A Demon's Plaything: The Elite Guards

by Amelia Hutchins

  “One year and one day, so no kids,” she grumbled as she left the bed, leaving him to stare after her as she moved to her chest of clothes. She had a few form-fitting dresses for traveling, ones she’d had made while at the Night Court, necessary items to thrive while alone in her own court.

  “And if you’re pregnant already?” he asked.

  “Then we will handle it,” she supplied crisply.

  The idea of being pregnant was like ice water being dumped over her head. The knowledge that he’d expect to be in the child’s life or participate was sobering. The Horde was notorious for spreading their seed wide and far, for breeding and leaving the poor mothers with mutated children who no caste accepted into their court behind.

  No, she wouldn’t be having any child anytime soon. She didn’t want to be stuck with the Horde breathing down her neck if what he claimed was true. It was widely known that those triplets were the key to bringing the new Horde King to his knees, and as much as she desired it, she hated the idea of the poor wee things being used to achieve it.

  “Get ready,” he snapped sharply, his tone full of irritation. She closed her eyes against his heavy stare she could feel on her back. “We leave in ten minutes.”

  The door slammed behind him, and the heavy weight on her chest filled with the frustration and wariness she felt. It wasn’t that she wanted to be so prickly, but it was hard to let go of the pain and fear, the unknowns and the consequences that being with him would leave on her. Cade hadn’t responded when she had warned him what was coming, he hadn’t even spoken before he’d walked away without looking back when she’d stopped to talk with him before rushing back to Lara.

  Lilith had known what could happen if her father didn’t work towards the tithe, and he hadn’t. No matter what she told herself, her father was self-serving, self-indulged and uncaring who paid for his actions. His people starved at the gates to the court and instead of sharing what they had, he barred them from getting into the safety it would offer them.

  She’d known the Horde would come, and when they did, they’d demand payment. Then rumors of the Summer Court being offered to give one daughter to a prince of the Horde had followed. Meaning there was an easy way out, which she knew her father would take if offered. His only focus was to keep his throne, and while he loved his children, he loved himself more. Yet she’d told herself he wouldn’t do that to her. That turned out well.

  So she’d warned Cade, and no matter how much she ignored the facts, he wouldn’t be back after the year and one day; nor would anyone else. Men didn’t want the women soiled by the Horde who they viewed in the lesser courts as ruined, tarnished things.

  Ten minutes later, she was dressed, with weapons hanging from her hips and a silver bow with matching quiver and arrow tips hanging from her back. Her hair was braided into one thick, dark braid that was wrapped into a bun tied to her hair by jeweled pins.

  The moment she entered the hall, silence met her. Asrian turned, taking in her dress and fine weapons before he started towards the doors. Outside, there were horses saddled and ready for them to use.

  “We’ll take them as far as the upper lands. Once there, we will need to sift into the Hidden Realm, where your people are,” Sinjinn announced, obviously the one used to being in charge. “After that, we need to make a stop at the Guild before returning here.”

  “Guild?” Lara asked.

  “It’s where we will meet with the king and queen before returning here. We have to let them know the wedding has been consummated and that there were no hiccups with it.”

  “Define hiccup? I think I’m going to be a hiccup to him, and I’m not sure I’m ready to meet him and tell him I’m his sister,” Lara admitted as she turned to Lilith, who had become as white as freshly fallen snow.

  Lilith’s heart lodged in her throat as she stared at Lara, and the idea of losing her struck her dumbfounded. This was happening; it wasn’t just a nightmare, it was her new reality. She was losing the one person who had loved her unconditionally, without caring that she was a mishmash of two courts packaged into one.

  “Let’s get moving, shall we, ladies?” Cailean asked excitedly. He clapped his hands together, unaware of the tension between the sisters. His eyes slowly moved between them, and he frowned. His hand went to his tipped head as he scratched it. “Fairy fucks. Being Horde isn’t so bad, sis.”

