So was the way they were shouting at her.
“What did you see, girl?”
“Where is it?”
“What were you doing?”
“Are you possessed?”
“Did you speak to the demon?”
They spoke over each other so fast that it was hard to discern their individual questions. Lilliana had her hands over her ears as she tried to shrink away from them.
But they wouldn’t let her. With every backward step she made, they took two toward her.
“Papa!” The panic and fear in her voice caused his powers to surge.
How dare they scare her so. His heart racing, Malphas advanced on them. “Leave her alone!”
The men turned to fight, until they realized how tall he was. How much more muscled. There was no mistaking the fear and reservation in their eyes as they stepped back to clear a path between Malphas and Lilliana. He didn’t pause until he stood with his back to her so that he could shield her from the eight men.
He could feel her relief. Especially when she placed a trembling hand on his back. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Malphas didn’t respond. Instead, he glared at the group. “What do you want?”
Orus, the sorcerer, stepped forward. “Information.”
“About?”
An old man to Orus’s right scratched at his chin. “We saw her footsteps. She’s been going to a cave not far from where a demon was sighted. We want to know why she was there and if she saw the demon we’re after.”
Malphas saw the terror on her father’s face. Luckily, he stood behind the others so that they couldn’t see his expression. The demonic part of him wanted to set fire to them all. He didn’t owe them any kind of explanation and neither did she.
Sadly, he was acutely aware of her hand at his hip. The fear she had as she held on to his cloak.
Forcing the demon inside him down, he faced them with a sneer. “I was in the cave.”
“Why?”
“Had a run-in with a demon.” It wasn’t really a lie. The Sephirii were demons to his kind. And they could be just as harmful to humans.
More so, actually.
The men were now in awe. “Are you a warrior?”
“How are you alive?”
“What happened?”
“Where’s the demon?”
Again, their voices blurred together. And Malphas didn’t miss the suspicious light in Orus’s eyes. Yet beneath that was another glimmer. One that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
“I’m a demigod, and I dispatched your demon. For a price.” Again, it was all true. So long as he was in this form, his demonic half was quelled.
The price just happened to be…
Honestly, he wasn’t sure. But there was always a price to everything. Good. Bad. Indifferent. Happiness and sorrow. It all took a toll.
