Page 23 of Taken to the Demon Court (Stolen Demon Brides #3)

OROS

I t wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

After I showed Eve the humans, she came back to the palace with a smile I hadn’t seen before. She was happy. We were happy.

And then Eros and I were called to handle the shadow demon’s royal favor, but we thought it was for the best. To let the events of the day sink in. To let her decide what she wanted to do.

If I had known Father would use our absence to kidnap her, I would have never left.

It had gone as well as it could, and Eros and I had been eager to get back. Especially Eros, as she hadn’t come with us, so she was excited—and nervous—to see if my plan had worked.

All we wanted was to reassure Eve that we weren’t like the other demons. That we could care for her and punish those who hurt the humans.

Just as we got back, we heard the commotion in Eve’s room, and when we went to look, she was being taken by one of Father’s guards. We, of course, wanted to attack, but we were held back by more guards.

As soon as she was gone, they’d let us go, and we marched to Father’s office. Only he wasn’t here.

“She’s dead,” Eros said, her voice sounding hollow.

“Impossible,” I said as I paced the room.

He was nowhere to be found. Hours had passed since she’d been taken, and Father was still missing in action.

“Too easy. Too simple. He knows we have been using her, but not how. Once he figures it out, he may kill her, but not until then. She’s too much of a?—”

“He threatened me.”

Eros’s voice stopped me dead in my tracks.

I didn’t want to look at her.

She didn’t tell me. Why didn’t she tell me?

When did it happen? Before the party? After? I had so many questions that I needed answered. Immediately. Her three-second pause felt like three hours.

“When you guys were gone,” she continued. “He said he knew it was you who sent out the flyers. That he had evidence. That if we just stopped, he wouldn’t make an example out of either of you. He would let us live in peace.”

“But he took her,” I said, feeling like a knife was carving a hole in my chest. He’d lied, no surprise there. And if it had been me in that meeting, I wouldn’t have needed Eve’s gift to know that.

That’s why you weren’t invited , a voice in the back of my head told me.

“I never trusted Father’s words; I just thought we’d have more ti?—”

The door to his study burst open, but it wasn’t him. It was one of his guards.

“If you don’t leave, I will be forced to show you out,” he said, his reddened eyes looking over us.

His attitude shocked me. What did Father say to them? Even at his angriest, he never used our own people to force us from his sight.

“He doesn’t want to see us then?” I asked, rolling my shoulders back.

I was given a stiff nod. Nothing else. I would need to weed out the guards . I had a few names I knew were loyal to the whole family, not to him. The one in front of us was not one of them.

“You can see him in three days at the banquet,” he replied. “Until then, you will be barred from his presence.”

We have to get to Eve in the next three days or else ? —

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Eros said, pushing herself up and crossing the room with a newfound rage. “We are the next in line to the throne; you cannot just order us?—”

I put my hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s go,” I said, steering her out of the room.

She was still huffing and puffing by the time we got down the hall.

“We need to find her, Oros, or?—”

For the first time in my life, I raised my clawed hand and struck Eros across the face.

She met me with bewilderment in her eyes.

“You spoke to him alone?” I hissed. “And you didn’t think to tell me right away? Or let me know that he threatened you? What happened to our promise?”

My throat unexpectedly started to close toward the end.

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened to speak, but no words came out.

“If you had told me, I would have taken all three of us as far away as possible,” I said, my voice raising. “And there would have been no chance for him to kidnap Eve in the first place?—”

Eros’s clawed hands were on my chest, pushing me back with such force that I fell to the ground .

She was on top of me before I had a chance to steady myself.

“Don’t you dare blame this on me. This was because you were fucking sloppy when passing out those flyers?—”

“Oh, right; just blame me for every?—”

Her hands pulled at my shirt while mine grabbed her hair.

“And if you hadn’t taken her out, Father would never have approached me?—”

“Don’t act like he hasn’t approached you every year since we were fucking fifteen.”

This had her pausing, her face softening.

“You knew?”

“Of course I did,” I said with a sigh. “I knew when he took you for a chat , but I trusted you to tell me if anything happened.”

Her lips pressed into a thin line.

“I thought I had it handled. I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you. I didn’t want to burden you with it. I thought that maybe if I could handle it myself, we could just move past it and—” She cut herself off with a sigh. “I’m sorry I failed you.”

The brokenness in her tone had me lessening my grip on her hair.

“You didn’t fail me. You never failed me,” I said softly, my hand moving from her hair to her cheek. How long has she felt this way? “I’m just worried about Eve.”

“We’ll get her back, I swear to you,” Eros vowed. “I won’t stop until?—”

There was a clearing of a throat that had us both looking down the hall we’d come from. Freya stood there, alone and fidgeting.

“I think I know where your human is. But in return, I want a favor.”

Not again.

But what choice did we have ?

“Name your terms,” Eros bargained, pushing herself off me. I stood, following closely behind her.

Could we trust Freya? Again, no other choice.

“There is a human there,” she said. “I want you to save him when you go to get her.”

A human? Her eyes flashed red, and I swore her cheeks began to flush.

“Where is she?” I demanded.

Her eyes met mine as she slowly replied, “She’s at the whorehouse.”