reaction from you. Some things simply just … are.”
She shook her head. He really wasn’t helping. She was starting to wish that Newton was still here.
Demian continued walking. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, but that doesn’t mean—”
“I wish people would stop treating me like a child,” Donna said, interrupting him. “‘You wouldn’t understand,’ they say. ‘It’s for your own good,’ they tell me. And you’re doing exactly the same thing.”
Demian stopped suddenly, forcing Donna to stop with him. “Now you really do misunderstand me.” His head tilted to one side as he examined her. “It is true that I said that you don’t understand my ways, but I was about to say that I would like it, very much, if you learned. Just because someone doesn’t understand something, doesn’t mean they can’t gain an understanding. Given time.”
Time? Donna didn’t intend to spend any more time with Demian than she was forced to. And she certainly didn’t want to “understand” him. He was so very alien to her. Other didn’t even begin to describe the way he somehow felt when she spoke to him. Even dealing with the fey didn’t have the disconcerting sense of wrongness.
“Here,” he said.
Slowly, the mist cleared to reveal how high up they were. The Otherworld sky was now filled with crimson clouds, covering the iron sun, but a thousand lights like fallen stars glittered far below.
Donna took a tentative step toward the edge of the cliff. She looked down and gasped.
Twenty-one
Look upon the Sunless City,” said the demon. He made a sweeping gesture with his hand.
The city spread out far below, buildings and streets and alleyways like a living, three-dimensional map. All the light came from a variety of scattered structures. There was no order to anything—at least, not one that Donna could recognize. There were small buildings next to large. Narrow streets that opened into huge, red-streaked highways. A river the color of dull iron wound snakelike through the center, and towers that almost touched the sky seemed to grow from the very ground itself.
There were no people. No living things scurrying about their business on the streets below. No birds flying through the dusty air. But then, Donna thought, why would there be? They were in the Otherworld. The Underworld: a land of the dead.
Demian watched her taking in the terrible beauty of his world. She could feel his eyes on her, burning into her with an intensity that made her want to hide.
“Come,” he said. “I will take you where you need to go. Time grows short.”
He extended his hand, palm up, waiting for her with all the patience of a centuries-old tree waiting for rain.
She took his hand. It was cool and dry, his skin even paler than hers. He tugged her toward him, so that she was forced to take an extra step. She found herself in the circle of his arms, looking up into those strange eyes.
Donna held her breath—one hand in his, her other touching his chest to keep him at a distance. Here she was, dying in another world under a strange sun with the king of the demons. Life as a daughter of the alchemists had seemed pretty extreme … wood elves and half-fey boys, magic and changeling girls … it all pushed the boundaries of what she believed was possible. The emergence of her own power, bound for a decade by people she’d once trusted, was yet another step into the unknown.
But this … this was something else. She felt lightheaded, and wondered if their altitude was affecting her. Or perhaps it was the crimson dust that tickled her nostrils and made her feel like she constantly needed to clear her throat.
Demian didn’t move. He didn’t attempt to pull her closer, but he also didn’t release her. The cool mask of his face cracked and the corners of his mouth raised, just slightly. It was the first smile Donna had seen that didn’t seem touched by cruelty.
“Donna Underwood,” he said. “I would have you for my queen.”
“Your queen?!” Donna pulled her arm back, but the demon held her with a grip of iron to rival her own.
“Think about it: you are deeply unhappy in your world. I know this is true. Together, we could rule. Not just this realm, but all the realms that stretch throughout eternity. With my strength of will and your ability to access other realms, we could rule not just one race—but all of them.”
Horror crawled through Donna’s chest like a