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“That was bold of them.”
Sofie didn’t blame Ryshi for his surprise. A pureblooded orc could match strength in a battle with a lone vampire. And a tribe would certainly overwhelm one. But no demon would be stupid enough to attack an entire clan, even if they outnumbered them.
“I discovered later that the orcs had been held as prisoners by the local vampire clan. The bastards had ruthlessly starved and tortured the poor creatures so they were feral when they released them to annihilate any intruders.”
“Seriously?” Ryshi made a sound of disgust. Most fey creatures possessed a deep hatred for creatures who enslaved other demons. Usually because they were the ones being enslaved. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or horrified.”
“Horrified,” she promptly assured him.
“What happened?”
Sofie closed her eyes, reluctantly allowing the images to flood her mind.
It had been a cold night. Bone-chillingly cold. And the moon had reflected off the snow and ice with a blinding light. They’d been on their way to the Ural Mountains, where they’d heard a tribe of goblins had dug a mine that was filled with emeralds. Sofie’s clan chief was determined to gain control of the mine and increase his enormous wealth.
Oddly, Sofie had been uneasy as they’d traveled through the shallow valley. She’d sensed they were being watched and warned the others they needed to turn back. They refused to listen, all of them anxious to get their hands on the piles of emeralds the chief had promised them.
It wasn’t until they reached the center of the valley that the orcs appeared from the illusions that had hidden their presence, pouring down the side of the mountain and surrounding them before they could escape.
“We walked into an ambush.” The words came out in a harsh rush. She needed to get them out before she lost her courage. “The orcs were trampling us in a mad frenzy. I thought if I could grasp their minds and contain them long enough, my people could escape. I…panicked.”
He tightened his arms until he would have crushed her if she’d been a human.
“The heat of the battle affects every demon,” he reassured her. “We all do things we later regret.”
“Not like this. I released my powers and they exploded. Like a nuclear bomb.” She shook her head, the horror spreading through her like a black hole that threatened to suck her under. “I didn’t control them, I crushed them.”
“All of them?”
In her mind she could vividly see the pile of orc bodies that surrounded her. They had lain in the snow, staring sightlessly at the starry sky with expressions of wretched agony twisting their features.
Their death had been swift, but acutely painful.
She nodded. “All of them.”
“It must have been a shock, but it was a battle,” he reminded her. “Things happen.”
He was right. It had been a shock. She’d hoped to slow down one or two of the orcs. Anything to give them the opportunity to escape. To destroy a dozen of them at one time had been sickening. Even if it had been in a battle.
Things had gotten worse when she’d turned back to discover how many of her clan had managed to escape.
The ice coating the cave thickened as her emotions threatened to engulf her.
“It wasn’t just the orcs that I destroyed.”
There was a long silence, as if Ryshi wasn’t sure he wanted to ask the question.
“The vampires?”
Sofie forced herself to meet his searching gaze. He needed to fully understand what it would mean to accept her into his life.
“I remember gathering my power, but not releasing it,” she told him. “It was like it suddenly transformed into something beyond my control. I think I tried to stop it once I realized something was wrong, but there was nothing I could do. It exploded out of me, and it wasn’t until the darkness receded that I realized the orcs were lying dead on the snow. And my clan…”
The words refused to form. As if by not saying them she could change the past. Sofie swallowed an agonized laugh. Nothing could rewrite history. The goddess knew she’d tried everything.
“Dead?” Ryshi asked in sympathy.
“Worse.” She burrowed against his body, seeking his strength as the memories battered against her. “They had become mindless zombies. Like those created by human wizards. They remained standing exactly where they’d been when I released my power, but their minds had been destroyed.”
