AllFreeNovel
Share Us
NATALIE
The Demon King fell to a knee with his skin scorched, and holes in his wings. He coughed up blood, which I assumed was blood because it was as black as tar.
But when he held his head up to look at me, he smiled.
His teeth were like nails, and they returned to their normal state when his broken jaw snapped into place. I saw it, the pure evil in him. I saw the same corruption in Cedric, but it had grown over time. This man had been born with it.
He started to chuckle, and it grew into a chorus of joyous laughter mixed with his coughing. He was the happiest man I'd ever seen, but I held my position, my chaos on the tips of my fingers in case he attacked.
“Natalie Blackwood,” he coughed. “Now I understand why you need two mates.” He spat on the ground. "One wouldn't be able to handle you. But a woman like you belongs here, in a realm that honors the kind of power you possess. You feel it, don't you? The more powerful you are, the more power is drawn to you. That’s natural selection.”
“Pass,” I growled, for his voice alone was making my skin crawl. “Be thankful you’re not dead.”
“It’ll take more than that to kill me,” he growled back. Then his wounds started to heal, the skin pulling together, and he winced and looked away.
It looked painful. Good, I thought. He deserved it and worse. This was the man who’d killed the Goddess’s sister, huh? He looked like he was only in his mid-thirties, but he was millenniums old, like the rest of the Imperium.
As much as he deserved to die, this wasn't his time. Killing him meant starting a war with the underworld, and we already had too much on our plate. But I wanted to prove a point—that we weren't done for yet. And more importantly, I needed to show him that the power Cedric and I shared was to be feared.
Believing he was untouchable was a sure way to get his people killed, not that these demons needed saving.
Anyone who arrived now wouldn't know we were standing in a library, except for the burned pieces of paper on the ground. The room was utterly destroyed, with the walls ripped apart to reveal a garden outside.
Looking down at my arms, the bruises from earlier were gone. I no longer felt sick, and had a sense of clarity that wasn't there before. I could feel it with every breath I took. Like the Demon King just said, there was a power in the air, much like in the God Realm, but it seemed so much heavier. In fact, it felt as if it was clinging to me.
I’d wanted to use all that accumulated chaos against Cedric, but it had still served a good purpose. Never in a million years had I thought I’d be going toe to toe with the Demon King.
"Do you think you can handle more?" I asked the King as he got to his feet, and wiped at his chin.
“Let’s not get too cocky,” he growled.
Just then, the Goddess teleported back into the room with the demon and werewolf she'd taken with her. I assumed they were Cyrus and Skye.
Elinor had told me about them, her friends from Earth, so when I arrived and saw them, I figured the Goddess had intended to seek out Cyrus's help. Lucian had been wrong about her intentions, but still, once she and the Demon King started fighting, things could have ended badly.
And they still could. The Demon King, while battered, wasn't dead, and the power I’d just released should have killed him. It would have killed any other god. And now, I was more determined than ever to test the virus one of his subjects—or him. I wasn’t picky—to see if demons had natural immunity.
I removed the needle I’d hidden in my shirt, and teleported, reappearing behind the Demon King. When he turned to face me, I stabbed him in the neck.
He punched me in the gut, shattering my ribs, but then wailed as the virus entered him. His face changed into a hideous thing, his skin red, his mouth stretching to his chest, his teeth thin and pointy.
He fell to the ground and vomited while I got to my feet, watching as he expelled the virus as if he’d only eaten something terrible. He glared at me, and I looked at the Goddess, ignoring the pain of my ribs healing.
I didn't need to see her face. I was sure she was smiling, the same way I was. We were right. The virus didn’t affect demons.
“What was the purpose of doing that?” the Demon King grumbled, holding his neck. "You know, I was enjoying this, but now I'm getting annoyed."
I was really glad I'd contacted Zeus before leaving the City of Souls last night. After explaining my plan, he gave me the needle containing the virus we'd found in the angel territory.
“That was the virus that Cedric's released, or at least, one version of it," I replied. “It looks like it doesn’t have the same effect on you as it does on souls and gods, but that will change. You're not as untouchable as you might think. And like you, Cedric loves a challenge." I took a deep breath, shoring up my nerve. “So…” I pushed my hair back. “Are you ready to reconsider sending your forces to Earth?”
He didn't respond. Instead, he examined the wounds covering his body while Cyrus healed the Goddess. The atmosphere, that just moments ago was filled with animosity, changed. I had just attacked this man in his kingdom—I could have killed him—and it was as if he’d already moved on from it.
There weren't demons barging in to aid their king. And Cyrus was tending to Skye and the Goddess without saying a word. Elinor had explained his hatred for his father, but this situation seemed very strange.
It was like this was just another day for them.
“It’s been millenniums since I’ve felt pain,” the Demon King, walking to the hole in the wall, and pulling his wings into his back. "Oh, the things I tolerate for entertainment."
