Page 14 of Demon's Bride

The irritation in her voice is clear, but a persistent edge of dread tugs at the corner of my soul. The journey here was rough enough, even for someone who’s accustomed to portal travel.

“Tell me at once if you feel anything is wrong.”

Allie clings tighter to me, and the sweet fear in her spikes.

I don’t want her to be afraid, but nor do I know where exactly she’d end up if she fell. Each portal of the Veil connects simultaneously to the thirteen realms. Just because I’ve opened a connection between the demon realm and the human one doesn’t mean we can’t misstep and end up somewhere else.

Knowing there’s nothing more I can do about it now, I press a kiss to her cheek and step closer to the Veil.

Inside the stone archway, the swirling, opalescent mist shifts—lazy and deceiving. I lay my hand on the stone, the intrinsic command keyed to my blood unlocking the gate. The deep pulse of red indicates that it’s calibrated to my realm.

“I’ve got you,” I say into her ear. “It will be alright.”

At the first step into the Veil, a thin white magick coats us both. It seeps into every pore, every inch of exposed skin. It’s Goddess magick, judging magick, and the rasp of it against our bodies draws a sharp gasp from her. I draw my wings in tight, clutch her even tighter, and take another step.

A moment later and we’ve fallen off into the void. Like tumbling into deep water with no sense of up or down, unable to find your way back to the surface, this nowhere-place pulls us under completely. All I know is Allie. In the chaos between realms, she’s the tether keeping me grounded.

The Goddess seems to judge us kindly, because within the space of a few more heartbeats the ground solidifies beneath my feet and I walk us forward through the portal and into my realm.

“Did we make it?”

I squeeze Allie tight before setting her back on her feet. “Yes, we made it.”

She takes a moment to reorient herself, and I keep my hands at the ready to steady her should she have need. At the same time, I study her face as she takes in her surroundings.

We’re standing on a plateau high in the mountainous, forested region of the demon realm, close to my home. It’s wild land here—sheer cliffs and dark pine forests, jagged peaks jutting upward to pierce the sky. The night is brutally clear, the two moons hanging full and lighting the world in silver. It’s a land untamed and unforgiving, but also beautiful.

Or, at least I hope my new bride will see it that way.

“Where are we?” she asks and then laughs. “Not that I know anything about the geography of the this realm.”

“We’re close to my home,” I tell her. “In the Darkwood and the Bone Peaks region.”

“Huh. You guys don’t really pull any punches with the spooky demon naming, do you?”

“Such sass,” I murmur, pulling her back to me. “How shall I punish you for speaking so disrespectfully about your new realm?”

As if in answer, a stiff breeze rises and washes over us both, bringing with it a wave of cool, biting magick. It’s all the welcome we’re likely to get from an unsettled realm.

In front of me, Allie inhales deeply before letting out her breath on a shuddering exhale. “That’s… potent.”

“What do you sense?”

She closes her eyes, breathes deeply once more.

“Sorrow,” she says quietly. “And something in the magick that’s fractured and unsteady.”

I sense everything she hints at. The waning strains of magick that bind this realm together, the growing instability from the Veil behind us. All the ways in which the demons here are already feeling the consequences of it.

Ever since the last witch, Emilia, lost her magick and had to return to the human realm, it’s been all too clear. There are changes happening in the demon realm, and none of them for the better.

The magick which keeps this realm in balance is all off-kilter. Great storms roll in from the seas and large swathes of fertile farmland are drought-ridden and unproductive. Our last winter was long and brutally cold. Crops are meager, and my kinsmen grow hungry and restless. We have food stores enough to see us through another season, perhaps two, but after that…

The oldest among demonkind can remember their elders speaking of times before the witch bargain, when it was the magick of human souls which kept our realm intact. For promises of glory, wealth and beauty in their own realm, they’d send their souls to ours when they perished, and so our realm would harness that magick and prosper.

Witches always knew better than to make such bargains. Their magick is keen and canny and too valuable to sacrifice to a demon. That is, until they figured out a way to serve both realms. When the first witch bound herself to the bargain, it is said the Goddess smiled at the compromise which kept both her realms safe. A witch bride in exchange for a cessation of soul collecting. Magick to sustain the demon realm. An end to the suffering of mortals by demons’ hands.

But even now, there are those who whisper the time to break the bargain has come, that it’s time to go back to the old ways of stalking the crossroads of the human realm for willing victims.

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