important. After a few years, I finally started to feel guilty. To feel like a monster.
These days, I mostly feel nothing. Demons are evil, and they deserve to be killed. It’s that simple. Other creatures like vampyres and wytches are evil too, but we normally offer them the choice to leave these realms willingly. We only kill them if they refuse or if they harm innocents.
Looking over the map laid out on the table brings a sharp pain to my chest. I don’t want to go back to work. I don’t want to leave Isla, and I definitely never want her to know how much of a monster I truly am. If she knew how many creatures I’ve murdered in my lifetime, no matter how evil they may be, what would she think of me? Would she be relieved to know there are less demons in existence because of me and my brothers?
The door opens behind me, and I turn around to see Elder Amias step into the room. He bows and closes the door behind him. The scent of his fear is strong, and I notice his hands trembling even as he attempts to show a brave face.
“Guardian Reule.” He walks further into the room hesitantly, pausing a few feet in front of me. “I didn’t expect you back at the castle so soon. How can I help you?”
My lips curl back from my teeth as I look him over critically. His black eye is still healing from where Isla punched him. Why didn’t I question him more thoroughly yesterday? I’m a moron for assuming his innocence in her situation.
I clasp my hands behind my back and stare him down, keeping my voice even despite my beast demanding I tear him to shreds. “Why did my wife react that way to seeing you, Amias?”
He meets my eyes for only a second, and he takes a shuddering breath as he struggles to find his words. An hour ago, Audun and I threatened to snap his neck for Isla’s honor. And now I’ve called him here to speak with me in private. He should be scared.
“King Janak and I told you yesterday. She was very frightened when I took her from the demon’s place.”
His voice wavers, and I let a snarl escape my throat.
“Tell me again. Every detail.” When he doesn’t answer right away, I step closer and growl until he meets my eyes. “If you don’t tell me what happened to my wife from the moment you first saw her to the moment she ended up on my doorstep, I’ll kill you for harming her. It’s well within my rights, as you know.”
“I—I swear, Guardian Reule. I never touched her, never harmed her! I would never!”
“It’s her word against yours, and her actions thus far have shown otherwise.” Maybe he never physically hurt her, but he did something to make her react in anger at seeing him again. Was he the one who shoved her into that cage? My mind races with the possibilities of how that scenario might have played out.
He takes a terrified, gasping breath when I take another step closer, and words spill from his mouth.
“Five of us were sent to her realm, all to different cities. We’ve been watching the realm in secret, always checking to see if the threat from demons and darker creatures has grown out of control. Demons like the one selling Isla, well, it’s not uncommon to find others like him selling magical creatures illegally. Wealthy humans in Isla’s realm see them as trophies to own. Isla and another human girl were being sold alongside dozens of magical creatures. There were some there even I was unfamiliar with.”
My eyes widen at this revelation. I’ve always considered all dark creatures bad where humans, mages, Elders, and Guardians are good. There’s us, and there’s them. To hear that a demon would sell his own kind is just…abysmal and mind-boggling. How did Isla get involved? How did she find herself there?
Amias continues. “I told the demon I was interested in buying a human girl, and he informed me he had two. He gave me very little information about them, just that Isla was brought to his facility by a vampyre, and the other girl was sold to him by a wytch after she was unable to pay a debt she owed. He warned me Isla was violent, that she’d killed one of his human guards in an attempt to escape. He also said she refused