  Lilith expelled a shaky puff of air as she moved without thought, running from the hall to empty her stomach as the stark reality settled into her soul. Lara was Horde. She was the sister of the Horde King; sister to the monster who had sealed her fate with his generous offer. She had never felt so fucking alone in her entire life.

  Chapter 11

  The sun settled on the mountains, bathing the upper lands of Faery in its warming glow. Lilith hadn’t spoken, hadn’t said one single word since she’d thrown up repeatedly outside her great hall, right onto Asrian’s boot-covered feet, much to her own horror.

  Asrian spoke to his brothers in friendly banter, arguing over things she had no idea about. Lara rode beside her, answering for her when the men asked something. She laughed with them, told them of her version of the fight that had occurred so long ago, things she’d never told Lilith to date.

  Everything felt as if it was happening to someone else. As if someone else was stuck in this horror of endless torment that continued to unravel her world thread by thread. She knew she should be thankful that they weren’t of the same ilk their father had been, but things kept being brought to light, and every time it happened, it was something big, something that pushed her a little further over the edge.

  She was on a horse, marching to meet people she’d thought long since perished, and the fucking Horde King. This wasn’t happening. She’d dreamt of his death, relished the death blow she could never land, since the King of the Horde held a beast within him, one that couldn’t be killed.

  “We leave the horses here,” Asrian said from beside her.

  She turned, staring through him as the others began to dismount. She lifted her leg over, revealing her thigh as she dismounted and stood there awkwardly as she waited. She hated sifting; not the quickness, or ease of it, but the nausea and unsettled feeling when they landed. Not to mention, she had no idea where the Hidden Realm was and had never even heard of it before.

  Lara stopped beside her as the men unharnessed and saddled the horses before slapping them on the rear, sending them away. The chilled air sent a few stray strands of Lilith’s hair wafting through the air as they stood there, waiting to be sifted to the unknown.

  “Breathe, Lilith,” Lara uttered as she stared at her, her Fae eyes now tri-colored in turquoise and ice blue shades that were filled with endless galaxies within their depths. Her thick hair was darker, mixed colors of midnight and chocolate fighting for dominance as her brands pulsed. She looked away from her, hiding the traitorous tears that struggled to be let loose.

  Lilith straightened her spine as Asrian reached for her, her flesh connecting with his sending a shock racing down her spine, zeroing in on her belly as heat pooled there. Stupid Fae and his stupid touch. He’d been silent since they’d left the palace, holding his tongue when she’d released her meager supper on his boots, and still, said nothing.

  They sifted into a realm full of fragrant blooms and bubbling brooks, much like the one they’d just left. People milled about the small town they’d sifted to, hair as dark as the shadows that filled the world. Heart racing, Lilith smiled as those people turned, staring curiously at them as they slowly approached. Eyes; their eyes were filled with the dark galaxies she’d heard of, the beautiful darkness that filled the midnight skies and fed their powers as the night took control and shadows became abundant, adding to their power.

  “I told you, not all of your court perished, and that’s because my brothers and I got them out before he got to them,” Sinjinn said beside her.

  Lilith nodded silently in shock as she moved closer, listening to them playin
g in the streets in beautiful clothing, their current state more than most courts could afford for their people. They laughed with no fear for the Horde who approached them now.

  “You’re back so soon?” a woman’s musical voice said from not far away, and Torin chuckled.

  “I knew you’d be missing us, Liliana,” he snorted, and a feminine shrill sounded, forcing Lilith to draw her blades as the familiar scream ripped through the air, but Lara was running towards the woman with her arms out.

  “Mother!” she cried as she threw herself into the woman’s astonished arms.

  Lilith stifled a sob of disbelief as she watched the woman begin to cry, wiping away the tears that fell from Lara’s eyes. Her eyes, ice blue, rose to stare over Lara’s head at Lilith, who stepped back, bumping into a hard form behind her. She swung around, staring at Asrian who was quickly doing the math of who held Lara.

  This wasn’t fucking happening.

  “Lilith, oh, my baby!” the woman cried as she pulled Lara with her towards Lilith, who stood stone-still, unable to get words out. “Oh, look at you. You’re so beautiful.”

