Page 121 of The Demon Prince

“That’s part of the problem with you demons. You think you are completely untouchable when there are many ways for us to touch you.” Nikolai pointed at the shackles with his knife. “We know how to contain you. And we know how to knock you out with a gas that will make you pass out even if you’re on a horse.”

“Ah,” Gluttony breathed. “I had a feeling you were one and the same. So you have people in Greed’s kingdom as well. I did not expect the rebellion to have spread like poison so quickly. You are the messenger, I take it?”

Nikolai watched him with far too cunning eyes. This was a man who knew how to control a lot of people. And if Gluttony was right, he was the cause of a lot of trouble in many of the kingdoms.

But surely this was not the ringleader. No one running such a detailed, intricate coup would go to each kingdom on their own.

This was just one of many people who were likely sent out. Trusted individuals. So, Nikolai perhaps knew who the real person was that threatened Gluttony and his brothers.

Nikolai leaned forward and grinned, his teeth a little crooked. “There are more of us than ants in an ant hill. You can stomp us out and send all the poison you wish into our mix, but we will never disappear from your kingdoms, demon. We are the pest you cannot get rid of.”

“No pest is impossible to get rid of,” Gluttony muttered. “Soon, we will find out where you came from and who your leader is. And we will extinguish them with flames unlike anything you have ever seen before.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.” Gluttony leaned forward, too close for Nikolai’s comfort because the man backed away from him, nearly falling off his stool. “Let me tell you something to bring back to your leaders, something that no one else has told you. We are not just demons. We are gods with powers that are so far beyond your understanding. I am the weakest of us, little man. But all I need is a single drop of your blood and I will turn into a monster from your nightmares.”

Nikolai laughed, but the sound was at least a little nervous. “I am not afraid of you. Nor am I afraid of death. My purpose is to spread the news that you can be beaten. Your own kingdom will do the rest for me.”

“Will they?” Gluttony nodded at the door behind him, the one at the top of the stairs that led up to the crowd, who were already heading back to their homes. “It appears you are in here alone, stranger. And no one will hear you scream when I am done with you.”

“You will never find our leader,” Nikolai said, still stroking that knife like it gave him any protection at all. “Because you will be long gone before you piece together who it could be. You see, I’m going to cut you up into little pieces. One by one. Your fingers, your toes, and I’m going to keep them with me. Spread them out around all the seven kingdoms. And if that doesn’t work to contain you, then I will bury you under the ground so deep that no one will hear you scream. And all those incantations that are pressed into your iron shackles will surround the coffin I put you in.”

“What a relaxing reprieve from stressful duties,” Gluttony bit through his teeth. “But you know that the moment I get out—and I will—I will track you to the very ends of this earth and return all your favors in kind.”

“I don’t think you’ll be able to do that in my lifetime.”

“Then I will find your children. Your brother’s children. Whoever shares your blood will fill a tub for me and my bride to bathe in.” Gluttony’s eyes burned red, and he knew the entire room must be awash in it. A pain spiked through his forehead as his horns grew and a tail burst out behind him. His claws, though hidden, were already long. “I will gift your life and all the lives of those who come after you to the one woman who matters. She will have a say in whether or not I bless your lineage with life or death. And trust me when I say this, if you keep her from me, then she will only choose death.”

“Your bloodthirsty bride will be dead long before that happens,” he hissed. “I will watch her eyes bulge in fear and then I will drag her through the streets until her blood coats the boardwalk. She will know why it was a foolish decision to love a demon.”

And though he had always been able to remain calm and collected, something in Gluttony snapped. He refused to listen to anyone speak ill of his woman, let alone this sniveling child who thought he could threaten a queen.

Baring his fangs, Gluttony managed to form the words to say, “I’m going to kill you now. Painfully. Slowly.”

“I’d like to see you try, demon.”

He lunged forward with a single-minded attempt at murder. Nikolai knew what he was doing, however, and that made sense, of course. The man stuck his knife in between Gluttony’s teeth, the sharp edges cutting through his cheek like he was a dog gnawing on a stick. If it took his jaws powering through metal to kill this man, then that was exactly what he would do. The mortal thought he had caught easy prey.

Gluttony was the predator here, and it was time for the humans to remember that.

Blood poured over his tongue and pooled down his throat. It coiled in rivers down his neck and still he did not stop. He chewed, and bit, and gnashed, and soon the human before him looked a little pale.

Nikolai’s biceps bulged, the muscles in his neck straining as he tried to hold the rabid creature at bay. Once he pulled the knife back, only to saw at the other side of Gluttony’s face. But the demon would not be stopped. No one would prevent him from biting into the flesh of this man. Eventually, Nikolai would break. Eventually, he would become distracted or weakened and Gluttony would rip his lower jaw off before he stopped.

A shriek echoed from outside, and the piercing cry of a falcon. No natural creature made that noise and he was quite certain he also heard an echoing call for people to run. On the tail end of the word, a scream.

Nikolai flinched, and that was all Gluttony needed. Wrenching the blade out of the other man’s hands with his teeth, Gluttony spat it onto the floor and grinned at him. He knew the expression was likely elongated by the sliced cheeks that made his smile even wider. “Come on, stranger. It’s time for me to feed.”

Nikolai tried to run, but he didn’t get very far. Gluttony lunged forward, snapping the chains that connected him to the wall. Though the manacles held strong, the chains had not been enchanted.

He grabbed onto the other man by the base of his neck, where his throat and shoulder met. Gripping it with all the strength in his jaw, he sawed back and forth until a thick chunk of meat tore off.

He met Nikolai’s horrified gaze as he chewed, and then swallowed.

“You... You...” The gurgled mess of the man’s voice was nothing like it had been before. Nikolai pressed his hand to his throat, trying to contain the gushing blood that billowed more and more out of it. “You can’t...”

“You can enchant the shackles, but not the chains,” he snarled. Gluttony hardly recognized his own voice. The battle form had overtaken him. “Now run, stranger. I wish to hunt.”

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