Page 117 of Fated to the Demon Lord

“Smell the damn rose.”

Creedan glanced at the dagger. “You—you won’t turn me into a ghost, will you?”

The second fear. Vaelor could take him as part of his army and spend the rest of Creedan’s miserable days torturing him. I couldn’t imagine how satisfactory that would be for him.

Vaelor didn’t promise. “We’ll see how I’m feeling in the moment.”

Creedan shook and lifted the rose to his nose and inhaled.

The poison took effect almost immediately. Creedan fell to the floor gasping. His body shook uncontrollably and a foam poured from his lips until his eyes bulged from his head and he tipped over, striking the floor with a sickening thud. Moments later, he lay unmoving.

Vaelor looked at him with no pity. His fist clenched around the dagger, but he didn’t use it. “Dispose of his body.”

“Yes, sir.”

The guards disappeared, dragging Creedan’s corpse away. Vaelor picked up the rose and placed it in the case before setting it on the mantel along with the dagger. He stepped over to me.

“You didn’t want to make him a ghost?” I asked.

His fingers grazed my skin. “I’ve lived too long in vengeance, thinking of all the horrible things I wanted to do to that demon. But now, I have more important things to worry about. A mate, a cause. They are so much more valuable than the hate I would allow to fester if I kept him. In the end, I wanted justice. I wanted him to experience the pain inflicted on my mother and wife as they died.”

The medic bowed, having ignored Creedan’s death on the floor of Vaelor’s dining room. “I have done all I can for her, sir.”

“Thank you,” Vaelor said. “You may leave.”

As the medic left, the dining room doors were again thrown wide, and the female who had healed me from my broken leg stepped in.

“I’ve come. Once again dropping everything to assist you,” Resha said, annoyance flashing in her eyes.

“And yet you came,” Vaelor said, amused. “You’ll be well compensated, as promised.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I would like a page out of her spellbook. A potion.”

Vaelor looked surprised but turned to me.

I nodded. “Let her.”

“After you tend to her,” he said.

The female walked over and began examining me, lifting bandages and putting them back into place. “The medic did a good job. Here.” She reached into her satchel and pulled out the potion and same weed bark she had given me before. “I think you remember what these do?”

“Yes. The potion will ease my pain and the weed bark will make me heal faster.” I took it from her a popped some into my mouth.

“Take it twice tonight,” she said to me, then she turned to Vaelor. “She should be better by morning.”

Tension released from Vaelor’s shoulders. “Thank you.”

“And you,” Resha said, hands on her hips. She motioned for him to turn so she could examine his wing and other wounds. She made him take off his shirt and then she wrapped the wound on his abdomen. Lastly, she gave him a potion and some weed bark. “You’ll need this as well.”

Vaelor accepted the potion and downed it and then chewed on the weed bark.

Resha raised an expectant eyebrow. “My payment?”

“Come with me,” Vaelor said.

He guided her out of the room, and I allowed my head to fall onto the table. Exhausted from everything that had happened that day. Vaelor returned a short while later.

“Did she take a potion or spell?” I asked.