A Demon's Plaything: The Elite Guards

by Amelia Hutchins

  Where there should have been a pile of rubble was a wall, which attached to a hallway. She put her palm flat against it and pushed hard, noting the sturdiness of it before she followed the corridor down to a fork that led in three different directions. She looked between them slowly before turning in the direction from which she’d come. The hell? She was lost in her own freaking palace. It had never had walls since she’d found the damn thing!

  After countless wrong turns and endless exploring, she reached a large room where voices were laughing, talking, and men, a lot more men than had been here last night. She stalled slowly, leaning against the wall as she eavesdropped on Asrian discussing his plans to right the outside courtyard.

  Angry tears swam in her vision as all her own plans for this place went out the door. Her people had built it up from the ground, making it the largest, strongest court in the history of the lesser Fae, and here this insignificant prick was designing it as if he owned the place? No fucking farting fairy’s chance.

  She stepped into the room, noting the chatter come to silence as she stared at the man who sat on a throne of swirling dark eddies. His body fit it perfectly, as if it had been created for him. She stalked closer, staring at the men who all watched her with a look of curiosity.

  “The fucking fairy farting dwarves do you think you’re doing, heathen?” she demanded, and the men barked in laughter, which only made her even madder. “This is my palace, my kingdom! You don’t get to destroy it and then remake it as you wish!”

  “Lilith, this is the exact palace that was here before our father rendered it to nothing more than a pile of rubble. I believe the words you are looking for are thank you, my king.” Asrian stared down at her, daring her to say something.

  “One year and one day, then I am the queen, and you’re gone, heathen king,” she hissed before she spun on her heel and marched from the room. She couldn’t even argue if it was an exact match because he and his family had stolen it from her.

  “Well, congrats, she didn’t swoon on your cock and bow down. I guess I’m the better lover after all,” Tor chuckled.

  “She’s got more mood swings than Alice in fucking Wonderland on acid. One minute she’s cold, the next she’s hot. Her mood swings make Ciara look normal. Marriage fucking sucks. How the hell does Ryder make it look so easy?” Asrian groaned as he rubbed his temples.

  “Um, did you miss the whole Synthia beating him up or driving him insane part? Anything worth having isn’t going to be easy to get. She’s a hellcat, so take her claws from her. Make her want us to be here, ask her what she wants. We fixed the castle, but we can’t fill it with her people. We can’t bring the dead back, nor can we expect these beings to forgive us easily. Respect is earned, not given,” Sinjinn said solemnly.

  “I don’t understand women. I mean, I gave her an escape. I gave her an out to sleeping with me, and she told me no. She liked it, and the moment it ended, she hated me again.” He scratched his head as he stared at the door she’d escaped through.

  “Maybe she just didn’t like you that much? I can try, I mean, she’s got a nice body. I have been working on my wooing skills too,” Cailean offered, and Asrian turned his head slowly, leveling him with a lethal stare. “Hey, what’s the harm in it? And if in a few months she gives birth to a blonde little badass, he’ll be mine. No one the wiser until then, right?”

  Asrian rose from the throne, stepping down to start after the woman who seemed immune to his charms. Sure, he wasn’t the wooing type, he wasn’t even sure he had a fucking type other than willing and ready, but this was his wife.

  He passed through several empty hallways and more empty rooms before he heard it: the sound of arrows cutting through the air, thumping against a target in the distance. Once outside, he leaned against the wall, watching as she hit the mark every time, each arrow cutting through the next as she let her anger out with every shot. Well look at that, she was a little badass with a bow. They’d been lucky she hadn’t given them a fight because while it may not have killed them, it wouldn’t have been pleasant.

  He cocked his head again, listening to the silence of the palace and then watched as she did the same. Her shoulders slumped as she sat the quiver and bow aside and stared up at the high castle walls, glaring at the Horde banister as she set eyes on it. Those expressive eyes of hers did little to hide her anger—or pleasure for that matter.

