Page 64 of Demonic Cage
“Now is the second time you can ask, and I’ll answer. Don’t worry,” Darya assures me, “no one can hear us.”
I don’t know how to begin, or if I can even speak. It feels like charcoal has been pressed down my throat, searing my vocal cords. I cough.
“What… what is all this?”
Darya smiles, pressing his palm against my back, continuing to stroke me.
“Kindra,” he addresses me, but I shake my head. “That’s your name, accept it. The gods gave it to you when they wrote your story.”
“The gods? So, there are more of them?”
“Perhaps. Or just one. I don’t know. But if you open the Gates of Hell, we can meet them. Or it.”
“So that’s why you need me? To see what’s in the real Hell?”
“I want to meet someone,” Darya says, his voice distant. “Someone I haven’t spoken to in a long time.”
“Who?”
“My father.”
The Demon King’s voice is sincere, almost vulnerable.
“Who’s your father?” I ask in a whisper.
Darya’s smile is devilish.
“Many people call him by different names.”
My mouth goes dry. Is he talking about God? But he said there are gods, not just one. I’m about to ask, when he shakes his head.
“That’s enough,” he declares.
“No,” I hiss, anger swelling in my throat. “It’s not enough!”
I look him in the eyes.
“You’re going to sacrifice me, throw me to monsters, just for a family reunion?”
Somewhere deep down, I still don’t believe he wants to keep me alive. Or maybe I don’t understand his motives.
“Wouldn’t you do the same to me,” he whispers calmly, “if you had a chance for another family gathering?”
It hits me in the gut harder than a cannonball. But yes. I would do anything for that. Sacrifice anything and anyone just to see Bengt’s face again.
“To open the door, you have to stay alive. If I have a say, I won’t let any harm come to you. You’ll stay alive. I don’t want to sacrifice you, as I’ve told you before.”
“And then?” I breathe.
Darya takes his hand off my back, then finds my face, trailing his thumb along my lower lip.
“I see a future,” he muses, and though he looks at me, his gaze seems distant. “And you’re in it. I’ll still need you afterward. As a demon, you can’t go back to the human world. You’d crave their blood too much, and they’d lock you up.”
So, if I don’t change, they’ll send me back and my people will lock me up, and if I do change, they’ll do the same, because…
“Demons crave human blood? I mean, do you?”
“What do you think, Kindra? What do I eat?” I feel like he wants to devour my terrified face with his huge grin.
