Free A Demon's Wrath by Alexia Praks Page A

Cecelia
said.
    Drake looked at Cecelia. She caught his gaze
for a split second and quickly lowered her eyes. She tried to
concentrate on her food, but she couldn’t seem to do so because she
could still feel his intense gaze on her person.
    “I’m not five years old,” Lucifer
announced.
    Cecelia frowned and said, “Oh, I apologize.
Six, then?”
    Lucifer looked at her rather
disappointedly.
    “Lucifer, do not be rude,” Vera put in. “He
didn’t mean to offend you in any way, Brian.”
    “Aye, I’m six and a half,” Lucifer said
proudly. “And I’m learning how to wield a sword.”
    “Really?” Cecelia widened her eyes in
surprise. “At six years old?” She turned to Vera. “But Lucifer is
so young.”
    “Brian, he’s a demon,” Gerick chimed in, as
if that would explain everything.
    Cecelia turned to Gerick even though she
didn’t want to because she had to look at the king too, who was
staring at her most intensely.
    “And you, Brian?” Drake’s deep voice caused
Cecelia to jump in her seat. “How many summers have you seen?”
    “Nineteen summers, sire,” she replied
without looking at him.
    Drake narrowed his eyes and lifted a smile
at her. “Nineteen? Where is your muscle, boy?”
    Cecelia swallowed and blushed. She had
forgotten she was supposed to be her brother. The fact that she was
a woman meant her womanly body had no muscle like that of the males
of her age.
    “I, err…”
    “Drake, ’tis no way to converse during the
meal,” Vera put in, patting Cecelia’s shoulder. “I’m sure Brian has
his reason for not telling the truth of his age.”
    “Why do you lie about your age?” Julius put
in, frowning at her. “’Tis unwise at best, for wizards can find out
with a mere look into your eyes.”
    Cecelia frowned and lowered eyes to avoid
Julius’s gaze.
    “Come, let me look into your eyes so I can
guess how old you truly are,” Julius said.
    Cecelia started to feel very
uncomfortable.
    “Julius, you are making Brian blush,” Vera
snapped.
    “Blush? He can’t blush. He’s a man,” Gerick
said, looking at Julius, expecting him to provide them with answer
with his limitless knowledge.
    Julius thought for a moment and then turned
to look at Brian. “Perhaps humans are different?”
    “Aye, humans are different,” Cecelia said,
nodding her head. “Lucifer.” She turned to the young demon. “Can
you take me around for a tour?”
    “Oh, yes,” Lucifer said excitedly. “I will
show you our stables, our garden, and our castle.”
    Vera said, “It will have to be tomorrow. You
two are tired. You need your rest, Brian.”
    Cecelia nodded.
    Thankfully, dinner went smoothly after that
for Cecelia. Once it was over, she begged tiredness and left
immediately. In the guest bedchamber, she lay in the large, soft
bed, thinking about her mother and brother, wondering how they were
getting on without her. She’d have to somehow find a way to get the
Pearl of Life and then travel back home. She calculated that it had
taken her three weeks to get to the Demon Kingdom, so it would
presumably take her another three to four weeks to travel back, if
she were lucky. That meant there was no time for her to waste.
    The stables. Lucifer had said he would take
her to see the stables tomorrow. That meant there would be horses.
If most of their horses were like those she had seen when the king
and his comrades had come to save her and Lucifer that morning,
then she’d have a good chance of borrowing one of them to fetch the
Pearl of Life. Perhaps Lucifer would also show her their port as
well, for Vera had said the king loved to sail.
    Nodding, she closed her eyes and drifted off
to sleep, dreaming of the misty gray eyes boring into her
person.
* * * * *

Chapter VII

     
    THE DEMONS DIDN’T LIKE HUMANS very much.
They considered these beings twisted, cunning bastards with nothing
more to fill their time than to get drunk, plot, plan, kill amongst
their own kind, and of course, going to