Page 49 of The Demon God's Desire
“This is getting quite juicy now!” the Hedonist exclaims, eyes darting between Guilri and the goddess. “I can’t wait to see what happens next!”
A slow clapping sound echoes off the walls, coming from the opposite side of the room. Silence fills the air as we watch as a thick, dark mist slowly spreads out along the floor, seemingly hovering just above it.
Icy dread fills my belly, freezing my veins.
25
GUILRI
The dark mist pulsates as it slithers across the temple floor, tendrils seeming to reach out from the darkened corner of the room. I watch in horror as a figure begins to solidify out of the darkness, my grip on Bridget tightening as cold dread races down my spine.
The Deceiver.
Even the Hearthkeeper and the Hedonist seem to feel the trepidation that is synonymous with the Deceiver’s appearance, the Hearthkeeper going deathly still mid-tantrum and the Hedonist barely concealing his shudder.
The figure continues to clap slowly as he steps out of the dark tendrils of mist, and I have to fight the bile crawling up my throat as his face, his figure, comes into clearer view.
He’s me- but wrong.
My mouth is too wide, too large for my face, stretched into an eerie grin that reveals too many teeth that are far too sharp to be elven. The doppelganger’s skin seems too loose, sliding in unnatural ways over the Deceiver within it as it steps forward toward us. Pitch-black eyes that are much too large for my face stare back at the four of us, seeming to take our measure and find us each lacking.
“Now, isn’t this a delicious bit of chaos,” the Deceiver says, his voice sounding much too much like my own, intertwined with some more ancient, terrifying voice. Bridget begins to shake behind me, and I cannot even begin to imagine what this scene must look like to her, being so far removed from the elven pantheon.
“You are not welcome here, Deceiver,” the Hearthkeeper spits with as much venom as she can muster, though the wobble in her voice betrays her fear.
“Ah, how like the goddess of order and civilization, to try and impose rules on chaos,” comes the Deceiver’s cool reply, although his attention seems to rest on me. I had never imagined that coming to the temple of the Hedonist meant we would have an actual, face-to-face audience with the deity- much lessthreedeities.
If I’d known there was even a chance that I’d be facing down the Deceiver in the flesh, or rather, in my flesh, then I never would have brought Bridget here.
“Oh contraire!” The Hedonist replies, recovering far more quickly than the rest of us. “Now it’s a real party! I can’t remember the last time the three of us were all together!”
The Deceiver’s grin stretches even wider than I would’ve imagined possible, one side of my face growing lopsided with the motion.
“It’s been eons,” the Deceiver replies, his voice holding cold amusement. “I follow chaos wherever it goes, and dear sister seems to put a damper on any kind of real fun, wouldn’t you agree?”
Smoke coils up from the hem of the Hearthkeeper’s long, column dress as she snarls at the Deceiver’s disrespect, but not even she dares to contradict him. The Hedonist laughs delightedly, clapping his hands together.
“So,” the Deceiver says, the temple falling silent as he takes a step toward Bridget and I. Bridget presses closer to my back, and I angle myself to cover her further, my free hand going to the pommel of my blade. The Deceiver tracks the motion with his eyes, his smile deepening.
“I hear that you have forsaken your goddess, Guilri. Truly an unanticipated turn of events, given that she is responsible for your great gifts,” he says lazily. “Do tell- what could have possessed you to make such a decision? To choose a human woman over your immortal patron?”
The Hearthkeeper’s chest puffs slightly at the Deceiver’s touting of her gifts to me, her eyes burning into my face, but I ignore her, focused on navigating the ever-growing peril unfolding before me.
“I was blind.”
My voice echoes off of the walls of the temple, adding to the foreboding nature of a conversation I never could’ve guessed would take place. The Deceiver inclines his head, motioning for me to continue, and I don’t dare to disobey.
“I was blind, willfully so, and ignorant. I had thought my gifts were meant to better this world, and I allowed myself to be led into committing acts I will be ashamed of for the rest of my days, all in the name of the Hearthkeeper. I refuse to be her vessel anymore. I now see her for the monster she truly is.”
The Deceiver laughs, low and chilling, while the Hedonist leans forward in anticipation. The smoke that had begun rising from the hem of the Hearthkeeper’s dress in her ire now bursts into full-fledged flames, but I refuse to back down.
I don’t care what god or goddess decides to sponsor us, so long as Bridget is safe. I’ll do whatever I have to do, fighting a goddess included, to ensure that she won’t be harmed.
“It seems our dark elf knows you well, sister,” the Deceiver says as his laughter dies. The Hearthkeeper rears back, spitting at him, but her insult doesn’t seem to bother the Deceiver. Instead, he clucks his tongue, hardly glancing at her.
“Now, now, sister,” he clucks, a maddening smile on his lips. “Let’s not beuncivilized.”
She snarls, opening her mouth to retort, only to choke on a tendril of the Deceiver’s dark mist.