  Her body was a haven, one he’d been lost in but her pain? It was fucking addictive. Not as overpowering as Synthia or Lena’s, but more soothing, like coming home. He crossed his arms and watched her, noting the way she stood, ready to fight. Trained for war, and yet so fucking delicate and dainty that an attacker wouldn’t take her seriously, which would be a huge fucking mistake. They should, the way she stood, the way she used the bow, self-taught. Warriors created from the need to survive were deadly. He’d been trained since the moment he could stand up, but Lilith trained herself, and no one could be harsher on someone than themselves.

  Asrian watched as she neared the wall, shucking off her shoes as she leapt against it, climbing it as he watched. What the fuck? She climbed as one who had centuries of training; fearless immortals wouldn’t try to scale a castle barehanded, and yet here she was, in all her fucking glory doing just that.

  Once she reached the top, she ripped the banner down, watching as it drifted to the ground. Their eyes locked and she smirked; confidence was fucking sexy, but confidence and an outright fucking challenge?

  Game on, little warrior.

  Chapter 8

  Lara watched her, unnervingly so. Her fingers drummed on the table, a brand new table they’d created from magic. Together they sat in an empty hall, filled with the echoes of the dead and yet no sound at all. She wanted to lay waste to it, to render it back to rubble. To the beautifully haunting ruins that mirrored her soul. But nope, he’d decided he was in charge and the king of it, and waltzed right in and fucking took over the place.

  “You ladies hungry?” Sinjinn asked as he entered the hall, a steaming platter of food in his hands. She turned, eyeing it before she dismissed him.

  According to Lara, it was exactly as it had been before it had been destroyed. That meant they’d been here when it had happened, because things had been remodeled right before they’d attacked, and no one outside the court had been allowed into the palace. Which also meant she’d fucked someone responsible for murdering her family.

  “I’m famished,” Lara said with a wide smile as the food was set down in front of her.

  “My appetite just soured. I’m going hunting.”

  “We have enough meat to last a few days,” Sinjinn offered carefully.

  “I’m not going hunting for food,” she hissed, her lips curving into a sexy smirk. “I’m hunting monsters that slither into my lands and take things that don’t belong to them.” She stared at him in open challenge as the other men waltzed in, stopping at the tense scene before them.

  “And who would that be?” he asked.

  “Anything stupid enough to fucking try me,” she answered coldly as she pushed past him and started to leave the room to retrieve her quiver and bow.

  “What the fuck is your problem?” Asrian demanded as he stepped in front of her.

  “My problem? I didn’t have a fucking problem until you showed up here and messed my life up! You had no right to fix the castle!”

  “It’s my castle now too until I choose otherwise!” he shouted back as he balled his fists at his sides.

  “It’s not your dead screaming at you! It’s not you who has to hear the silence and know they’re gone. That every one of them died fighting against monsters like you! It’s a fucking reminder that we lost and that you and your people took them away. You murdered children and women and left their corpses here to rot like trash. Do you know who got to clean it up? We did, two fucking kids who had nothing and no one left! So if you’re expecting a thank you, hold your fucking breath while you wait, heathen king!” She lunged, but not
for his waist; instead, she dove for his legs, twisting her body around them and taking him to the floor before she flipped to her feet and stared down at where the giant lay, baffled.

  She exploded into darkness, becoming night and shadows as she escaped the room in an ebb of anger and grief. She surged to a semi-solid form a few feet away from him and stared at him, her body never fully becoming solid as she waited for him to attack her. Her eyes glowed from within, a reminder that she’d used her power outside of night, and without the protection of the shadows. Only stronger of the lesser Fae could use powers without a direct link to their court, and she’d had to be strong. Lilith had never felt more alone than when she was surrounded by the Night Court, lost in a wave of endless people who suffered without being able to end their pain.

  “I’m not your enemy, Lilith.” Asrian stared her down, unflinching as he let his own power fill the room. “I won’t continue to apologize for what happened here because words mean nothing, less than nothing. You think you’re the only one who lost people because of him? Blane and the dragons lost thousands the same as you have lost here, and yet he can forgive. Our father didn’t ask our permission, nor would it have made a difference, but your court isn’t all gone. Some were allowed to escape. Some of them we hid, and they are still alive.”

