Page 69 of Sinless Demons
But there it is:
Krave’s glittering black fingers arch sharply as he throws the King’s enormous body against the wall just near the door without ever touching him. He pins the man there with nothing but dark demon magic.
The kind I’ve never seen.
“What is he?” A woman hisses at my side.
I have no fucking idea.
“Forgive me, My Former King, but,” Krave bows formally as he keeps his mystical power held in place, “if you ever touch our Queen like that again, I will rip each of your limbs off one by one, Your Highness.”
Zaviar’s arms are folded hard across his chest, and his brother’s stance mirrors his exactly. Even Ryke looks like he’s about to climb the wall just to murder the King.
Things... have gotten a bit off-track here.
“Everything’s fine,” I say calmly.
I havegotto keep hold of the calm. It has to stay in place. For everyone’s sake.
“She’s not your Queen!” Father roars, lashing against the magic that binds him.
Krave’s hand twists just slightly, and sparkling black smoke wafts out, pressing toward the man held high above us. “Crown her,” Krave commands.
A choking cough shakes from my father’s broad chest, but he shakes his head hard as he gasps for a breath. The crowd shifts on their feet, and I can’t stand here quietly any longer.
“Krave, put him down,” I yell as several guards in shining uniforms start to close in on the demon.
“Call her your Queen,” Krave says so loudly, it drowns out my voice.
Another stern shake of the King’s head has a small wave of pent-up magic crashing out of the powerful incubus. It climbs high into the air, it picks up strength, it whirls violently with a sound of magic I’ve never heard before. It reaches the ceiling, causing the crowd to stumble back from the height of the ominous wave. It grows and grows and grows.
Before foreign slicing black light shoots through the room. It streams in on jagged blades and lands with a sinking thump.
Right into my father’s chest.
Screams and running footsteps sound through the room as deep crimson blood pools at the center of the King’s abdomen. Krave drops my father immediately. He hits with a resounding thump.
But Krave didn’t do this. Crashing panic fills the room as my gaze scans the area for the attacker.
Long black fuming hair and a sinister smile step into view.
“It’s midnight, sister,” Corva says with too much calm and too much happiness.
“No.” It’s the only word I can find in my mind, and it repeats over and over and over again.
The room clears in seconds, but all of the advisors, all of the guards, Sev, Isabella, and several onlookers watch hesitantly as the dark demon fae climbs the platform stairs toward my father’s throne.
“In the event of the King’s death, the eldest heir shall rule,” Corva says, skimming her palms down her dress, looking down at her small crowd, and then taking her seat in my father’s chair.
Mother is still staring vacantly at the blood pooling around her husband’s body. No tears fall from her cheeks. No love is lost here.
But astonishment is fully in place.
“Ryke,” my attention stays on the dangerous woman before me, “Take my mother and take Pen and get them out of here,” I instruct with fraying calmness.
He pauses, his attention splicing from me to my sister and then back again. Then he does as I ask and guides the two women out the door and down the hall.
“You cannot rule,” Johnn tells her, like a man who’s far too advised for his own good.
