House Of Gods 9 - Samantha Snow Page 0,24

him what his thoughts about it were.

“I think,” he started. He knew he probably should have bit his tongue, but he had spent years listening to the stories about his sister and her soon-to-be demon lover. “That it’s all a bit ridiculous. Shouldn’t the person who is charged with ruling over all of the nine worlds be someone older and wiser and definitely more powerful than my sister?”

“Rolf, you love your sister,” Celeste said, looking slightly upset at his comment.

“Yes, I do. But love doesn’t make one a powerful leader.”

“Actually, it can,” Lopt said. “It is one of the most powerful forces in the universe, certainly capable of making or breaking great leaders.”

Rolf knew that what Lopt had said was correct. He agreed with him; he just didn’t like the whole arrangement. After all, even he had been training and studying harder and longer than Tara had been.

“Well, what about Tannin then? Should a demon really be put in charge of ruling the worlds?”

“For starters, Tannin isn’t a demon. He does have demonic tendencies, but so too does Helia, and she is a very good and powerful ruler.”

Rolf could see there was no way he was going to come out ahead in this conversation, and he knew the reason for it. They were right, and he was wrong. He was speaking out of mere jealousy and, although he knew it, he couldn’t help but feel jealous. He had lived in his sister’s shadow since they were small children. Hell, he had even lived in the shadow of her stupid stuffed bear. He nodded to them both and conceded.

“You’re right,” he said. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

He picked up his dinner dishes and went back out to work on his training.

There was a small building just outside the palace, that was one of Rolf’s favorite places to go. It had a wide-open room and lots of light, perfect for building things inside. Even in the evenings, the light from the palace courtyard shone in through the windows and made it possible to continue working on projects all the way through the wee hours until the morning sun rose again. Rolf had worked on many projects inside its walls. He loved to build things, both mechanical and magical. He especially loved inventions that served a new purpose. He had most recently built one of the girls who lived just outside the city, a mechanical rain collector. He thought she was cute, and she was always outside during the storms trying to collect rainwater and talking about how magical it was. So he built her a jar with a wide-open mouth that collected the rainwater and then shined rainbow-colored lights into it to make it look truly “magical” by rigging an electrical panel that shone through variously cut crystals. She was so happy when he presented the gift that she had kissed him on the cheek as thanks.

Some days he felt like he could like here forever, making interesting things that made people happy and finding a beautiful girl to marry and make magical things for. Other days, he felt like he should be the one ruling the realms and not his outspoken younger sister and her prophesied demon-boy mate. It was on those days that he worked on his secret invention.

He had been building it for years and had kept it hidden away underneath a loose floorboard in the building so no one would find it. It wasn’t that it was a bad invention; in fact, it could potentially have many productive uses that would help people. It was just that he thought it might be misunderstood. It wasn’t very big, just slightly larger than his outstretched hand, but it was very complicated. It had taken him years of trial and error to make it finally into a feasible device. And now, it was close to working.

The little box-shaped machine was stuffed inside with more electrical wiring and intricate circuitry than anyone would have been able to guess from the humble appearance of its exterior. He had also infused it with magic, which not only made it even more powerful but also allowed it to do things common circuitry would not. He was even able to put a magical guard on it, which acted like a puzzle and kept any unwanted access to the device from happening. To others, what looked like the shell of a music box or a jewelry case, was actually a device