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“Jaroth?” Xorgor said. “He’s made big strides to become the next demon leader.”
“No fucking shit,” I said through gritted teeth. “He’s also Sina’s ex-boyfriend, and I don’t trust him.”
Xorgor tensed and swallowed hard. “You shouldn’t. He’s a liar and a cheat. I get that he’s an incubus, but something has never sat right with me about him either. I’ve only seen him in passing, and I have some shit against him that’s my private matter, but … I don’t like the kid.”
“Where was he last night? A guy like him wouldn’t have missed a party like that.”
“I heard he was meeting with some high-ranked demons and leaders of the other species to speak about diplomatic matters, about what he’ll have to do to become the next leader once Queen Agool steps down.”
“Where are they meeting?”
“South of Durnbone.”
“That’s funny.” A dry laugh escaped my lips. “Because he fucking told Sina that he was in the north, trying to figure out how many soldiers her father had, that he’d find out as much information for her as possible.”
Xorgor furrowed his brow. “Last I heard, there’s an army gathering in the south, not the north. It’s a bunch of humans that Jaroth was supposed to meet with to try to stop the war against the other species. The humans want something, but it’s not money.”
Fury rushed through me. I balled my hands into even tighter fists and growled, knowing that we shouldn’t have trusted a word that came out of that fucker’s mouth. He had manipulated Sina for far too fucking long.
I stormed out of the room and toward the front door. “They want Sina.”
“Why?” Xorgor said, following me. “What could they want with her?”
“They want her because she’s the Paragon.”
As I rushed past Maxine and back toward the pack house, Xorgor followed, his steps quicker this time. “What the fuck do you mean, she’s the Paragon? That’s a myth told down through the centuries to demons. It’s a fable.”
I grabbed him by the throat and pushed him against the door. “If you had seen what I saw last night, you’d know that it isn’t a fable. She’s far stronger than even I can fathom. I haven’t even been able to heal my wound that she gave me.”
Xorgor didn’t struggle, but the human side of his face paled. “You can’t?”
“No.” I swallowed hard and dropped my hand from around his throat, finally coming to terms with what Sina was and the power she held. “That’s why Jaroth wants her; that’s why Jaroth must’ve helped her escape from her father. She’s the fucking Paragon, the most powerful being alive.”
55
the goons
thayer
“Xorgor!”Maxine shouted from downstairs with a slight tremble in her voice. “Xorgor!”
Xorgor shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe what I had just told him about Sina, and hurried out of the room. Fuck, I could barely believe it either. The Paragon had only ever been a myth, lore passed down through the demon generations. But it was real. I had fucking seen it.
“Xorgor! Please, come down here!” Maxine shouted again.
A whiff of dirty human drifted through my nose, and I tensed. I had memorized that scent for so fucking long, had burned it into my memory the day that we found Sina’s house completely empty on her eighteenth birthday.
I shuffled down the stairs behind Xorgor, staying hidden behind his taller frame. Two of Sina’s father’s goons stood at the door, staring down at Maxine with guns in their hands and menace in their eyes.
When Xorgor spotted them, he zipped to Maxine and pushed her behind him. I slipped behind a wall, staying out of sight, and looked for a way out of the house. If they spotted me, they’d shoot right fucking at me with those poison-laced bullets.
“Fuck,” I growled underneath my breath.
Scanning the house for an alternate escape route, I spotted the back door, where Sina had disappeared through last night while I drank at the bar. Pain shot through me at the mere thought of losing her, of not watching her the way that I should’ve.
Maybe this all would’ve been avoided if I had been fucking crazy like Calder and refused to let her out of my sight, even when she had to piss.
After quietly escaping through the back door, I scanned the forest to ensure there weren’t any other goons and walked around the house to the front door, careful to stay hidden so the goons wouldn’t see me.
