Page 6 of Her Demon Daddy
“Everyone is afraid of what they don’t know.” I tear off a small bite of bread and roll it between my thumb and forefinger. “Make them think you are something untested and they won’t want to take the chances.”
“You’ve really got this all figured out.” She eyes me. “Are you…from here?”
I snort. “I don’t think anyone is. We all came from Protheka. The ground planet.” I roll my eyes. “I just think I’ve been here longer than anyone, at least to have not been picked yet.”
“How…” She swallows staring up at me, and I can tell she isn’t sure if she should ask.
“A year.” It’s a hard lump to swallow, but it’s true. A year without leaving this cage.
“Do you know…what happens when you are picked?”
I honestly had assumed she was one of the ones that had been used and dumped. None of those girls ever talked, though, and while, at first, I thought they used us for sport, there are too many of us being kept alive and brought back for that to be the case.
I’m starting to think that the role of a woman isn’t all that different here than it is on Protheka…
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard anyone talk about it. But I’m going to find out.”
Trinity’s eyes look like they nearly bug out of her head. “Youwantto find out?”
I nod. “It’s easier to fight the known than the unknown.”
She wraps her tiny arms around her knees and clutches them close. “I’d rather just be in here. I think that I could handle.”
I don’t argue with her, but in the back of my head, I can already hear the voice of doubt. They won’t leave us in here forever, and I want to be prepared for what’s to come. There’s only one way to do that. To face what’s outside those bars.
Before I can answer, I hear the door slam open again. Surely, they aren’t feeding us. Which means…
I leap up to my feet, balling my fists and giving the demon a hard glare. Its beady eyes connect with me the second it rounds the corner and I let my lips tip up in an almost deranged smile. Sometimes I’m not sure how much of a hold I have on my sanity and this feels more like letting that slip through than putting on an act.
Trinity seems to forget everything I said as she skitters back immediately. Rarely do they listen, but I can’t risk too much for the others. I have to stay alive. That’s my top priority. Otherwise, we’re all doomed. Who will protect the others?
The door to the cage is ripped open as I cock my head and watch the demon, the smile still on my face. He’s still facing my direction, and I’m certain that he is going to go for Trinity. They always take the small and meek ones, and she’s put on the best show for them.
But then the unexpected happens. Claws close around my upper arm, and I don’t have enough time to register what’s going on before I’m pulled past the bars.
They’re taking me.
Which means I am totally fucked.
4
ASMODEUS
The fire in the hearth across from me roars as though in tandem with my thoughts. The snapping and crackling of the embers fill my too-silent room, echoing off of the tall ceiling as I stare into the hearth. Warmth kisses my bare skin, the pleasant sensation a snide reminder of how vulnerable I am without my armor and hood, how separate I must keep myself from the world around me.
Oltyx has grown weary of this game we’ve been playing, and I no longer know how much time I have left before everything collapses.
The souls of the human women seemed to be enough to keep my god happy thus far, to allow me to continue in his favor, but with each passing day that favor wanes. There are only so many solutions to the problem before me, and none of them allow me to continue with my people the way I have been.
Familiar ire begins to rise in my chest. I have worked too hard, too tirelessly, to allow this life to be taken from me now. I am a king, by title and right, and I have dedicated myself to my people. I’ll be damned if I allow it all to fall apart now.
I push myself out of the armchair, pacing across the worn wood floors. Perhaps an unbroken soul, broken right as it is sacrificed, will be more potent. One of the feral ones forced to bow to my will, to Oltyx’s will, may provide more power to help keep Galmoleth afloat.
Even if it only extends the inevitable by a few more days, I will do it. I need time to plan, rally my people and prepare them. There has to be some move that will keep everything from falling apart, I just haven’t found it yet.
As if by instinct, my hand trails toward the amulet hanging around my bare neck. Perhaps if I were to directly call upon Oltyx again, find out what it is that I can offer to maintain Galmoleth as it is…
No, I tell myself sternly, yanking my hand away. Hot shame prickles across my skin as I realize what I was about to do. The fact that I even called upon Oltyx once is enough to condemn me in the eyes of every demon in existence- to do it twice would surely mark my end, whether at Oltyx’s hand or my own, in an attempt to regain the only shred of honor I have left.