Free Demonfire by Kate Douglas

then they
reacted, generally without thinking, but damn, they certainly seemed to enjoy
the ride. Alton envied humans their emotions. What would it be like to feel, to
experience joy, passion, excitement, even fear again?
    Not since his long-ago
childhood had he been free to feel. It wasn’t proper, now that he was grown. It
was unseemly to allow the baser passions their freedom.
    To hell
with unseemly. What would it be like, to feel passionate enough about
something to be willing to take risks for it? His thoughts drifted to a night
many years before when he’d left this hallowed place and walked with his bare
feet through rain-washed dirt.
    A storm had recently passed,
and the ground was muddy and slick. It stuck to his bare soles and stained the
pristine hem of his white robe, but he’d buried his feet in the soft, wet muck
and watched it ooze up between his curled toes. Cold and slimy and so very
real…he’d felt a connection to the earth unlike anything he’d known before.
    He’d even stepped on a
sticker. Hurt like blazes until he’d found it and pulled it out of his heel,
but he’d actually relished the pain, the small dot of blood that was a
persuasive reminder that yes, he was alive.
    It was so easy to forget, down
here amongst the elders of his world, men who could spend months arguing a
simple point merely for the sake of the argument.
    What would it be like to fight
over something that actually mattered? To believe strongly enough to risk
everything for a cause bigger than himself?
    “Alton? What are you doing
here?”
    Jerked out of his musings,
Alton glanced up as Taron, his one true friend, approached. Tall, lean, with
his single vermillion braid hanging as neatly bound as always down his back,
Taron looked the part of the brilliant mathematician he’d grown to be.
    It was easy to forget they’d
once been boys together in old Lemuria, racing through sand dunes and swimming
in the pristine sea without a care or worry to their names. They’d known
passion then. The joy of being children in a world surrounded by azure seas
beneath cerulean skies.
    Alton glanced up at the
intricate design in the gold leaf overhead and sighed. “Just wondering how to
fill my days without going crazy.”
    Taron frowned. “Crazy? You?
Shouldn’t you be preparing to one day lead the citizens of Lemuria? As heir
apparent…”
    Alton shrugged. “Apparently
you haven’t paid attention. When one’s father, also the world’s ruler for life,
is immortal, ’tis foolish to aspire to his position.” He raised an eyebrow.
    Taron laughed out loud. “I see
your point. Actually, I’m pleased to find you here otherwise unencumbered. I
need to talk to you.” He glanced right and left, as if assuring that no one
would hear what he was about to say, and then spoke very softly. “We have a
problem. Large numbers of demons are passing through the vortex from Abyss to
Earth. I’m concerned. Their numbers appear to be increasing exponentially.”
    Frowning, Alton gestured to
Taron to follow him around the column he’d been leaning against, to the quiet
alcove behind it. “How do you know this?”
    “I noticed the influx about a
week ago.” Taron shrugged. “I stepped beyond the golden veil for a change of
perspective and happened to notice a new portal in the vortex leading directly
to Abyss. I was curious and decided to watch it for a while. Demon stench was
impossible to ignore. I counted many demons taking the form of wraiths and
disappearing through to Earth. It didn’t take long to realize their numbers are
increasing.”
    “Did you report it to the
council?”
    Taron merely raised one
expressive eyebrow. Alton sighed. What was the point? Demons entering Earth’s
dimension had nothing to do with Lemurian politics—at least as far as his
father and the ruling body were concerned.
    “Some day my dear father and
his eight fellow senators are going to be shocked when they discover their
arguments are worth no more than