Rival Demons (23 page)

I held my tongue, but my knee bounced up and
down under the table.

After a few excruciatingly slow minutes, the
door to the library burst open. Everyone turned in unison to see
who had entered.

My eyes opened wide at the sight of Lea. She had
changed out of her party dress and was back in her typical leather
attire. In her hand she carried a chain that extended behind her
through the doorway.

"Move, traitor," she snarled, pulling hard on
the thick silver chain.

Jericho stumbled through the doorway, then fell
to his knees before the council. His hands and neck were bound to
the chains. Several members of the group gasped, including Jackson.
Andros stood, his eyes searching Lea's.

"No," he said. "This must be some mistake."

"I assure you this is no mistake," Lea said. She
put her leather boot on Jericho's back and pushed his face down to
the floor. "This demon who we all considered a trusted friend has
been working for the Order of Shadows. He's the one who let the
hunter into the Underground. And he is the one who locked our army
into the training rooms. This scum is responsible for the death of
thirty of our brothers and sisters."

Thirty? Thirty who had died because of me. Guilt
slithered through me like a snake.

Andros straightened his shoulder, his jaw tense
with anger. "Is this true, Jericho, son of my father's friend?
Explain yourself to your council."

Jericho lifted his head. His lip was swollen and
bloodied and he moved as if he had aches and pains throughout his
body. I had no doubt all of his injuries were courtesy of Lea's
anger.

"I came to this place, following all of you,
believing we were going to make a difference," he said. He
swallowed, took a pained breath, then continued. "I thought you all
had so much power, so much faith in the future. I came here to
fight, not sit around like a bunch of helpless children."

Andros' shoulders slumped slightly as he
understood the truth. "So it is the truth," he said, his voice
thick with disappointment. "It was you who placed my daughter's
life in danger and the lives of all of the shadow demons under my
care."

"Yes, and I would do it again," Jericho said. He
searched the faces at the table, finally coming to rest on me. "If
this human girl had been captured today, I would have been given a
very special gift."

"What gift?" Jackson asked. "What gift could
possibly be worth all of this?"

Jericho laughed and narrowed his eyes at
Jackson. "Don't you know?" he asked. "The Order would have given me
back my parents. My sister Elisha. My promised mate, Sentira. The
Order promised to separate them from their human slavers and return
them to the shadow world by nightfall if I could hand them this one
human girl."

His words sent my heart soaring, despite his
betrayal. The Order had promised to separate the demons from the
humans? Did that mean they knew how to do it? Or was this just
another one of their lies?

He continued to stare at me, questioning. "Never
in my immortal lifetime would I have imagined you would have
defeated that hunter," he said. A tear rolled down his cheek. "Now
my family is lost to me forever, thanks to you."

"It wasn't me who took your family," I said.
"Besides, you should have known better than to trust the Order.
They would have never helped you even if they knew of a way to
separate humans and demons."

"The council understands your sorrow," Andros
said, clearing his throat. "All of us here have someone we love on
the other side, but to betray us all for your own selfish reasons
is something we can never forgive. Jericho, you are hereby
sentenced to live out the rest of your immortal life in isolation
on the third sub-floor."

Jericho's eyes grew wide and he shook his head
frantically. "No," he said. "You cannot put me down there with
those things. Please, I'll do anything."

"Would you rather we put you outside the
protection of the Underground?" Andros roared. "Where the Order of
Shadows would surely come for you? Don't you know what they would
do to you once they realized you had failed them? My decision is
final."

Out of the shadows of the council room, two tall
demons emerged and took hold of Jericho's arms. They dragged him
from the room, his screams echoing through the dark hallway.

Lea took her place in the remaining empty chair
around the council's table.

She nodded to me, a knowing look in her
eyes.

"Now that the whole of the council is present,
we need to address the issue of Harper's presence in the
Underground," Andros said. He looked across the table at me. "I
would like to commend you on your bravery today. I am sure I don't
have to tell you how grateful I am that you were willing to risk
your life to save my daughter."

"I'm just glad she's okay," I said.

"We all know that you could have run when word
came that the hunter had entered the Underground," he said. "The
fact that you stayed to fight against nearly impossible odds says a
lot about your character. I'm sure many of the council members are
sorry they misjudged you."

Many of those sitting at the table lowered their
heads.

"You have shown enormous power for a human," he
continued. "To defeat a hunter is no small feat, as I'm sure know.
Still, we cannot ignore the fact that your presence here puts us
all in danger. Were it not for you being here, the hunter never
would have had a reason to come."

I bit my lip and rubbed my sweating palms
against my pants. I had a feeling I knew what was coming next.

"Before you arrived, the council voted on this
matter, and I'm afraid our decision was that you must leave the
Underground."

Jackson stood, slapping his hand down on the
surface of the table. "You cannot do this," Jackson said. "Harper
was willing to sacrifice her life for all of you today. She fought
that hunter with everything she had and she won. She deserves a
chance to stay. If you throw her out, you're condemning her to
death. Besides, the hunter wouldn't have gotten in at all if there
hadn't been a traitor on the council."

Andros folded his hands together and leaned
forward. "I understand everything you're saying, old friend. As you
know, this is not the first time one of the demons of the
Underground has betrayed us. This is why we try to keep the actions
of this council and the Resistance secret, but we never dreamed we
could have a traitor on our own council. Keeping her is a risk. The
Order will never stop trying to corrupt and conquer our people
until she is gone. We do appreciate her actions today. However, we
cannot continue to put all of our citizens in danger for the life
of this one human girl."

"Are you forgetting that this one human girl is
also connected to my brother? If she dies, Aerden dies too."

"We understand your concerns," a tall female
demon responded. "But our responsibility is to the shadow demons
who have entrusted us with their lives down here."

