“Then you’re going to get your heart broken by nothing but a filthy Duskwalker.” Her smile was cruel as she folded her arms and lifted her nose up at her. “Not only am I going to make you watch me kill him, but you’re going find out your wrong.”

“Then your face of defeat will be even funnier when you discover I’m right,” Reia retorted.

Jabez twitched all over again.

“He’s entered the castle grounds, Katerina.” His grin said he was truly entertained by watching the women fighting in front of him. Then he conjured a dagger to give to her.

“What do you want me to do with her?”

Katerina spun away from them to head down the throne steps to stand in the middle. She stood facing the closed brown, timber double doors on the other side that were so tall a 12ft troll could have fit through them.

“Cloak yourselves and make her watch.”

With a nod, he reached for Reia who stepped away. She pointed her finger at him.

“Don’t touch me, freak.”

Cocking a brow, his grin grew. Then he disappeared only to materialise behind her a second later. He grabbed her and wrapped an arm around her torso to clamp her arms to her sides while placing his clawed hand around her jaw and neck.

A mist-like sheen surrounded them like a bubble as he dragged her to the side.

“She’ll be so excited with me later after all this.”

“You seem to like her a lot,” Reia sneered, wriggling in his grip but unable to get out of it.

“She is useful. Humans are better at sex than Demons.”

Oh, come on. Ew! That meant he’d been bedding Demons at some point. Then again, he was hybrid of them. She shouldn’t be so surprised.

“Why are you even helping her?” Reia asked, staring at Katerina who tucked the dagger into the sleeve of her dress to hide it before clasping her hands in front of her hips to wait.

“Because she has demanded this since the moment I took her.” He slipped his hand higher to force her jaw shut by pressing up. “And I don’t like Mavka because they will not join me. They are incredibly strong. Stronger than Demons, yet they will not help me. They even try to fight me if they find me in their territory, though I created the home in which they lurk. They kill my people, eat Demons, the army I am trying to grow. They must be eradicated, and her Mavka will be the first.”

He pressed his nose against her cheek with a chuckle.

“This will happen, human. You can scream and cry for him, but he will not be able to hear you under my cloak, nor will he be able to smell you or see you. Then, after she kills him, I will eat you, and she will enjoy watching me do it.”

Her lips twitched with disdain, growing tight as she pursed them.

“But I wish to hear what will be said with clarity so stay quiet.”

Then he covered her mouth, almost blocking her nose as well, making it difficult to breathe under his large hand.

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Orpheus sprinted on all fours through the Demon King’s lands, rushing past the many unkempt hedges that appeared as though they had never been pruned. Trees, so tall that not even Orpheus could jump to the lowest branch, were situated within the stone fence walls of the castle grounds, alongside thorny, black-coloured rose shrubs. He dodged all the overgrown flora, feeling the burn in his muscles from running.

His breaths snorted out in loud huffs through his mouth, too strong and sharp to be blown through his nose hole, as his tongue constantly darted forward to help on each exhale.

He’d not rested on his way here, did not stop or slow, even for a second. His bones and joints ached, his torso was tight with exertion, but determination gave him strength.

He could fight, would fight, if it meant he had Reia back in his arms.

His head darted around to all the Demons who shrunk upon seeing him and his reddened glowing orbs.

Following the dirt path, he came to the castle’s grand steps and ran up them. The two Demons keeping guard hissed and screeched before darting off the sides of the stairs to flee him.

As soon as he was in front of the large arching wooden doors, he stabbed his claws into them as he pushed their heavy weight open. He was shoving his body through before they were even halfway open to enter the entrance hall.

He slid across the wide strip of carpet that was placed down over the cold stone floor as he stopped. Nobody had greeted him in the dimly lit hall. It was barren of furniture besides two long drawer cupboards with lit candles on top of them next to the doors he’d just entered from. Stepping in a slow circle, he lifted his snout into the air, sniffing to see if he could find a trace of Reia’s scent.

The strong sweet-smelling aroma violated his senses, not allowing him to know if he was coming here to find she was already dead. A whine escaped him at that thought.

His head shot to the side, at the door at the end of the hallway that he knew led to the grand hall before it turned into the throne room that backed it. Her scent was faint, but it was coming from that direction.

His eyes whitened. He was afraid to go that way.

Not because of the Demon King who could possibly be sitting inside it, but because the last time he’d entered that room he’d faced Katerina two centuries ago.

Two hundred years ago he’d entered that very room to find her sitting on his lap, telling Orpheus to leave and that she hated him. That she didn’t want to be by his side.

He feared he would be greeted with the same scene.

Reia is not Katerina.

He pushed forward slowly, warily, hesitantly, on all fours in his morphed form to make his way across the entrance room.

He lifted a hand and opened the double doors.

Reia’s scent was strong in here, like she’d only moments before been inside it, but he knew upon first glance she wasn’t there. Neither was the Demon King.

Instead, his gaze fell on Katerina who was standing alone at the top of the throne podium’s steps.

In his crouched position, one of his hands pressed against the ground stepped backwards as if the urge to retreat pushed him back. Her hair was as black as he remembered it, her skin still shiny with that light glow in it like it’d been darkened by the sun. Her blue eyes, that had always appeared like frost, were still as cold as ever.

And yet she smiled to him, her wide, puffy lips curling.

Orpheus tilted his head. He couldn’t remember if she’d ever smiled at him before.

He looked around while forcing himself to step forward.

He needed to know Reia was alive, that she was safe, and find out where she was so he could take her home. He needed her to be sheltered once more in the safety of his salt circle, his trinkets, by his body as they lie on top of the furs because she told him he made being under them too hot when they cuddled.

“Orpheus,” she greeted almost warmly.

Her smile deepened to the point her eyes crinkled the corner of her eyelids.