Page 66 of Demonchild

The screams from the crowd got louder.

Much louder.

Malissa saw people fleeing in terror, attempting to exit the courtyard. Some of them rushed for the main gate, others toward the supposed safety of the tower keep. But to no avail. At a glance from the demon, the doors slammed shut, and the drawbars dropped into place. Some of the men tried to push the drawbars free again, but the heavy slabs of oak refused to budge, as if held by invisible hands.

The crowd was trapped.

With the courtyard secured, Beliath turned his attention toward Malissa, and she felt her heart lift as his orange eyes met hers.

He flapped his wings twice and glided down to greet her on the burning platform. Flames enfolded him, but he didn’t seem to mind.

Malissa didn’t mind either.

Her roughspun smock had been completely devoured by the fire, but her skin remained unscathed. The smoke did not sting her eyes. The heated air did not burn her lungs when she inhaled it. And the pain she had experienced a few moments before—on her forehead, her back, and the tips of her fingers and ears—had entirely vanished.

As a matter of fact, she felt good. Extremely good. Better than she had ever felt before.

“You’re alive,” she said.

“So are you,” said Beliath, and he raised his hand to caress her face. “My angel. My little fallen angel.”

“The baby?”

He placed his other hand against her belly.

“Our baby is fine, my love. He is quite at home among the flames—as are you.”

“My body?” Malissa said. “What happened to me?”

“Best if you see for yourself.”

Beliath touched a claw to the chain holding Malissa’s neck, and it fell away like a piece of yarn cut by a knife. Next, he touched the chains holding her thighs, and they too fell away. Finally, he pressed his body close to hers, and he reached around behind her to remove the shackles binding her wrists.

Malissa lifted her hands to her forehead and touched the place where the pain had been. What her fingers found there made her gasp in surprise.

“I have horns?”

“Yes,” Beliath said. “And that’s not all.”

He reached behind her again and touched her in a place she had never been touched before.

“Wings?”

It took a great deal of effort, and the movement was awkward and jerky at first, like a fledgling bird opening its wings for the first time, but at last Malissa managed to unfold her newly formed limbs so she could have a look at them. They were different from Beliath’s.

“My angel,” the demon said softly as he stroked her black feathers. “My beautiful, perfect angel.”

Malissa shook her head in wonder.

“How?”

“It is as I guessed,” Beliath said. “You are a cambion, a demonchild, half human and half Sabaoth. When your father conceived you, he must have used his magic to conceal your hybrid nature, but the fire has revealed your true form.”

“Incredible,” Malissa murmured.

She looked down at her hands and realized her fingers were now adorned with sharp claws. With a thought, she was able to retract them inside her fingertips, just like a cat. Incredible.

She lifted her hands to her head again and touched her ears. They had grown points.

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