Page 16 of Once Upon a Demon's Heart
I remain where I am in the blankets on the floor, unmoving, staring at the tent's ceiling and thinking of places far away from here. A weak smile returns to my lips with one hopeful thought.
I outlived the cursed day.
Chapter Five
ALIRA
Birds flyacross the orange and pink morning sky. Free and without concern of the bustling campsite below them.
I pull the blanket I’ve been given in lieu of a coat around my shoulders tightly as I sit by the small fire in front of Kalel’s tent, brewing over how cruel it was to take my leathers and armor. They discarded them like they weren’t the last part of my home I could take with me. Instead, I’m wearing a thin black tattered sweater. It’s an upgrade from the canvas shirt, but I’m still not happy about it. Part of me believes that it’s to shame what I am, another part believes that it’s to make it harder for me to escape with weather this severe.
No one could survive this cold without proper boots and only a thin sweater.
Several of Kalel’s guards are standing around me to ensure I don’t try anything while the rest of camp is packing up and getting ready to travel back to Devicitian territory. The only reason I’m not in shackles is because I’m Kalel’s bride and he knows how easy it would be to hunt me down.
They know I volunteered to be here, right?I set my glare to the men standing above me. Why do they think I’d try to leave knowing what I signed up for?
“What’s wrong with her? She’s awfully calm don’t you think?” one of them asks another.
“Demigods don’t have emotions, dumbass,” the other replies, and they chuckle amongst themselves.Funny. They say the same things we do about them. A frown tugs on my lips and I stare into the campfire flames.
My entire body aches from the essence required to place the sacred oath still, but my neck throbs worse of all. I rub the bite mark and hope that he’s right and it doesn’t cause as much pain next time.
A Devicitian healer made a trip to Kalel’s tent late in the evening, healing the wound a little before I fell asleep. Kalel was stern on him only being able to heal me enough so that I could rest.Wouldn’t want me to be too comfortable, would he?I glower at the memory. I caught a small glimpse of the healer, just enough to know he was beautiful like Kalel. Only with fawn hair and gentle eyes that took me in with sympathy.
It’s so strange—how alike they are to the demigods, that is.
I take a deep breath and trace the embers that flicker out of the campfire and into the cold air. Someone sits on the log next to me, but I don’t pay them any attention.
“Are you really the knight that led the attack on Thornhall?” A curious, soft voice asks me, not of violation, but pure curiosity.
I turn and find a lovely young woman sitting beside me. She’s dressed in light gray Devicitian armor, her helmet is tucked beneath her arm. Her eyes are red like rubies, and she has golden scales where her hairline fades into waves of rich brown locks, falling past her shoulders. A demon of the sea.
When I don’t respond, she smiles bleakly with pity. Her eyes linger around my neck where Kalel bit me.
“So, you are… War is an awful thing, isn’t it?” She speaks sincerely. I stare at her, trying to figure out if she’s attempting to bait me into something.
The demons claim that it is the half-gods that have no emotions, but my entire life I’ve learned nothing except how ruthless they are to all but their own.
“Your king is a terribly cruel man,” She mutters, looking across the campsite at Kalel as he orders his men around. They pack tents onto carts behind ebony horses two times the size of the horses we have in Alzhor.
Kalel’s cold amber eyes shift toward us. I quickly avert my gaze. He has thoroughly instilled fear inside me. From all the times he’s killed me so effortlessly down to the blood he stole from me last night. The pain his fangs promise is unlike any blade, and I don’t want to know what they would feel like if he was angry.
The woman seems to notice my dread.
“You would’ve been better off dead,” she sighs and gently moves her hand over mine. I flinch at the warmth of it. I’m already so familiar to the cold, bloodless hands of Kalel that I almost want to clutch onto her. “You shouldn’t have revealed that you’re the daughter of Venus.” Her voice is tender and sown with sorrow.
I raise my eyes to hers, defiance burning inside my chest. She has no idea what I’ve been through. None of them do. I’ve exhausted all options, and yet revealing what I really am is the worst thing to them? Laughable.
“My life is a small price to pay in exchange for the war between our kingdoms to end,” I say with a tight frown.
Concern threads through her eyes as she considers me. “You’re telling me that you aren’t worried at all about the horrors King Achill will reign upon the surrounding nations once he has holy blood in his forces? You don’t think he’ll go after your beloved kingdom eventually?” Her eyes lower. I can’t tell if she’s actually worried or just throwing questions I hadn’t thought of yet out there.
“Kalel doesn’t seem too keen on breeding with me, so I’d say we’re spared from that reality,” I say with no confidence at all. He loathes me, I can’t imagine him wanting to… I swallow and shut my eyes at the lewd thoughts of him ravaging my body. It’s disturbing how every muscle in my stomach reacts to those images that flash through my mind. He’s so much bigger than me. His large fingers going inside would—Gods, stop.I shake my head.
Her eyes only grow wider as she studies me, then they fill with pity before she forces a sad smile. “I’m Tessa by the way, one of Kalel’s lieutenants, so don’t be afraid to let me know if you need anything.” I don’t like the way she refused to comment on what I said. Does that mean she knows something and isn’t telling me? Well, of course, I guess that’s a given. Why would she share anything with me? I’m basically his prisoner. Blood bag, more accurately.
I don’t trust her.Never trust a demon.That’s rule one, but of all of them, I prefer her presence over any of the others.
