your eyes and then shoot, you’d never miss.”
“I’ve never thought of that,” I whisper back. It’s actually a brilliant idea, but telling him that out loud seems dangerous. He already thinks he is the best thing ever created in Hell.
We slip into the house, and suddenly my senses are overwhelmed before I get a real look at the room. Death. The room stinks of death.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, almost stumbling back. I can smell all the pain and death this room has witnessed. It all reeks of death, and my wolf howls in my head. Dozens of wolves have died in this room, not just demons. Their blood is coating the walls and floors.
The pain seems to shoot straight into my heart.
“So it seems like they weren’t just trafficking demons,” Caspian growls out. “Fuckers.”
“No alpha anywhere around the world would let wolves be trafficked. They need to know about this,” I say.
“Agreed, but it can’t come from us. We can’t have alphas looking our way, songbird,” he warns me. Shit, he is right. “I sense something alive in the back room, but otherwise it’s empty.”
We go to the back together, and Caspian opens the flimsy door. It’s a long room, and the back wall is filled with cages. The cages are all broken and dirty, and it stinks. The doors are all open except for a few at the bottom. I try not to look at the piles of bones and red dust in the open cages as I head to the closed ones.
“Careful,” Caspian warns me.
“Got it,” I reply.
I get to the closed cages and I have to kneel to look inside them. In the first one there, there’s nothing but dust. I move to the second cage, and something moves under a dirty grey blanket. I hook my finger in it through the cage and give it a quick pull. Underneath is a small creature, all bundled up.
“I’m going to cover the door,” Caspian tells me. I pull the blanket out of the cage through the gaps. When covering is gone, I see bits of eggshells all around the cage floor, and on top is a little creature curled into a ball. It must have just hatched, and it’s a literal golden demon dragon. It’s tiny, only the size of my hand, with a little mouth and bright-gold eyes that look at me with fear. Its gold tail flickers out as it gazes up at me and slowly stretches its silver wings out at its sides. I tug the lock off the door and reach it, picking the dragon up who curls into my hand.
So cute.
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” I whisper to the dragon who has closed its tiny eyes and is napping in my hand. The cage next to the dragon bangs, and I jump out of my skin, nearly falling over. I glance over to see something that reminds me of a gnome, but it’s clearly demonic. The gnome is a tiny thing, and he has a tiny hat on its orange head. Despite having orange skin, it is covered in little dots of green blood from various cuts that look painful. Something that I think is a napkin is tied around its waist, but for some reason, the gnome seems strong.
The gnome is no bigger than my middle finger, and it glares up at me. It puts its hands on its tiny waist. “Don’t you touch that demon, you red-haired witch!”
“Witches don’t exist, dude,” I tell him. “And no need to be rude to the people helping.”
“Helping?” He huffs. “I’m still in a cage, woman.”
Caspian glances back and arches an eyebrow with a small smile.
I shake my head and try not to smile. “I’m just trying to help. I’m not here to steal you, sell you, or do anything you don’t want.”
“I don’t trust red-haired witches,” the gnome growls.
“Neither do I, mate,” Caspian agrees.
Jackass.
“I could take you back to Hell and release you wherever you want,” I suggest. “Or somewhere on Earth?”
“I am Knight and I do not need a commoner’s help,” he tells me, holding his head high for a second, then it drops with his expression. He seems sad. “I may not have any family left, or royals to serve, but I am still a knight who is destined to fight for justice.”
“You’re still just a gnome demon with a bad attitude. Let’s get going, songbird,” Caspian calls over his shoulder.
“I think Knight should come with us,” I argue. “He