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I waved behind me, not interested.
“After all, you have a long history of failures, right?” he continued. “If it wasn’t for you, that sweet innocent priestess would still be part of her church. Still thriving. Still so happy.”
My heart pounded, but didn’t race. It maintained a steady rhythm, already accustomed to these accusatory thoughts.
“So sad that she was excommunicated after helping you,” the demon continued still. “So sad that she slipped into such a deep depression. So sad that poison is so easy to come by…”
I turned back to the cell, meeting the demon in the eyes. I could see the pride in his them, as if he was happy to know my pain. I stepped in close, leaning my arm against the bars as I stared him straight in the eyes.
“You’ve made a mistake, demon,” I said. “You assumed my feelings hold power over me still.”
“Aren’t you guilty?” he asked me.
I chuckled. “Of course. But the reason creatures like you don’t control me anymore is because I grew up to realize that we’re all guilty.”
The demon raised Henrik’s eyebrow pointedly.
“So you don’t take any responsibility? Are you sure you’re holy, Judge?”
“I never claimed to be. But I don’t take morality lessons from demons.”
He stared at me, possibly analyzing my aura. I had no idea what he saw. That was the only drawback of seeing auras: you couldn’t see your own.
I cleared his words from my head, putting my mission toward the front of my mind. I leaned in as close as I could between the bars.
“I’m going to send you back to hell,” I whispered. “And if my soul goes with yours, so be it.”
With a screech and a hiss he slammed against the bars. I stepped back to allow him the temper tantrum. He couldn’t break through the bars, and I wasn’t going to let him break through my mind either.
“You’ll pay for your sins, Judge,” he yelled. “You think you can escape it?”
I chuckled. “No. We all pay for them eventually. You will too. Don’t forget it.”
***
“I don’t have the time to babysit,” I said.
King Melchior only stared at me. I wasn’t sure why he had called me in for a status report. He knew already that it wasgoing to take time for me to extract the demon out of Henrik’s body. That is, if Henrikwantedto have the demon extracted.
“Adrian stays near the cell constantly,” I continued, “making it impossible for my men to do their job.”
The king nodded thoughtfully. “And what is their job, exactly?”
I tried not to roll my eyes. He was asking questions he already knew the answers to again.
“To find the demon’s weak point or the human host’s strength,” I replied, monotone.
“And just what could the host’s strength be, I wonder?”
He rested his chin on his hand, waiting for my reply to his fake rhetorical question.
I sighed. “I’ve thought of it too. But the problem is, if Adrian is Henrik’s strength, that means that the demon is going to try and get rid of Adrian.”
“Then exploit the demon’s weakness before he can hurt the brother,” Hugo said.
“But Adrian’s presence may remind Henrik of his ultimate purpose,” Vito added. “We shouldn’t keep them too far from each other.”
“Allow Adrian to see his brother, as agreed,” the king finally said. “But your priority is to extract the demon, so do whatever is necessary, even temporary blockades, in order to do so.”
