faces slipped by too quickly to catch. I could feel it all, and I could see.

Neopal stood before us, but it wasn’t him. No. What stood before us was horrifying. It was a black, oily haze of rot. This was how he saw us? This was worse than a monster. This was death itself.

A part of me wanted to see my body in the desperate hopes that I looked different from this, but I was hidden behind Neopal’s rot, and something told me, it’d be just as awful.

I dragged my attention back to the task. Feloré whimpered when I shook our heads and forced him to say, “I shall n-ever utter th-those words. Ever again.”

Fuck, it was nearly impossible, like willing a hunk of rock to liquefy. I tried again, pushing all my strength into it.

“I’m so sc-ared,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean it.”

Neopal loosened his grip on his dagger, but his shoulders were still bunched and tense.

It took every ounce of my focus, but I made our heads bow to him.

“Forg-give me,” Feloré whispered my chosen words. He wasn’t exactly fighting me, shockingly, but I was also too weak to control him properly. “P-please.”

Neopal’s head cocked as he studied him.