AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As if in answer to my summons, demonic Lord Kadir stepped out of thin air and into the realm of humans.
Chapter 12
An unearthly wind whipped pale blond hair around androgynous features as Kadir’s icy-as-death aura inundated us like an arctic tsunami. Fresh burns marked his exposed skin and peeked from beneath fire-rain-shredded clothing—evidence of his engagement with the anomaly in Rhyzkahl’s realm. Tendrils of rakkuhr slithered to him and writhed over his boots. Though it had been my bright idea to call him, doubt gripped me.
“My lord!” Paul cried out. I dragged my gaze from Kadir, fully expecting to see a compound in full freakout and all weapons turned on the newcomer. But no one moved. With the exception of Pellini, Paul, and myself, every single person in sight was eerily still, with only their frantic eye movements confirming they were alive. Captain Hornak stood motionless with his hand inches from his sidearm, face locked in a scowl. His eyes followed Kadir as the lord strode toward Paul.
“He’s here,” Pellini said, voice filled with awe.
“Yep,” I murmured. “And for the record, I’ve never seen a lord do this living statue trick.”
Kadir flicked his fingers. Paul’s handcuffs disintegrated into black dust. He quickly wriggled free of the two soldier-statues who held him then fell to his knees. “I’m okay,” he said, eyes locked on Kadir’s face. I could almost feel him trying to convey that he wasn’t hurt and to please not kill anyone.
Any doubts about the essence bond between the two evaporated when Kadir crouched in front of Paul and healed the abrasion on his cheek with a pass of his hand.
Pellini nudged me. “You think they’re . . .”
“Beats the hell out of me.” At this point, I figured anything was possible—even the unsettling lord having . . .
I shuddered. Nope. Couldn’t make my brain accept any thought that combined Kadir and Sex. Some things went far beyond the realm of human comprehension, and I was okay with that.
Kadir stood and paced a slow circle around Captain Hornak then sauntered toward a squad frozen with their rifles partly raised.
I nudged Pellini. “I’ll keep an eye on Kadir. See if you can find a way to reverse the gate, to suck him back through in case he does something Not Good.” That was the only possible option at hand if things went to shit. I couldn’t go head to head with a demigod, and I doubted verbal negotiation would get me very far.
“That’s one hell of a long shot,” he muttered, “but I’ll see what I can do.”
I hurried to Paul as he clambered to his feet. “What’s he doing?” I asked with a tilt of my head toward Kadir.
Paul’s gaze followed him. Kadir wove between the squad members, pausing to trace the line of one poor soldier’s jaw with a graceful index finger. “Acclimating. Getting a sense of Earth and the situation.”
My eyes narrowed. “And then what?”
“I don’t know,” Paul said. “He’s been itching to experience what it was like to pass through the gate, but beyond that—”
“Wait, what?” I put a hand to my head in confusion. “I thought this was his gate. Hasn’t he been through it before?”
“Yes, it’s his, but it was only usable by humans. The lords themselves couldn’t travel through any of the gates. But ever since this one woke up, Lord Kadir has been working to change that.”
“Looks like he succeeded,” I murmured, regarding Kadir as he leaned close to the soldier and sniffed. A glance at Pellini showed him running his hands over the nearest crystal in search of a miracle.
I had a feeling we were going to need one. The premeditation behind Kadir’s arrival left a nasty taste in my mouth. Even if his plans didn’t fully align with the Mraztur’s, he itched for unrestricted access to Earth—and I highly doubted it was so he could kick back by a campfire under the stars of our world and sing Kumbaya with his new human buddies. “Does Kadir have anything to do with the rifts and the demons and rakkuhr coming through?”
“Absolutely not,” Paul said without hesitation. “In fact, it’s ticking him off. The flows are getting screwed up, and there’s nothing he can do about it. The demons creating the rifts are in the Jagged Peaks region, and it’s off limits.”
I gave him a sharp look. “Off limits?”
“Something to do with oaths and agreements. That’s all I know.”
“Damn demon oaths have gotten in my way more than a few times.”
He grimaced. “I wouldn’t have known even that much except Lord Kadir got zapped when he probed the off limits area from his plexus. He was out cold for a whole day.”
Interesting. I rather doubted that the demons had the kind of protections that could lay out a lord. Seemed far more likely that Kadir got zapped by the oh-so-sweet-and-loving Demahnk Council for poking his nose where they didn’t want it poked. Considering that they’d submerged and exiled Szerain to Earth, I had no doubt they’d slap down a lord who broke rules. “Was it worth it? Did he find out anything?”
“No!” Paul folded his arms over his chest and glowered. “He was just trying to figure out why the demons weren’t making it through the void alive after getting killed on Earth.”
“Maybe it hasn’t been long enough,” I suggested. “After I died in the demon realm, it took me two weeks to return here. And I think it was about that long before Eilahn made it back after she was shot on Earth. Or maybe the demons who didn’t make it back had died here once before?” A first death for a demon on Earth or a human in the demon realm often meant a return to the home world safe and sound. A second death usually meant death for realsies.
