A Demon's Wrath: Part II (Peachville High Demons) by Sarra Cannon

my side, reading to me or holding
my hand. Sometimes I woke to see my mother’s worried face.
    But when I opened my eyes and found the king
standing beside my bed, I forced myself to sit up.
    I struggled to focus on his face and saw right
away that he was angry. I knew he had come here with a specific
purpose. And it wasn’t a happy one.
    “Denaer, I know you need your rest, but I am
glad to see you awake,” he said. He pulled a chair over to my
bedside and sat down so that his face was level with my own. “There
is something very important I need to talk with you about, and I need
to make sure that you hear every single word. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, your majesty,” I said. My voice
was scratchy and weak and I reached for a cup of water on the table.
My hands were still so weak that even the simple act of picking up a
glass was difficult and awkward. At the time, I had no grasp of how
long I had been unconscious or just how close to death I had truly
come.
    “Lea has been very vague about the wound on
your side and how you came to be so sick, but I know the poison that
runs through your system,” he said. “I know that you are
very lucky to be alive.”
    I dared not say a word. If he knew this poison,
then he also knew that I had discovered the truth about the Order of
Shadows. Or at least some part of the truth.
    “I understand that losing your brother was
the cause of great sorrow in your life. I even understand your need
to continue searching for answers when your parents repeatedly asked
you to leave it alone,” he said. “What I don’t
understand is why you insist on dragging my daughter, the future
Queen of the North, into dangerous situations with no regard for her
safety.”
    I turned to stare at him, meeting his gaze. This
was not about putting his daughter in danger and we both knew it.
    “Lea makes her own choices,” I said.
    “She would follow you to the edge of this
world and beyond if you asked her and don’t pretend she
wouldn’t,” he said. “Your searching has gone far
enough. You’ve already come dangerously close to a truth I
hoped you would never have to face. You cannot go any further down
that path. It’s time for you to accept that your brother is
gone and he’s never coming back. It’s time for you to
embrace your future here with the princess and let go of the past.”
    My hands trembled in anger and I balled them into
tight fists. How dare he ask me to turn my back on my own brother. He
should have been offering his help, his guards, his money and
influence. He should have been apologizing for letting things go as
far as they had.
    “You’re right,” I said, sitting
up a little straighter. My anger was giving me a renewed sense of
strength.
    He nodded. “I’m glad to hear you have
finally come around to this under—”
    “You’re right that we have discovered
a terrible truth,” I said, interrupting him. “We know all
about the Order of Shadows. We know that these human witches have
portals all over the Northern Kingdom. They steal demons from their
homes in the middle of the night and pull them through to their world
for their own evil purpose. And we know that you’ve known about
this since before my brother was taken, yet you did nothing to stop
them.”
    “You don’t know anything,” the
king said, standing. “Don’t speak to me as if you have
the right to judge my actions. I am King of the North and I will make
the decisions I feel are best for my people.”
    “Then tell me, King, how is it best for the
people that these witches are allowed to continue taking demons from
their villages?” I asked. I swung my legs over the side of my
bed.
    “I don’t answer to you.” His
voice swelled.
    “You do answer to me,” I said. I set
my feet against the floor and somehow found the strength to stand for
the first time in days. “My brother is gone because of the
decisions you have made and the lies you have told. You owe me an
answer. You owe it to