“Is what she says true?” Rafe asked Thorn. “Are you the demon Forneus?”
Thorn passed an irritated grimace toward the pirate. “No one can help who they’re born as. But we all have a choice as to who we become, and especially in who we are. The demon Forneus died an excruciatingly long time ago, as Captain Bane can attest. I’m not the same beast who led his army of demons over the lands of man to conquer this world for his father. I’m here to make sure creatures like her mistress pay for their crimes and harm no innocent.”
Rafe arched a quizzical brow at Devyl.
He met Thorn’s cold green gaze before he answered with the truth. “Thorn isn’t Forneus.” At least not anymore. Though to be honest, Devyl would have liked to have met that warlord. They could have been friends.
Better still, they could have been allies.
But the curse of this world was that it was ever changing. Friends today. Enemies tomorrow. And, as was presently true, even enemies could become friendly.
Life was ever peculiar that way, as it kept everyone on their toes. You never knew where it was going to land you, or how quickly.
Sinner to saint. Hero to villain. A person’s role could reverse itself in the blink of an eye. All it took was one good deed for redemption.
Or one misplaced lie by another that others were too quick to grab on to and hold close to their hearts, even though they knew it for the fabrication it was. In that one single heartbeat, your whole life was ruined. For no other reason than people didn’t want to do their own thinking or learn their own facts. Rather, all too many were willing to follow along like mindless sheep to the slaughter.
Or the lynching.
He’d never understand the human mind. Especially the hypocrisy of it all. Just as he’d never understand why Thorn had given him this chance to earn back his soul when they both knew he didn’t deserve it.
Thorn wasn’t the one Rafe should be cringing from.
He was. In his day, he’d made a mockery of the vile, evil creature Rafe had caged before them.
And with that knowledge firing deep in his gullet, Devyl turned on Mona and bared his fangs at the Blackthorn bitchtress. He let his eyes glow their true bloody color so that she could see he was through with her games. “Tell what you know, Mona! Where is she?”
“So you do care, don’t you now? Och, Du.” She tsked at him with her blackened teeth. “The truth comes out. Dark lord you might be, but me lady always held your nubby heart, such as it is. You should have been there when we fell, my lord. Vine herself lamented your death over it. She said that, had she not killed you, we wouldn’t have been taken. None to blame for it but herself, she said.”
He scowled at her nonsense. “Stop the riddles!” He blasted the cage with his powers.
The force of it knocked her from her feet and sent her straight to the ground, where she slammed against the side of the ship.
From the floor, she wiped one pale, black-veined hand across her bleeding nose and laughed. “Poor Du!”
When he went to blast her again, Thorn caught his arm. “Don’t bother.”
Growling deep in his throat, he curled his lip at Thorn’s compassion. “What are we to do with her? We can’t leave her here. Sooner or later, she’ll feast on them all, and well you know it. You banish her to return to her prison and she’ll only escape and be back to bother us all the more and wreak who knows what harm on the humans. She’s naught but a disease to plague and eat away at anything that she sets her roots to.”
An insidious smile curved Thorn’s lips. “I’ll plant her in a place from which there’s no escape.”
Bitter amusement swept through Devyl as he realized that Thorn intended to take her into his home realm of Azmodea. He was right. It would be the one place from which she could never again escape. But what a hellish nightmare that would be, especially if Thorn planted her in his garden.…
Devyl smirked. “You are an evil bastard.”
“Indeed.” As Thorn headed to her cage, she shrank away from him.
“I’ll take you to the gate, Du! Please, lord! Mercy! Mercy!”
Devyl met Thorn’s gaze and let out a tired breath, as he actually felt sorry for the bitch and the fate that would await her in that hole.
This was a bad idea. Every instinct he possessed told him he was a fool to even consider it.
She was lying about helping them. He knew it without fail or doubt.
And yet …
What if she wasn’t?
