Page 70 of The Demon Prince

Why had she insisted on coming here?

Because maybe something deep in her soul wanted to prove that Gluttony was a monster. This was the only place that blatantly screamed he was a monster. He was killing people. All the wounded in here were supposedly murdered by him, and she should hate him. Fear him, even.

A hand settled on her shoulder and she let out a shriek.

Spinning around wildly, she tried to put weight on her bad leg so she could reach the knife, but that only resulted in her falling against the door and losing her balance. She would have crumbled into a ball if Grace hadn’t grabbed onto both her shoulders and held her where she was.

“Katherine!” Grace gave her a little shake, as though that might help knock her out of this state. “What has gotten into you?”

“I... I...” Eyes wide, Katherine couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth. “There are so many strangers in town, Grace.”

Grace’s features changed. Something hardened in her eyes as she dropped her hands from Katherine. “So they’ve bothered you as well?”

“Bothered?” Katherine shook her head. “Worse than that. They threatened me the last time I came to town, and it sounded rather personal. Almost as though they knew where I have been staying. Like they’ve been following me.”

That tough expression was one Katherine had never seen on her friend’s features before. Grace had always been soft and kind, even to the hallucinating patients they’d once had. The patients had all eaten a certain type of moss that caused them to believe everyone in the almshouse was hunting them.

Grace hadn’t ever held anything against anyone. Her heart was pure as gold, and light as a wisp.

But right now? She looked like she wanted to hurt someone. She looked like she wanted to punch, and bite, and scratch until that fear deep in their bellies was gone.

“Listen to me,” Grace said, stepping closer as though she didn’t want anyone to hear what she was going to say. “Something is happening here. I don’t know what. I don’t know who these men are or where they came from, but they are dangerous. You hear me?”

“I have gathered that much.”

“The things they are saying, Katherine, it’s changing this town.” She dropped her head and whispered, “I’ve been waiting for you to come back because you need to know—”

A deep voice interrupted them. Alexander, their boss.

“Katherine, I’ve been waiting for you to return.” He stood in the hallway that led toward his office and also partially their surgery room. “Come with me, please.”

“I was almost done speaking with Grace,” she replied. “I’ll follow you in a moment.”

“Now.” His voice whipped through the air, angry and almost mean. “I’m afraid I have no time to wait today. I’m actively in a surgery.”

She looked at Grace and noted how her friend’s face had paled. So much so that even her lips had lost all color.

What had Grace been about to tell her?

Apparently, there was no time for her to listen, though. Anger bristled through her. Katherine knew this was in part because she’d been allowed more freedom in Gluttony’s home. Even a demon king would not have spoken to her like that, and yet she was expected to run to her boss’s side because he snapped his fingers.

She was not a dog. He could not order her around however he saw fit.

Squaring her shoulders, Katherine followed him into surgery. There was another woman laid out there, her body already growing cold with death. She’d smelled it so many times in her life, it was a wonder that it wasn’t stuck in her nose.

The woman still wore her clothing, a rarity when they performed surgeries. But it was hard to mistake the gashes that had ripped her throat open. So many of them. Terrible, slicing gashes that were pale and bloodless.

Again, this was not the work of Gluttony. She knew that her people must think it was. With wounds on the neck and no blood in the body, surely that was the work of a demon. But it wasn’t.

Katherine had seen what he did. She knew he didn’t rake his fangs through someone’s throat unless they moved on their own. Or at the very least, he’d never do that to her.

“Do you see this?” Alexander said. He pointed to the marks on the young woman’s neck. “This is the seventh person that’s come in today.”

“I don’t recognize her face.”

“No. They’re all strangers. I’ve never seen anything like it, but it’s made me leery.”

Alexander had once been a very handsome man. When Katherine was a child, she remembered overhearing conversations between the women of who would be lucky enough to be his wife. She’d even caught a few women arguing over who was worthy enough for a prize like him.

---