  “You’re dead! You’re fucking dead,” Lilith half hissed, half screamed as she forced Asrian to move away from her.

  “No,” she uttered. “I’ve been here.”

  Lilith slapped her, hard. “You left us. I waited for your rotting fucking corpse to fall from the Horde’s castle walls so that we could bury you! You’ve been here? You abandoned us to come here? Who the fuck does that? Who abandons their children like that?”

  “Lilith, I couldn’t come back, not to find Lara dead. I thought her dead! I knew you’d be fine, you’re your father’s daughter, his heir, I couldn’t come to get you. And I thought my sweet Lara had been among the dead, with her grandfather. So when they told me of our people who they’d saved, I came to them. They needed me with them. I am the Queen of Shadows, they needed me.”

  “I’m…I needed you! I have needed a mother, Lara needed a mother. When I found her, she was alone, filthy and alone. She had no idea how to hunt or how to survive, but then…” she paused, turning to stare at Lara. “She’d transitioned by then, hadn’t you? How fucking pathetic I must have been,” she whispered as the knowledge hit her. “That’s why you disappeared at night when you thought I slept, to feed. And me, I spent countless hours securing food that I thought you needed. But you’re High Fae, and I’m just less.” She wiped at the tears that trailed down her cheeks. “Take me to the Night Court.”

  “You’re my heir, too,” Liliana said softly. “You don’t have to go back there. I know it doesn’t call to you, not as our own court must. The shadows crave you, daughter. I feel them.”

  “I renounce your throne,” she hissed.

  “You can’t, you can’t just renounce it. It needs an heir that can hold it. Without one, the Shadow Court cannot be within the ranks of the lesser courts, and the Horde needs them now more than ever. We’re not the only ones who survived; I sent thousands into the woods, Lilith. War is coming, and I have to have an heir at my side.”

  “You have one, your daughter. I am not your heir anymore; I am Lilith, Heir to the Court of the Night, and I renounce your throne and your bloodline.”

  “It doesn’t work like that, Lilith. Did your father teach you nothing?”

  “My father couldn’t stand to even look at me! He looked at me and saw you, so my entire life before I left him was lived inside a fucking room people weren’t allowed into because I may have died and needed protection. My life was being sheltered because Gods forbid he lose his heir, or have to look at her face that reminded him of his ghosts. So teach me? No, strangers came into my room and taught me to rule, that in times of need or time of trickery an heir could walk away by renouncing her bloodline if those she chose to leave had used trickery upon her. I’ve been nothing but tricked by you and Lara. I’ve been lied to and abandoned. I love you both, but for my sanity, I renounce you both. Lara deserves to be your heir; she’s strong enough to stand against anything, considering she’s Horde Fae.”

  It wasn’t selfish, she told herself. To keep Lara close, she’d renounced the line. To keep her sister with her, she’d renounced the line. She’d forced Lara to remain in the lower realm of Faery by doing so. She’d sealed the line, protected her people, and now Lara couldn’t abandon her.

  “Lilith, I wasn’t going to ever leave you.”

  “Get out of my fucking head, Lara,” she warned coldly.

  “You’re my heart. You’re my sister by choice, let alone bloodline. I needed you, I need you so much. I don’t need a title!”

  “You do because holding them both is too much for one person. She needs an heir, you’re her heir. I can’t be the queen of both courts, and I’m going to kill him for using me to pay the tithe. Do you understand? I’m going to murder my father for using me to pay it when he didn’t have to. I’m going to save myself from what telling you those secrets cost me before that betrayal costs me my life.”

  “He…didn’t, you’re…oh no,” Liliana said as she surveyed the men around them. “I should have been there to gather it, to pay it for both courts.”

  “You weren’t there to protect us.” Lara’s tone was angry, her hand absently stroking Lilith’s arm to calm the anger and rage that burned through her sister’s soul.

