“Subspecies should not be ranked,” I spoke up.
“Oh?” Respa nodded at me to continue.
“I mean, there’s a reason the supernatural hierarchy was abolished, after all. I feel the same way about the subspecies of demons.”
The nobles in the class scoffed at me, but the majority of the demons sitting around nodded in agreement with me.
“Says the scavenger,” one of the nobles, a chaos demon that used to hang around Dreadful, called out. I bet he was one of the demons included in jumping me at Odyssey Bluffs. “Eating souls isn’t that fucking cool.”
“Dude, stop,” one of his friends whispered in fear. “Do you want to die?”
“She could literally eat your soul,” Jenni snorted. “She’s a fuckingpredator. Not a scavenger. She’ll rip your entire soul out and leave your body lifeless on the floor in five seconds flat. Want to test it?”
“Not really.” The guy’s face turned ashen, and he shut his mouth.
“Keep things civil,” Respa reminded us. “Let’s change the topic. What about this—which can determine a demon’s worth: raw power or their morals? Keep class standing out of it.”
“Raw power, obviously,” the chaos demon, whose name I really couldn’t remember, huffed.
“I disagree,” Fester muttered.
“You literally got rejected for not being powerfulenough. As in not nobility...clearly class alsodetermines worthiness,” the demon snapped back.
Respa groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Did I not just say to keep class out of it?”
Fester sank into himself, and I opened my mouth to stand up for him, but Jenni beat me to it.
“Shut up,” she snipped. “Nightwind wasn’t worthy of Fester. Fester has morals, unlike you assholes. I say that makes himway fucking better.”
“I have a low-class chaos demon as a mate,” I stated, narrowing my gaze at the little group of nobles in the back. “And he’smuchstronger than you are.”
He snorted in amusement. “That Bram guy who dropped his last name like a fucking weirdo? Yeah, right. Prove it.”
“Sure, meet Demo.” Chaos magic bloomed in my stomach, and Demo manifested.
He cracked another smile. “That little manifestation proves what? All chaos demon mates can use their mate’s power to manifest a minor form of their mate’s manifestation.”
“True, but Bram and I figured something pretty cool out. Care to see?”
My spectral black puppy tilted her cute head before growing double the size that Chaos usually did. She stepped forward and snarled, making him fall off his chair, trying to get away from her.
“What the fuck? You aren’t supposed to be able to do that!” He scrambled back. “There’s no way a low-class demon could lend his mate that much power!Youare probably why it’s so fucking strong.”
Demo stepped forward with a threatening growl.
“Demo isBram’smagic.” I shrugged, smiling.“I hold no sway over chaos magic, but Bram does.”
“Okay, okay! I get it! Class isn’t part of worthiness! Please, make her go away.” He closed his eyes as Demo snapped her teeth in his face.
“Demo.” I tugged on my chaos magic, and she yipped happily, decreasing in size until she was a cute puppy again. Then, she leapt back into me.
Reed cleared his throat, biting back a proud smile. “Judging demons by class doesn’t work. Never know how strong another demon’s magic is. That alone should be an ethical issue.”
Some demons did laugh at that, but most of them nodded their heads in agreement.
“You’re right.” I reached over and placed my hand on his thigh again.
Respa nodded. “Ethics are important because of what we just saw. It’snotethical to bring class into demon rights.Alldemons are worthy of being treated with respect. Both nobility and low-class. Now, I want to focus on...”
