Demon's Trust (The Chronicles of Arcayos #1) - Raven Dark Page 0,18
all bad, can he?
I push my heels into the floor, remaining where I am. “And those men? Why did you kill them?”
He clasps his hands behind him, feet apart, militant. “They were not men. They were Tae’agul.”
“Like you.”
“Yes.”
“But they looked human.”
“So do I.” Turning to me, his expression takes on a look of concentration. That cracked, blue-gray deathlike look appears on his face, on every other part of him I can see. His chest, his hands. “Until an Agul wishes you to see what he is, he looks human, but it is an illusion.”
I gasp. “Hold on. That first time I saw you, those men you killed… they were after me. Why?”
His brows slam down. “Are you sure they were after you?” The sharpness of his voice startles me.
“Positive. But what would these demons want with me?”
“They shouldn’t want anything from you. That doesn’t make sense. Demons are only interested in...” His jaw muscles twitch. “Unless…”
“What?” I press.
His lips pressed into a thin line.
“Unless what? Arcayos, share.”
Hands still clasped behind him, his arms flex, his expression impassive.
I push my hand through my curls. His evasiveness eats away at any urge to trust him.
“Call me a cynic, Arcayos, but I’ve dealt with my fair share of serial killers who hide their crimes behind stories like yours. Okay, maybe not exactly like this. Yours is fairly original, I’ll give you that. But how do I know you aren’t lying? Didn’t you just tell me that these Tae’agul always lie, not to trust anything they say? How am I supposed to trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.” He looks away. “You shouldn’t trust me.”
“Well, then what—”
“Can you not see what I am?” He takes a few steps toward me, out of the glare of the light, leaving his inhuman face clearly visible. Only my couch separates us. “If you do not believe me that Agul are real, then believe me when I tell you, there are evil forces out there, and last night four of them almost killed you. Both times you have seen me fight them, you have seen evidence that what I say is true.”
I let out a long breath, trying to wrap my head around what he’s telling me. I hate to admit it, but he’s not wrong.
I put my head back with a sigh. “When those men killed Claire—the woman living in my parents’ house—I assumed they weren’t afraid of my shooting them because they were on something. The one that murdered her snapped her neck way too easily. And I thought they moved too fast."
Wanting to believe him, I close my eyes and then open them again, looking at the ceiling. I meet his eyes.
“I checked on her case. The cops said all the doors and windows in her house were locked when those men showed up. How did they get in?”
“They didn’t come through a door. They came through the Hell’s Gate. They can open it anywhere, at any time, including inside a locked house.”
His words make too much sense to dismiss as a lie. There are so many things that didn’t make sense about that day. They do now.
“Is that how you got in?”
“Yes. Except I came through Va’halzoret’s Gate. The portal to Elorian. Neither is visible to a human unless those who open it from either world wish it.”
I drop into the chair and look up at him. “All right. Let’s say you’re telling the truth, and you are a good demon on a mission to fight the forces of evil. Why? Why turn against your own kind? Why kill them? Wouldn’t that make you a target?”
“It has. I am a traitor to all of Hellinon. Marked for death by Hazuldar himself. But that comes with the territory of being the Champion of Va’halzoret.”
Ah, now we’re getting to the heart of this craziness.
“One of those guys called you that before. What does that mean?”
He nods, as if deciding something. Then he walks to the couch, but instead of sitting, he towers behind it, his red eyes locked on mine.
“Since the Dawn of Time, Va’halzoret has watched over humankind, protecting this world. The Goddess and her Angels have guided humans, kept you in the Light. Before humans walked the earth, her First Angel, Hazuldar, betrayed her. As punishment, she created the world of Hellion and imprisoned him there for all time. He became the Lord of Demons.”
I lean toward him. “He can’t leave, so he sends his Tae’agul to do his dirty work for him.”