  “You think I’m going to buy your lies? I know my people are gone because if they weren’t, I’d feel them. I’d feel the call to them.”

  “Then let us show you them, all of them. Come with us, we can prove it.” Sinjinn stepped closer, slowly closing the distance between himself and Asrian. “There’s a village, deep in the Hidden Realm. It’s spelled to protect those who we hid within the walls. We had no plans of genocide, and after the dragons were slaughtered, we took steps to protect people. I rebuilt your caste, Lilith. Me, I was here when it fell, when your people fell, not Asrian. Asrian was still cleaning up another mess our father had made. He has none of your blood on his hands, and if he had, Ryder wouldn’t have chosen him to be here with you, or to marry you.”

  “I would feel them, and I feel nothing. I’m the heir, I hold the bloodline.”

  “What if I did too?” Lara asked, and Lilith’s head snapped in her direction. “If I tell you, you have to promise it changes nothing between us. Promise me?”

  “Your father was human, Lara. A mere human male who wandered into mother’s garden long ago.”

  “My father raped our mother and left her on the stairs of this very castle. A monster, one who collected a pound of flesh for the tithe that wasn’t paid,” she whispered. Lilith expelled a breath as she stared at Lara as if she’d grown another head. “He took her away for months, abusing her until he’d extracted his payment, and when he’d finished, he left her pregnant and soiled on her father’s stairs. I didn’t tell you because when you showed up, I wasn’t alone anymore. I’d found you, and you, you hated them so very much. You were my sister, my blood. I’d thought I had lost everyone, and then you walked in and just like that, I wasn’t alone anymore. So I hid what I was, and we began cleaning up the remains that I couldn’t stomach to alone, you and I, Lilith, you and I.”

  “Shut your mouth,” Lilith cried. “Don’t say it.”

  “I don’t have to, because you know what I am.”

  “No, no you can’t be because that would make you one of them!”

  “I’m still your sister. I’m still the girl who braids your hair at night and tells you stories of our mother.”

  “That’s why you couldn’t come to the Court of Night,” Lilith said as she covered her mouth with her arm, smothering her scream of rage. “That’s why they hid you here?”

  “This was the only place I was safe from his reach until he came and destroyed it. Then I was alone, until you. I couldn’t be with Mother, because what I was couldn’t be hidden until I Transitioned, but once I had, I learned to hide what I am.”

  “Oh my Gods, did you fuck your sister?” Tor exclaimed, forcing every eye to turn in his direction.

  “Lilith isn’t your father’s child, only I am,” Lara admitted as Lilith stumbled backwards, turning into darkness as Lara reached for her. “Lilith, please!”

  “You lied to me, about everything!”

  “I couldn’t tell you what I was, I couldn’t tell anyone.” Lara turned, staring up at where Lilith now stood in the rafters. She vanished into a dark storm cloud and slipped out of the palace into the night.

  “You’re one of them. That’s why you alone survived this attack; because the Horde doesn’t kill their own, especially women.”

  “I’m alive because one of them pushed me out a window into the pond behind the castle, protecting me from Alazander and his wrath. I’d have died with them if he hadn’t! I was spared because not all of them wanted us dead; because some of them did as they are telling you. You can’t keep living with the ghost of the past. You’re becoming one of them, Lilith. We both have been, day and night, we sit in the ruins and try to rebuild it, but we are the only ones here. There can be no court without people, and no matter what we do or fix, that won’t change. Let them show us, let them take us to our people, please!”

  Lilith turned into shadows and slipped from the castle, hiding from the hurt and pain of betrayal. The castle rumbled with it, trembling as she exploded into the night, away from those who had created the endless betrayal and pain she now felt. Her own sister was one of them, the girl who had held her at night, whispering that the ghost of the castle they lay within would forgive them for moving on, for continuing living even though they no longer did. Yeah, right. Everyone was a liar, a fucking coward and liar who said whatever it took to get what they wanted, and she was finished with it all.

