Page 40 of Birthright

“Fine. So what do you want with my sister? I’ve told you I have no right to pass her to you. What are you asking for?”

His face changed into what I suspected was his best attempt at a smile. “You are to kill her, are you not? You asked for vengeance for your Imp friend.”

He shouldn’t know that already. It wouldn’t be asked or granted publicly until the battle. How did he know so much? Keeping my poker face was getting harder by the minute.

“Killing my sister is far different from turning her over to be consort to the likes of you, Karackos.” I was guessing that was what he wanted, from the way he looked at Feldema. I was going to kill her whether I liked it or not. I had to. But turning her over to a Demon? That was something else.

“She would make that deal with me, would she not?” he spat. He had a point. She’d trade me to the first Demon who asked—but I was not her. I couldn’t do such a thing. He leaned in a little closer and I could smell the death. “I do not need her as consort,” he said as he looked longingly at her image, still shimmering in the air. “I wouldn’t deny her if that was what she wanted, of course, but my need of her is much different.”

“Has she made such a deal with you? That she would turn me over to you if she gets the chance?”

He made the almost-smile again. “No, priestess, you are not to my taste. The smell of you…your honor. It reeks like that of your mother. I could hardly bear you as a familiar.” His face changed to obvious disgust.

“Familiar?”

“Yes, red Witch. You are too noble for me to be around for too long. But the white Witch is much more appealing…”

“Like to like, evil to evil. I get it.”

“I cannot get my powers from the earth as you can, red Witch. I have to gather energy from the ley lines that exist throughout the realms. I need the filter of a familiar to channel and strengthen that power. A Witch of Feldema’s ability would be very valuable to me.” I could swear he was about to start drooling.

“But I’m still not able to give her over to you. And what would you have that is so valuable I would even consider it?” I was really doing a good job of appearing as though having a conversation about turning my sister into a battery charger for a Demon was no big deal. Who’d have thought?

“I know how to kill the Fallen Angel.”

He said it softly, as if he didn’t want anyone to hear. I lost my poker face.

“That’s right, red Witch. Think on that. Two birds with one stone. Your tormentor dead, and your father and the Imp returned.”

“Karackos”—I raised my eyebrows mockingly— “that’s information I might figure out on my own. The price is too high. If you think I’m so noble, then you know I wouldn’t trade a life for it—even Feldema’s.” I had regained some composure.

But even I wasn’t sure if I wouldn’t trade her over for that information. I guessed I was about to find out.

“I thought you might feel that way, red Witch, so I offer you this. At the moment you are about to kill her, summon me. I will give her the choice of death or life as my familiar.”

I turned away from him to think. The deal would help me with my plans to rescue Abbey and Coyle and I wouldn’t have to kill Feldema. She would still pay for her treachery by spending the rest of her life as a Demon’s familiar. Hmmm.

I turned back to him and tried to study his face. There was nothing there. “May I question the details?” He nodded his head. “Why would I give her the opportunity to bind herself to you so she can gain your powers and use them against me later?”

He straightened his torso a bit and tilted his head. “You have my word that while she is bound to me, she will have no power to hurt you or yours.” He wrapped his big, yucky wings around his body and crouched, waiting for the next question. He looked like he was squatting to pee.

“And if I’m unsuccessful on Thule or in the fight with her, and I die, then you get what, Karackos?”

He actually laughed. A booming, eerie laugh that echoed through the realm. “You are your mother’s daughter, Keena, Priestess of the Wild. You have missed little.” He stood and waddled close to me again. “Then I have underestimated you, and I have made a bad deal.”

“That’s it? No ‘I own your soul’? No ‘you will spend eternity in servitude to me’? Nothing?”

“I simply ask that if you are victorious, you offer the white Witch the choice. Your soul will remain clean and your conscience may remain clear.” His chin wiggled at me.

I didn’t trust him as far as I could launch his massive, disgusting body. “I don’t know.”

He moved around me and past Feldema’s image, lingering to take a long look at it. “Nessum tortured your mother for months trying to find you. Doing unimaginable things.”

He was trying to play on my emotions—and fuck, it was working. I saw her from the vision, tenderly taking the drops of blood from our feet and then gently kissing each little wound.

“She was brave and took it well, even as he had her for himself time and time again.” I was grinding my teeth, hard. “She never divulged to him where she hid you. The Dark Angel killed her himself when he thought her useless.”

That did it. The rage was too great. The pictures I’d created in my head as he spoke were too much to bear.