Page 57 of Myths and Manuscripts
Thorne
I’d dropped everything when Willow sent me that ominouswe need helpmessage, leaving her Gran elbows deep in a mess of herbs and poultices she swore weren’t supposed to be that potent. I’d probably messed something up again, but she told me to go help Willow and not worry about it.
Images of Willow being attacked or the hero running rampant through the castle raced through my mind, but when I stormed into the castle’s library, they were all just sitting quietly.
Well, the hero did seem to be mumbling something over and over in a state of shock while Willow hovered over him with a stressed-out look that screamed she was in over her head. She seemed to be a master of getting into trouble every time I left. I took a deep breath and tried to make my way to her, but Dain stepped in front of me.
“Welcome back, my lord.” He saluted me, his face as serious as ever. “I made the mistake of letting the hero travel with your consort to the apothecary gardens while you were gone. The magic there overwhelmed the Veilshade potion that had been suppressing his demon side and chaos broke out. Giving him more Veilshade will kill him, slowly but surely, so I couldn’t allow him to leave.” He knelt on the ground, bowing his head low. “I have failed you, sire. Please punish me how you see fit,even if that punishment is banishment.”
“He was a demon all along then, huh?” I shook my head as I stared at the hero’s tiny horns and ears. “Who gave him the Veilshade?”
“I don’t know.” Willow’s eyes pleaded with me to do something, anything, to fix this situation. “I know he’s your enemy, but he’s also one of your people now too. Can you help him?”
That look tugged at something in me, making my chest hurt. I hated seeing her so helpless, but she was right, he was my sworn enemy. He’d done nothing but hunt my people relentlessly. How was I supposed to show mercy on him now and solve all his problems? I should just send him back to the capital and let them sort it out.
“Turn me back.” The hero lifted his head to glare at me, but the tears in his eyes lessened the effect and made me pity him more than I wanted to. “I promise I’ll tell people how kind you are. We can even work on a truce, if that’s what you want. I’ll have to run it by the King, of course, but I’m sure I can convince him.”
“Desperate people really are willing to say anything.” I let out a breath as I stepped around Dain. “I can’t change you back into something you never were. You’re part demon. There’s no getting around that.” When sobs shook his shoulders, I sighed. “But I can get revenge on whoever gave you that cursed tonic and lied to you for your entire life. Give me a name and it’s done.”
Willow raised an eyebrow. “Really? You think killing them is the answer?”
“What else do you want me to do here?” I stared at their exhausted faces while she shrugged. How long had they been in this library wallowing over this? “Maybe I can show him the good parts of being a demon?”
“Yes!” Willow grinned. “Do that. Show him around town andbring him to that cafe or somewhere else he’d like. Once he sees how kind everyone is, maybe he’ll be less freaked out. I really do think the two of you would get along great if you just tried talking to each other.”
The hero frowned. “You do realize I’m still here, right? And that I’m not a child? You can’t just pretend that demons are good and make me okay with this. The King would never have given me medication that would hurt me.”
“Ah, so it was the King then.” I walked over to Willow’s board of suspects, jabbing my finger at him. “Guess we know who the real villain is now. Always good to put a face to a name.” I turned to Willow. “Does this help with your story?”
“Well yeah, I think you’re secretly supposed to team up and work together to defeat the true villain, but...” She nodded her head at the hero and lowered her voice. “I can’t really write when he’s upset like this. It seems kind of heartless, you know?”
That was fair. He did seem pretty overwhelmed. He reminded me a bit of myself actually, with his entire world crashing down around him and no idea who he really was. Why would the King have hidden his true identity this whole time and let him believe demons were evil, when he was actually one of us? It was beyond cruel, worse than any torture I could dream up. Humans really were the true monsters in this story.
But if Willow thought we were supposed to work together, then I had to at least try to reason with him.
I moved closer to the hero, resting my hand on his shoulder. “Come on. Let me show you the truth about demons and I promise you’ll see this all differently. Then we can talk more about this truce thing.”
“Really?” He looked so lost as he gazed up at me, not even shrugging my hand off like I expected him to. “You swear this isn’t all a trick?”
“I swear.”
He nodded and followed me outside while Willow sank onto a chair mouthing the words, “thank you.”
She’d been working so hard to finish my book, so showing the hero around town was the least I could do to help her. It felt kind of nice being useful actually, like I was helping write the story, even if it was in a small way. I grabbed a cloak and tossed it over the hero.
“Hey! Do I really need this still?” He pointed at the white horns protruding from his head. “Aren’t these enough to blend in now?”
“Sure, if you don’t mind people recognizing you.” I opened the doors to the castle, motioning for him to step outside into the daylight. “I mean, you might be the hero in the human realm, but you’re definitely not anyone’s hero here.”
His eyes widened. “Oh, I guess you’re right. So does that mean... thatyou’retheir hero?” He laughed as he walked outside. “The Demon Lord as a hero, what a funny thing to think about.”
“Hey, it could happen!” I let the doors slam shut behind us and stormed off into the city. If he couldn’t keep up, that was his own problem.
The hero jogged after me, keeping pace extremely well. “Sorry. That was rude, wasn’t it?”
“It’s fine.”
As we walked, various street sellers waved at us, offering everything from roasted nuts to blown sugar art. It felt so different than I’d imagined walking through town would be back when I was too nervous to leave my castle. I sadly had to push past them as quickly as we could without being rude though, otherwise we’d risk the hero being recognized.