  Chapter 9

  Lilith turned from shadows to her true form on the rocks of the bay that stood on the edge of Nightmare Bay. Her scream was smothered by the crashing waves of the ocean. Tears stung her eyes as salt water splashed, sprayed her where she faced the dangerous sea that raged, mirroring the emotions that crushed the air from her lungs.

  Thunder clapped loudly above her as she lifted her face to the rain that began, slowly drizzling before it let loose, pounding anything crazy enough to be outside during a storm in Faery.

  Her hair clung heavy against her flesh, ice cold as the storm turned from a spring drizzle to a beautiful, chaotic storm that howled, sending a shower of small ice balls pounding against the ocean’s waves.

  How could Lara have kept this from her? Did she think it would have changed how Lilith felt? They’d been alone, mourning their mother and their people together. It did explain the one question Lilith had always pondered in silence over: How had Lara survived and been spared when no one else had? Because she’d been one of them, and they’d seen it.

  Betrayal stung, but this one would leave a mark that wouldn’t soon heal. Did it change how she felt about her sister? No, she was her sister, but she also wouldn’t trust her as quickly as she had before. She swallowed another scream, wiping away at the hot, angry tears that flowed from her soul.

  One year and a day, one year and a day and she could erase this pain and pretend it had never happened. Asrian wasn’t what she’d expected, but he also wasn’t someone she’d have sought out to be mated to either. Nor did she plan on remaining with him a moment longer than she had to be, either.

  Her mind rushed with the implications of what they’d done, and what it could mean as well. She knew her father wanted her to secure an heir, but what did Asrian want? What did she expect to get from this? There were so many questions and no answers to be found here, in the silence on the border of the Court of Nightmares. Not any foe she could from their court.

  She misted, turning into shadows as she headed back to the palace, back to the people who had betrayed her.

  Once inside, sodden and soaking wet, she ignored the curious glances of the men as she sloshed water everywhere. Lilith stopped in front of Asrian and Sinjinn and paused.

  “I’ll go to see these people, to see i
f they belong here or if it is an empty attempt to lure me into a false sense of your decency.”

  “Lilith…” Lara whispered sadly.

  “You don’t get to speak to me right now,” Lilith uttered thickly through the emotion threatening to choke her.

  “I’m still your sister!”

  “You are, but you didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth either. You didn’t trust me with your secrets while I poured mine out to you. I’ve never kept anything from you, including Court of Night secrets which I am now bound by law to report to my father. I told you, a princess of the Horde, our secrets which is punishable by death should he choose to enforce it. So no, you don’t get to talk to me. I will retire for the night; in the morning, we can travel without worry of the Court of Nightmares attacking us.”

  “You don’t have to tell him anything! They left you here with me, you chose this court. You’re the heir of both, Lilith. You will rule both courts, and now you have a husband strong enough to rule them with you.”

  “I have a husband for one year and one day, and after that time I don’t plan to ever see him again, or you, sister.”

  Lilith turned, lifting her soaked skirt to reveal her bare feet as she walked away from them with what little pride she had left. She’d barely made it to the hallway before a hand grabbed her, and she was pressed against the wall hard. Angry green eyes locked with hers as the giant heathen pinned her with his gaze.

  “That was harsh, even for you. Are you sure you’re not the Ice Queen, Lilith?” he snapped, his hands going flat beside her head, trapping her there. “Don’t plan on seeing me after the handfasting time, hmm?” he continued icily.

  “You think you have some say in what happens here, don’t you? Newsflash, you don’t. Once the time ends you’ll vanish, but me? I’ll be the soiled whore no one wants to touch after your hands leave their mark. The ill-fated queen who was sold to pay the tithe,” she laughed soundlessly as she watched his face tighten with anger. “That is the truth of what we’ve agreed to. The Horde is feared, but the women they use, the ones they touch? They’re considered trash, less even. You think you’re my hero in my story, but you, you’re the villain. So tell me, prince of the Horde, what do you expect to gain from this?”