Page 17 of Eight Embers

Chapter six

A dark and mysterious source you don't get to know about until much later, maybe.

“Cease your whining, child. You’re giving me gray hairs.”

“You don't evenhavehair,” the silly human tells me. “But nice try. You really thought you had something there, didn’t you?”

I heave out a breath of exhaustion. This is not the experience I hoped for when I gave up my soul for obsessive love. Maybe I can just snack on the human alittlebit. Yes. I’ll start with her vocal cords so that she cannot bother me anymore.

With a thought, it is done. And don't ask me to explain the mechanics of this to you, it would fry your tiny little human brain.

And then, blessed silence.

The human has only been down here for a few days and already I'm past the point of being able to handle her. Honestly, I think she got locked up in these cells simply because she was tooirritating to be around other humans. I've heard that humans don't kill each other the way they used to in the past for such small infractions.

The problem now, of course, is that she can no longer do my bidding if she can't speak. Hmm. That’s quite a conundrum.

Ugh, fine. I will regurgitate her vocal cords.

The magic rolls up and out of my throat, splashing on the floor and creeping along the nasty concrete to reinhabit the human once again. The second everything reconnects, she's screaming in horror, trying to get away, not understanding that she is locked in a cell.

Remember what I said about the tiny human brains? Yes. Well.

“What did you do to me just now?” she screams. Her hands are cupping her throat as if in pain, but it's not like I pulled her precious pieces out unnecessarily rough for sport. They'll be mostly intact now. “You ungrateful, meddling, monster!”

I prowl out of the dark toward her, showing my face for the first time. Up until now I've saved her from this, lest I fry her brain. There's not much about me that humans can handle, sadly.

Ask me how I know this. If you're squeamish though, it's best you don't.

“Don't go throwing compliments at me without thinking first,” I caution her. “Flattery does not work on me. You failed to do your job. Why?”

The tears and the snot start again, and I cannot help but roll my beautiful eyes.

“I tried to do what you told me to! They overwhelmed me. You did not tell me she had a demon for a mate that was so powerful. I never would have agreed to help you if I knew I was riskingmyself. I was merely in it for a bit of light backstabbing and sabotage!”

“Well now it looks as if we'll have to find somebody else to do the job.”

“Why can't you just get your lazy ass out there and do it yourself? If you're so powerful.”

I bend forward, inhaling her terror when she finally sees my face up close. The walls and bars that hold her captive are no obstacle for me. I can become incorporeal at will, pass through any substance. And I do.

I get even closer, so she sees my gleaming teeth and smells my wonderfully rancid breath. “If the moon and sun weren't toxic to me, I would. I cannot risk being touched by either of them.”

“I just need to talk my stupid brother into getting me out of here. I’ll make a show of telling him how I'm sorry, and he'll let me out. Then I can try again.”

I cock my head to the side, studying her. She's confident, I'll give her that. But no, I'm not stupid enough to risk her again. As all the villains say, she knows too much. “How about no. I have a lovely little evil grotto for you to spend some time in in my home realm. I'll put you there so I can keep an eye on you. I have some manipulating to do, and humans to trick into serving me. I think you'll find the conditions in this grotto much more uncomfortable than this place, so you should enjoy your time there. Do spend some time thinking about how miserably you failed.”

I close my eyes, wrapping one of my legs around her to transport us back. I make sure she's nice and tucked away in a gleaming patch of poison ivy before I resume my hunt, brainstorming ways to ruin the princess. It just won't do for her to succeed; there's too much riding on her failure.

Chapter seven

Adam

Every time I think I'm prepared for that moment when Delaney and Cory come waltzing out of class together, and I never am. They're usually giggling, linking arms and tripping over each other's feet because they're so excited to be close, and constantly interrupting and talking over each other because they keep sparking things they want to tell their partner.

Class schedules tend to get in the way of the things we all actually want to be doing, so we try to carve out time where we can, but it’s hardly ever enough. It’s only been a few weeks since the long weekend where we spent as much time as possible as a chaotic family, but it feels like it’s been months.

I can give them a few minutes, though.

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