"Bullshit," Jackson said. "You have simply
chosen to let fear rule you. How are you any different than the
king? Or my father? Sitting down here in the safety of this cave,
doing nothing while the demons of our world suffer."

"We fight for the villages who are attacked by
hunters," a gray-haired demon said. "We have saved hundreds of
lives through our work."

"You don't even make a dent," Jackson said. "You
have the power and the ability to make a real difference, but
instead you choose the easy fights. You protect one village while
the Order simply moves on to the next and steals twice as many from
their beds."

"Enough," Andros said. "The decision has been
made, friend. The girl must leave tonight."

Fear shot through me. Tonight? My earlier
heartache-fueled determination had left me. I had gotten lucky
against one hunter, but. how long before another hunter found
me?

"I am going with her," Jackson said.

Ten pairs of eyes stared at him in stunned
silence.

"Your duty is here with your future Queen,"
Andros said, finally finding his voice.

At this, Lea stood. I held my breath, unsure
what she was going to say. Would she demand that Jackson stay here
with her?

"His duty is both to his brother and to the
woman he loves," she said. She paused and looked at Jackson, love
and sadness mixed in her expression. "Go and keep her safe."

A murmur went up among the members of the
council.

Jackson took Lea's hand and brought it to his
lips in gratitude. "Thank you," he said.

She nodded, then turned away. It was the closest
to crying I had ever seen from her. I felt her sacrifice deep in my
heart. She loved him, but she was willing to let him go.

Lea sniffed once, then straightened, all signs
of her emotions zipped up again behind her sarcasm and strength.
"When you get settled, contact us and let us know where you
are."

She placed a small stone in Jackson's hand, and
he quickly put it in his pocket.

He touched my arm and motioned for me to stand.
I knew it was our cue to leave, but I had something more I wanted
to say. Before I could talk myself out of it, I turned to the
council.

"The Order of Shadows is a powerful
organization, but they aren't gods and they aren't invincible," I
said. "I know it's not my place to tell you how to live or fight,
but someday, I hope we can build an army of demons and humans who
can work together to bring down the Order. In the beginning, when
the first of your kind came to my world, the first thing he
experienced there was not torture or slavery or sorrow. It was
love. The Order may have corrupted that, but that doesn't mean we
should hate each other for the sins of one group of greedy women.
Not all humans want to see your kind hurt, and not all humans value
power over love."

I finished my speech and stared out at the faces
of those around the table. I couldn't tell what impact, if any, my
words had on them. All I could hope was that somewhere in their
hearts, they understood what I was trying to say.

Breaking the news to Mary Anne was not easy.

"You've got to be kidding me," she shouted. "You
saved all their asses and they're kicking you out? Well, I'm going
with you."

She turned toward her room, but I grabbed her
arm to stop her.

"We've been through this once already, haven't
we?"

She scrunched her face up in barely suppressed
anger. "You can't go back out there with those things alone."

"I'm not going to be alone," I said. "Jackson's
coming with me."

She shook her head. "Then I'm definitely not
staying here," she said. "We came here together. We should leave
together."

"I'm sorry, but you have to stay here," I said.
"This journey is going to be difficult enough without me worrying
about you the whole time. You still aren't completely healed from
your injuries. It's too risky."

Her shoulders relaxed slightly and her bottom
lip quivered. "You have to go tonight?" she asked. "They won't even
let you stay overnight to get your rest?"

I shook my head. "No, they're afraid more
hunters will show up if I stay," I said. I pulled her into my arms
for a big hug. "We'll be okay."

"Where will you go?" she asked.

"I don't know," I said. "But we'll figure it
out. Maybe we'll go back to the cave or something for a few days?
We haven't had a chance to really make a plan yet."

"This isn't fair."

"Life rarely is," I said. "Here or back
home."

"How will I know where you are or how to reach
you if I need to?" she asked. "Will you come back for me if you
decide to go home?"

"You can reach us with this," Jackson said.

I hadn't even heard him come back into the room,
but he was packed and ready to go. He handed something to Mary
Anne, and when she opened her palm to study it, I saw that it was a
tiny clear stone.

"How does it work?" she asked.

"All you have to do is close your palm around
the stone and think my name," he said. "I have a matching stone
with me, so I will hear you if you call for me. The only drawback
is that you can only use it a handful of times before it loses its
magic."

"Okay," she said, tucking it into her pocket. "I
will only use it in case of an emergency or something really
important."

"I've asked Lea to watch out for you," he said.
"And Essex is going to take good care of you too."

Mary Anne nodded, her blue eyes filling with
tears. "I love you guys," she said.

The three of us joined in a group hug, and I
wondered when or if I would ever see my dear friend again.

Jackson took my hand and walked with me toward
the Grand Hall. We had decided to spend the night in another cave
Jackson knew from his childhood.

"Do you think we'll be able to make it there
tonight?" I asked. "It's already so late, and I can't stand that
stupid Obsidian Forest."

He smiled and squeezed my hand as we walked.
"The place where we came through to the Underground is just one of
many portals," he said. "There are similar circles of black roses
all over the Northern Kingdom. I asked Andros to find us a portal
closer to the cave where I want to hide out."

I took in a calming breath and felt the relief
flood through me. I was so thankful to have him with me. I couldn't
believe I'd almost left on my own.

In the marketplace, a small group of shadow
demons waited to say goodbye. I recognized the faces of some of the
vendors and cafe owners I'd become friendly with over the past few
weeks. Essex and his mother were there. Some of Jackson's friends.
As we passed by, they offered us food, water, and weapons. Bowing,
we took each present, thanking them. Their gifts touched my heart.
That they didn't blame me for the deaths of those thirty shadow
demons eased my guilt.