“When you said you wanted a favor, you never mentioned a dead halfling,” I drawled, staring down at the broken female in Adrik’s arms.
“Because I knew you’d say no,” my best friend replied. “Now that you’re here, you won’t refuse.”
“Refuse what?” I asked him, not sure I wanted the answer.
“I need you to help her.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s Valora’s best friend.”
I arched a brow. “Valora, as in the female queen you’re supposed to seduce and eventually kill?” It was all part of Adrik’s grand plan for revenge. Make the Queen of Caluçon fall in love with him, then steal her power and use it against her husband, Necros—the bastard who destroyed Adrik’s former kingdom.
“Yes.” Adrik didn’t elaborate beyond that, but I caught the twinge of secrets in his dark gaze.
“That is still the plan, right?”
“Yes,” he repeated.
“Then why am I helping you save a halfling?”
“Because it’ll help me woo Valora.”
I grimaced. “You did not just use the word woo in a sentence.” Seduce, I could accept. Woo, however, no. “Since when do you woo females?”
“Look, I don’t have time to debate this with you,” Adrik retorted. “I need your help with the halfling. Necros had her brutally raped in front of the entire court, all to bring Valora to her knees, then he tossed her out into the fields to die alone. This was after having her family slaughtered at the borders. It’s too much, Grigory. I can’t convince Valora to love me if her emotional state is fucking shattered.”
I eyed the female in his arms once more. He’d wrapped her in his coat, but I suspected she was naked beneath. I leaned down to listen for her pulse. It barely registered, her heart hanging on by a thread.
Many believed Adrik to be a demon of Noxia because my mother had adopted him soon after his birth, but he wasn’t a true Noxia demon. Which meant he couldn’t save her.
I could.
My blood was eternal.
“I can’t promise anything,” I informed him softly. “She’s only a halfling, and a Graystall demon at that.”
My kind was vampiric in nature; we thrived on the essence of others.
She came from a race that dealt justice in a variety of ways, their powers varying depending on which bloodline they came from.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I added, holding out my arms.
He gently handed her over, her slight weight hardly a burden. Her head fell against my chest, revealing a face that had lost its beauty, thanks to the monsters in Necros’s kingdom.
“I really hope you kill that bastard,” I told Adrik.
“I will.”
“Good.” I adjusted the female in my arms slightly and cringed at the sight of bruising between her thighs. “What’s her name?”
“Zaya,” Adrik murmured.
“Zaya,” I repeated softly, tapping into the workings of her mind just enough to offer her some peace. It was the least I could do if she ended up dying, and from skimming the violence on the surface of her thoughts, that peace would be very much appreciated.
Yet something else lurked beneath that initial layer, enticing me to go a little deeper.
Anger blasted me in the next moment, her conscious roaring to life with a fury and a vow for vengeance.