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As someone who could learn.
But that is impossible here with these demons. To them, I’m simply brawn. No brain.
And the soz’garoth holds all the knowledge in our circle. Aside from the King, of course.
“Soz’garoth,” I steel myself for rejection. “I believe it would be in our best interests to stop the orc army from attacking the human village. Camp Shadows.”
“Is that where your little whore lives?” The words are biting, his voice sardonic. Then he turns to look at me.
His eyebrows are raised, and his lips are curled into an ugly sneer.
I have to swallow several times, trying not to explode with anger. But then I remembered how small I looked in the reflection.
Am I even still able to go berserk?
“Soz’garoth, with all due respect,” my voice doesn’t even waver. I almost sighed with relief that my anger had not translated into my tone. “I simply want to keep the humans safe because that is where the tome is.”
The old bastard’s eyebrows rise even further, and I do my best to keep my expression neutral.
He walked up to me then, his age obvious in the difficulty of his steps. The sneer on his face deepens, then he bares his teeth at me.
“What did you say?” The words come out in a vicious whisper.
I do not move, do not give any sign of weakness. Like I have been taught all my life.
Even though I’m suddenly smaller, I’m still much larger than the soz’garoth.
“The human girl, Tessa, has the tome. We have to ward off the orc army to protect the book.”
Images of Tessa flash through my mind when I say her name. I can barely stand it.
“And why, pray tell,” the old demon asks, his voice dangerously low. “Is this the first mention of the book?”
“I was busy confirming that it was indeed the tome.” I lowered my head, trying to show some deference.
We both know that I’m lying as the soz’garoth looks at me with narrowed, hateful eyes.
“We need to get the book immediately,” he murmured. Then he turned away from me and walked over to the window again. “Then we can cut this damned trip short and return to the King.”
“Well, that might be difficult,” I speak slowly and watch as his back tightens at my words. He doesn’t turn around but sighs, waiting for my explanation. “Every time I have tried to take the book from her, it simply teleports back to Tessa.”
“Then we have to kill her.” The words hit me as heavily as a physical object would. I stagger backward slightly.
This time the soz’garoth does turn to look at me. He’s smiling and shrugs lazily at me. The smile turns into a grim smirk as he reads my expression.
“How else do you expect to get the book?” He barked the words at me.
“Why do we need to kill her?” Those were not the words I planned on saying. They betray my weakness.
My weakness for Tessa.
“To sever her connection to the book, of course.” The soz’garoth speaks as though it’s the most simple thing in the world.
“That is brutal and unnecessary,” I say more words that I do not mean to. My disgust must be obvious on my face because the soz’garoth walked up to me again.
He pushes his face right up into mine.
“Will you betray your people, your family, for this human whore? This woman who spread her legs to keep the book away from us? The woman who protects what our dear King most desires in this world?”