  She’d paid for their deaths, for the people who now watched them. She’d poured every ounce of energy into rebuilding a court that the world didn’t care about, and this entire time they’d been here or elsewhere while their heir worked from morning until night, righting the kingdom for them. All for the ghost she believed watched her, watched them. And here there were thousands of them, alive.

  Lilith had paid the tithe selflessly, knowing her father could have paid it if he’d cared to, meanwhile allowing her other court to starve to death, slowly. She’d trotted into the Horde’s stronghold and removed the corpse she’d thought belonged to her mother at the tender age of sixteen, bringing it home to be buried in a grave fit for a queen that she herself had erected. Endless days she’d begged her father to see her, until she’d stopped caring if he ever did. He’d taken lovers, producing children he bragged about, and yet his own heir was banned from his hall unless it was time for her presence to remind the court he had one.

  Law stated that each caste of the lesser Fae have an heir for when the tithe came due, and he’d made sure they knew. He’d recited her duties, reminded her of what was to come, and then she’d been free to leave until he summoned her again. He hadn’t cared that she rather remain in the ruins of a palace than locked in a room.

  “What do you want, Lilith?” Asrian asked, and her ice blue eyes lifted to his. In her entire life, no one had ever asked her that.

  “I don’t want to be here.”

  He grabbed her, vanishing into thin air as Lara watched.

  Chapter 12

  They sifted right outside of the Guild, and he flinched as something sailed past his head. He moved, reaching for Lilith but she dodged the attack, turning to look at where it had come from. She reached behind her, unsheathing an arrow which she nocked and sent sailing at the demons that were on the edge of the warded barrier. One after another, she hit her target perfectly, skillfully. All the pent-up rage was being given to the demons as one after another fell to the volley of arrows she let loose.

  “Gods, she’s like Zelda, only prettier,” a female voice said with a chuckle. Asrian flinched at the sound of Erie’s voice and then felt his brethren as they sifted outside to see what or who had entered their barrier, pausing to take in the lone female slowly chiseling away at the demons who kept coming.

  “Lilith, her name is Lilith, and she’s my bride,” he admitted.

  “Does she like you, because her aim is pretty outstanding, and if she doesn’t, it’s going to suck to be you, dude,” she laughed as she clapped her hands and wiggled her eyebrows.

  “Outstanding observation, Erie,” he groaned. “Don’t give her too many ideas, she ma
y use them.”

  Lilith exhaled before letting an arrow sail through the night, hitting a demon right through the eye. Her head tilted as it didn’t fall, and then she turned towards him and went still. Asrian followed her eyes, flinching as Ryder stood behind them, in his beast’s form.

  “This should be fun,” he muttered.

  Synthia sifted in beside Ryder, her gaze dropping to the arrow and then up into Lilith’s terrified eyes. She expelled a soft sigh as she realized what the problem was.

  “Fairy, you’re freaking her out. Your father slaughtered her people, so change before I turn you into a frog or something clever. Welcome, Lilith. I’m Synthia, this is Ryder, and you need to lower the bow,” she said as Lilith brought it up and aimed it right at Ryder.

  “Fucking problem?” Zahruk asked as he made his way down the stairs and noted the tense situation. “You let that loose, sweetheart, you die.”

  “Lilith, it won’t kill him.” Asrian stepped in front of it. “It’s been an intense few hours, I get it. It’s not often you find out your sister and best friend was spawned from Alazander, or that your dead mother isn’t even dead at all. But that arrow, it won’t kill him. He isn’t your enemy. He isn’t the one you want to hurt.”

  “It won’t kill him, but it won’t be pleasant either.”

  “Wait, what did you say about Alazander, am I the only one who heard it?” Synthia asked, but they ignored her even as the brothers around them gaped at what Asrian had said.

  “Oh, I like her, she’s got big balls!” Erie laughed, her red hair a mass of unruly curls as she nodded her head and pointed at Lilith. “She gets an invite to girl time this week! Right? Right. So glad you agree.”

  “Erie, this isn’t the time,” Synthia hissed as she stepped away from Ryder.