Demons Forever (Peachville High Demons #6) (6 page)

My father looked down at his hands, his shoulders tensing.

"I know this is hard," I said. I knew I was going too far, but once I'd started talking, it was impossible to stop. "It's hard for me too, but if we're ever going to have a real relationship, we're going to have to be able to talk to each other now instead of pushing the important conversations off until later." I took a deep breath, trying to still the wild beating of my heart. "Why can't we talk about this now?"

After several long breaths, he finally nodded his head. "I know it must have been difficult growing up without a mother and father," he said. He talked slower than normal, giving each word weight. "Events in my own life forced me back here to the shadow world much sooner than I'd planned, and I had to break things off with your mother. I had no idea she was pregnant at the time, but when she was killed..."

He didn't speak for a moment, and I didn't breathe. Time stood still between us as I waited for him to continue.

"I searched for you," he said, looking over at me. "I tried to find you before the Order could get their hands on you, but I failed. They found you first. By the time I realized it, you were already a part of their world, I couldn't just swoop in and take you away."

"Why not?" I asked, my voice uncertain and weak.

"I was afraid if the Order found out you were my daughter, it would put your life in greater danger," he said with a heavy sigh. "Of course, it turned out you were in danger anyway, long before they ever found out you were a hybrid. I should have just come for you, but I vowed a long time ago not to interfere in the human world."

"So they didn't know about my demon side this whole time?" I asked.

"No one knew," he said. "Until you shifted fighting those hunters, the only people who knew your identity were a few of the guards on my council and my oldest daughter."

My eyes widened and my heart skipped a beat. It was the first time he'd mentioned my half-sister. All I knew about her from my mother's journal was that she was about six years older than me and had jet black hair.

"She's still in Peachville?" I asked.

"My daughter?" He raised his eyebrows. "Oh yes, in fact you've already met her."

I opened my mouth, nearly jumping out of my seat to find out who she was.

But before I could ask him another question, three guards burst through the door. I wanted to scream in frustration, but as I turned, I saw the fear in their eyes.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your dinner, sire," one guard said with a sideways glance at me.

The king pushed back his hair and stood. "Has there been another attack?"

"It's Gregory, Your Highness," the guard said.

I recognized the name instantly. He was the guard who had found me right after Jackson and I fought with the hunters a few days ago. He was the one who brought us here to my father's castle.

"What happened to him?" I asked.

The guard turned to me. His lower lip trembled slightly. "He's been taken."

The Actions Of Evil People

"I need everyone else to leave the room," the king said.

I had no idea if that applied to me or not, but I wanted to hear what these guards were going to say. I stayed.

The servants all rushed out, leaving me, my father and the three guards.

"Tell me what happened."

The king paced the room as the head guard filled him in.

"As you know, Gregory and his men went to the outerlands yesterday to answer to reports of more attacks," he said. "He took six men with him. A few minutes ago, one of these men, Xeran, showed up at the gates of the city, mutilated almost beyond recognition."

The guard glanced at me nervously, probably wondering if this was an appropriate discussion to have in front of a princess.

"I must go to him," the king said, moving toward the door. "Maybe I can help him heal."

The guard stepped in front of him and shook his head. "Xeran is dead, sire. He passed away within minutes of arriving," he said. "It must have taken every last ounce of his life to get back here to tell us what happened."

The king paused, his muscles grown rigid. "Tell me what he said."

"He said they never even made it to the outerlands. They were ambushed by a group of hunters along the way. They were grossly outnumbered and taken by surprise," the guard explained. "He said it was a massacre. They killed everyone else, but took Gregory for their prisoner. Unharmed. Xeran pretended to be dead until the hunters had left, then he made his way here."

"Why would they want Gregory?" I asked, standing.

"That's the real question, isn't it?" my father asked, pacing again. "As a personal friend of mine and a member of my council, Gregory was privy to many of my secrets, including the fact that you're my daughter."

"But everyone in the city knows who I am now," I said. "Why take him specifically?"

"That's what I need to find out," he said. "Did Xeran say where the hunters were taking him? Did they give any clue or mention anything that might lead us to where they're keeping Gregory?"

The guard shook his head. "No, he didn't mention anything like that," he said. "Only that when they left, they went north toward the borderlands."

My father sighed. "I'm sorry, Harper, but I'm going to have to cut our dinner short," he said. "In fact, I might have to be gone for a while."

"Are you going after him?" I asked. I wanted to go. To be a part of the action and to find out the truth for myself, but I knew he would never agree to that.

"Yes. If there's any chance Gregory is still here in the shadow world, I have to try to find him," he said. He looked to the group of guards. "Gather a task force. No less than twenty men. Tell them to pack light and meet me by the front entrance in an hour."

The three guards bowed, then left the room.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked when we were alone again. "I feel responsible for all this."

My father took my hands in his.

"I've been fighting this war since long before you were born," he said. "None of this is your fault. How could you be responsible for the actions of evil people?"

I stared down at our hands. "Not fighting back makes me responsible, doesn't it?"

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself all the time," he said. "A lot of girls would have been seduced by their glamorous lifestyle and their power, but you refused to give in to all of that. You're a fighter, Harper. Otherwise, you wouldn't even be here. You would be at cheerleading practice, happily following their plan for your future."

I looked up at him. "I want to bring them down," I said. "They deserve to pay for what they've done to this world."

"And they will," he said. "Finding the ring was a good start. Over time, we'll be able to do more, but first you need to grow and learn to use your powers more efficiently."

I nodded. I knew he was right.

"Promise me you'll stay," he said, squeezing my hands. "Train with my guards. Get to know the castle and the city around you. When I get back, we'll throw you a real welcome home party. Something fit for a princess."

