Page 40 of Once Upon a Demon’s Heart

The next thing I know, I’m lying in the forest, alone—birds chirping somewhere far away in the tree boughs.

What just happened? I lift my hand to my cheek and my eyes widen. The gash has been sealed, only minor grooves that feel like Xs remain where the flesh was reconnected. It’s the same with my chest.

The second of surprise passes and panic rolls back into me. I need to get out of Alzhorian territory. My legs carry me until I’m finally breaking free of the forest. The moment I come out of the dark trees, I collapse to my knees in a turquoise field of sweet grass.

The reeds are welcoming and a cold breeze lifts locks of my hair as if begging me to look up at the sky.

The tears stream from my eyes, but something broke inside me tonight. Something in my soul has rotted down to the core.

Half-gods are evil.

I swear to kill them all. Every last one of them, except the silver-haired girl who tried to help me. I stare down at my hand that she held so gently and with care.

But did she lead me to Alzhor on purpose? Did she know we’d be killed in Florum?

I didn’t expect to think of her much after that day. But as time passed, she plagued my thoughts more and more. When I turned twenty-four, an insatiable urge to return to Florum sparked inside me. It wasn’t just an urge. It was a calling, as if the fabric of my soul was woven with her thread.

I had to be close to her. I needed to meet her again.

It took everything in me to resist going. What is her name? I wondered. Did she grow up to be the dressmaker she dreamed of becoming? I longed to speak with her, to see her beautiful starlit hair. She held every last hope I had left for the demigods.

I trained for years to become a knight. It took even longer to become a duke after successfully rising in the ranks to commander and fending off many attacks.

Until the horrid day, a wisp showed up inside my tent and beckoned me to follow it.

I was hesitant at first. Will-o’-the-wisps can have bad omens, but for me, on the front lines, it seemed imperative that I know what the orb was sent to show me.

I didn’t know who sent it. I only knew that it took great power to do so. It couldn’t be for nothing.

I followed it to my horse, and with a pit in my stomach, I mounted my steed. The wisp darted to the top of the far hill where Thornhall was just on the other side of.

No.

I turned to shout for my army to prepare to ride to the top of the slope, but everything behind me had vanished. I have to finish the vision before it lets me go. I charged ahead alone, tripping a few times in my disarray.

When I reached the top, I was transported into my mother’s home. She’s cooking a meal and humming a soft tune. My breaths were staggered, and the blood in my veins chilled. Why is the wisp showing me this?

“Mom?” I called out to her. The moment the word left my lips, her front door was kicked down, and knights of Alzhor rushed in.

“What are you doing?” she screamed, fighting against them as they tried to drag her outside.

“Mom!” I shouted, trying to cut through the knights with my sword, but it went right through them. “No. No!” I continued to swing my blade at them to no avail as they reached the doorway.

“You will pay for this. You will pay!” My mother cried. One knight shoved her to the front steps and another lifted his sword.

Every piece of me shattered as I watched the knight’s blade cut through my mom. The second her body collapsed, I was thrown into darkness.

My knees gave out on me, and my hands hit the ground.

“Why are you showing me this!?” I yelled, tears spilled down my jaw, and a hatred so deep burned in my stomach.

The wisp formed before me. I lifted my head and pleaded, “Please. Tell me this has not yet happened.”

It glowed brighter before disappearing, and in its place was a knight. I stared at the armor, confused at first but then I understood. This is the knight who led the attack or will lead it.

I must hurry.

My fingers curled into my palms and I stood.

Just like that, I was back atop my horse, just at the base of the slope. Tell me, gods, that it is not too late.

I called for my elite knights to ride with me to Thornhall to ensure it wasn’t in danger.

The moment we rose above the top of the hill, the last screams hit us.

The screams and the stench of blood.

I’ll kill them all. I’ll rid this world of the demigods once and for all.

I led my troops down to the village, but as we descended, I watched as a knight in ebony armor with a white dragon-bone sword atop the far hill raised their blade to the sky and guided all of their paladins out of the valley.

That’s the knight who led this attack. The one from my vision. I memorized everything about their armor. Their scent of death. It’s one I will never forget.

We were too late.

I swore I would find this half-god and kill them along with the entire kingdom of Alzhor. They made me into something I never wanted to become.

They put hate into my heart.

So, I put a curse of my own on that knight, with the help of the only god who ever cared to help the demon-folk.

Pluto only grinned with my request. He shook his head but granted it.

Gods and their games.

I swore to destroy Alzhor, but I needed to find the lovely girl first and save her from the fate I would bring to her kingdom. If she felt the same beckoning call within her to find me, I knew I would find her.