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“By me,” Xorgor said.
“You killed her?” I clarified.
Maxine frowned and glanced nervously at me. “S-She deserved it for what she did to Xorgor.”
“The fuck you mean?” Thayer asked Xorgor. “What did she do to you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Xorgor growled between jagged teeth.
“So, you’re going to do it?” Thayer asked. “You’re going to lead the demons?”
“I don’t want to lead, but she gave me no choice in the matter.”
“You fucking have to do this, or the demon world will go to shit,” Thayer said.
“Like it hasn’t already,” Xorgor snarled, nervousness crossing his features. “There will be a rebellion soon. I suspect tomorrow at the latest. And the kingdoms can’t even fucking accept me looking like this, a half-human and half-demon face stuck like this forever. How will they… How will they accept me as their new leader?”
Maxine pulled her hand away from me and took Xorgor’s face in her hands. “I accept you just the way you are, Xorgor,” she whispered. “They will too.”
He stared down at her for a long time, hard gaze softening. And finally, he dropped his head and rested it against hers, his body tense. “I can’t fucking do it. I don’t want to do it. They’ve done nothing but belittle me since I was a child.”
My heart clenched at the brokenness in his voice. It reminded me of Maxine’s after she was attacked by werewolves years ago. She had come to me in tears and told me that nobody would ever love her, that nobody would ever look at her the same. But I hadn’t seen her any differently just because she had a couple of scars on her chest.
Maxine was my best friend either way. She always would be.
And now, Maxine was that person for someone.
Thayer stepped forward. “You fucking know that if anyone else claims the throne, they’ll banish you from the demon kingdom and make Maxine a sex slave,” he started, catching Xorgor’s attention now. “You know how demons are. You know that they’ll backstab you, even family.”
Xorgor mumbled underneath his breath.
“Just like Jaroth has backstabbed all of us, even me,” I whispered.
“You have to,” Maxine whimpered to him, grabbing his hand again. “Please, if not for yourself, then for me. I don’t want any incubus who has your brother’s ill manners to touch me ever again. Do this for us.”
“For us,” Xorgor repeated quietly, as if he didn’t believe the words coming from her.
It was as if he had never had anyone stick up for him, had never had anyone believe in him before Maxine. While we all had our own problems, I couldn’t even begin to imagine the shit that Xorgor had faced all these years.
In the most honest way, Xorgor was an ugly monster with the kindest heart.
“For us,” Maxine repeated.
“Okay,” he whispered.
After a couple of moments of silence, Xorgor looked back up at the guys behind me. “But this is not the reason why I rushed over so quickly. I believe that Sina’s father will attack Durnbone soon. Nobody knows for certain, but after I killed the demon queen… I looked through notes that I found scattered in her office. She had intel about your father, Sina. And apparently he had been planning to start a war in Durnbone. Soon.”
My eyes widened, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
He might’ve just been a human, but he had Paragons at his disposal. At least, he’d had me. He had taken my blood and paralyzed me, made alliances through letting other species rape me until they were pleased. He had used me to advance his position in the world, and he wasn’t even my real father.
“He’s coming to Durnbone with an army of warriors that are stronger than everyone else,” Xorgor said. “I don’t know what that means, but it’s what I found.”
My heart pounded against my rib cage, horrid thoughts racing through my head. “Humans … humans that are advanced. Regular humans might not be able to protect him and fight for him … but a Paragon could. One is all that it’d take.”
74
the birth