As much as I wanted to get back to Peachville, I also wanted to stay here and have the chance to finish our conversation. There was still so much I didn't know.

Besides, maybe he was right. Maybe I needed time to train and learn to use my powers.

"Okay," I said. "I'll stay. For now."

He smiled, then kissed my forehead. The intimate gesture brought tears to my eyes.

"I need to get going." He released my hands and walked to the door of the dining room. Before he left, he turned, his silver eyes gleaming. "It's good to have you home."

I Wasn't Surprised To Hear Her Name

It was weeks before my father returned to the domed city.

While he was gone, Jackson and I spent our mornings in training and our afternoons exploring the city. We'd met nearly everyone by now and life inside the dome had settled into a schedule.

There had been no more attacks on the city, but reports of hunters in the outerlands had everyone on edge.

When the king finally returned, it was with a heavy heart.

Tuli was the one who told me he was back. I ran to the throne room, wanting to throw my arms around his neck and welcome him home, but the sadness in his eyes held me back.

"You didn't find Gregory?" I asked.

He sighed and sat down on the silver throne. "No," he said. "We tracked him all the way to the borderlands, but it seems the hunters passed him off to another witch. She took him into the human world."

I stepped closer. "Are you going to go after him?"

My father shook his head. "I told you. I vowed not to interfere in the human world ever again," he said. "Going over there only leads to more problems and more loss. Once someone's been taken by the Order, there's no getting them back."

I couldn't believe he would abandon his friend like that, but after all the time that had passed, what were the chances Gregory was even still alive? I felt sick just thinking about it.

"Did you find out what they wanted from him?"

"We were able to capture one of the hunters who abducted him," my father said. "We questioned her, but all we learned was that Priestess Winter wanted him delivered straight to her in the human world. The hunter didn't know why."

Priestess Winter. I wasn't surprised to hear her name.

"She had to have been after some piece of information she knew Gregory would have," he said. "He was a good man. He wouldn't have shared what he knew willingly, but there's no telling what kind of dark magic she might have used to torture him. I have to assume he told her everything."

I shivered. What had she done to him? And what exactly had she wanted from him?

"That means she knows now that I'm your daughter," I said. "Do you think that's what she was after?"

"There's no way to know for sure, but yes, I imagine she knows about our relationship now," he said. "That's only going to make her more determined to capture you. She'll stop at nothing to steal the essence of your power and transfer it to someone else."

"A new prima?"

"Maybe," he said.

"If she kills me during a ritual and transfers the prima line to another girl, would that give the new witch the demon half of my power too?" I asked. "In addition to making her Prima?"

"I don't think it would be that easy," he said. "The way I understand it, the ritual she tried to perform on you before only transfers the bloodline, not the true essence of the witch. She'd have to plan something more elaborate if she wanted to capture your demon spirit as well."

"Like what?" A cold fear slithered down my spine.

"She could be planning to use a soul stone to trap your essence first," he said.

I gasped. I hadn't thought about her using a soul stone on me. I'd seen what one of those stones had done to Caroline, the future from Cypress, when the crow witch had kidnapped her. It had almost killed her.

"This is why it's more important than ever that you don't go back to Peachville," he said. "Not under any circumstances."

After hearing all this, I was kind of inclined to agree with him. I didn't want to die. Still, I knew we couldn't leave Aerden there, trapped inside a statue for all eternity.

Members of the palace council entered the throne room, cutting off the rest of our conversation.

"If you'll excuse us, I need to fill the council in on what happened," he told me. "We'll talk later."

Later
.

I was really starting to hate that word.

Everything You Think You Are

Over the next several weeks, I immersed myself in my training. If Priestess Winter was determined to come after me, she was going to be in for the fight of her life.

Or at least the fight of mine.

In the training room, Piotrek, one of the guards who'd been working with me, lunged forward. I shifted into my demon form and became weightless.

Airborne.

I was smoke and space. Nothingness. Not in my body, yet fully whole.

I whipped from one side of the room to the other, dodging in and out of the hands that reached for me. Fingertips grazed my arm, bringing my awareness back to my human body. I shifted before I was ready, falling from the air like a sack of rocks. I landed hard on the stone floor of the training room.

"Are you alright?" Jackson rushed to my side. "That looked like it hurt."

I winced and rubbed my hip. "I'm fine," I said. "Probably just another bruise to add to the collection."

Piotrek turned and smiled. "You're already so much better than when we started a few weeks ago," he said, offering me his hand. "Think about the first time you and I sparred. You were barely able to shift."

I took his hand and pulled myself up.

He was right, but that didn't make it any less frustrating. I'd had weeks of intense training. I thought I would be so much better at this by now.

Shifting into demon form was such a strange sensation. The first time it happened against the hunters, it was shift or die. Some kind of survival instinct that kicked in. But when someone asked me to shift on demand?

Impossible.

My first training session with Piotrek and Liroth, another of my father's palace guards, had been spent doing nothing more than learning how to shift and connect with the demon side of my power. Even now, nearly four weeks later, I still hadn't mastered it.

Hell, I still had a hard time believing it was possible. Most of the time, the idea of being part-demon felt more like a dream than a truth. Much less the idea of being a demon princess. Everyone here treated me like royalty, but I still felt like the same old Harper. I still felt vulnerable and weak.

"Let's go again," Piotrek said. He moved into fighting stance, his feet planted firmly on the stone below and his hands up, almost like a boxer. "This time we'll practice how to transition quickly in order to avoid a spell."

Jackson and Liroth stood back, watching.

I closed my eyes and drew in a slow, deliberate breath. The room stopped spinning as I tried to find my core demon power. When I'd learned to connect to my human witch power, I'd had to become grounded. I needed to feel the humming of the earth beneath my body in order to use my magic.