Lord of the Night

Chapter 6: Stay

His voice was matter-of-fact...almost. The bare hint of heat curling the words lit a fire in my gut and painted obscene images in my mind. If I tried something, when would he stop me? Would he ever?

With much effort, I forced an eye roll. "I told you I would never force myself on you."

"And who said you would have to force anything?" he said.

A smile flitted past his lips, soft black hair spilling over his forehead, and his chest rose and fell in time with mine. His amber eyes shone as brightly as any Demon's—more lightning than earth—but with dilated pupils and fluttering eyelashes, he looked nothing like the Demons from my nightmares. He looked...

Beautiful.

I swallowed hard. "I'm the one who would have to force it. You really think I would ever touch a Demon by choice?"

Though the defense sounded tinny to my own ears, it proved surprisingly effective. His smile dropped, and his eyes averted.

"No," he said. "I know you hate us."

"I didn't say that."

"But it's true, isn't it?"

The words left my lips at the same time I admitted them to myself. "I don't hate you. I just hate what you are."

His voice lilted, tentative, like sweeping fingers over a blazing fire. "You hate my brother."

"Yes. You must harbor some resentment, too? It seems he has stolen all of your parents' attention."

I was practically spoon-feeding him the key to my defeat. If he told me he also hated his brother, my defenses would be shattered.

But he didn't. Instead, he asked, "Did you hate your brother?"

The question sucked the breath from my lungs, and I watched the gust ripple the amber liquid in my cup, blowing an acrid-sweet breeze into my face. "Of course not. Hefgar was my hero. He was..." Who I should have been. I swallowed that thought and stated something equally true and more pertinent. "He was good to everyone, including me. Even when others laughed at me or shook their heads, he always helped me back up to my feet."

He drew his legs back up to his chest and picked at the frayed fabric at the knee of his jeans. I wondered how he had been captured. Did his knees slam the ground? Had he cried out for help that never came?

"If your brother is not controlling the Morgabeast and he's not looking for you, what is he doing?" I asked.

"He's...finding a new power source, I think."

My heartbeat picked up, and I twisted toward him. "A new power source? What do you mean?"

"The Morgabeast requires a lot of power to control, and the human supply is dwindling."

My jaw clamped. "Dwindling because Morgabeast is slaughtering villages?"

He hesitated, and I could see him fighting to hold his tongue. Fortunately, the zaikut seemed to have loosened his tongue just enough to override his better efforts. "The people in Anyalasa should have gone underground."

I blinked. "Why?"

"The Morgabeast is a creature of the sky."

"And so it can't go underground? But Demons are creatures of the sky too, and you are underground right now."

He hummed into his mug as he lifted it to his lips for a long swig. "Have you seen the Palace, Remgar?"

I furrowed my brow. Was this relevant, or an attempt to redirect conversation? Or had the zaikut stolen his ability to reason?