But a responsible court member wouldn’t even have shown up to the auction.
I laughed when someone forced their hand straight into the skull of the person who offered the sphere.
“Empaths are a hot commodity, it seems,” Madam called out over the roaring crowd. “Let’s add something interesting to this bet, hm? Does anyone have another soul sphere to offer?”
The shadow demon raised her hand.
What?
This was better than any court nonsense.
“We should come to these more often,” I whispered to Oros. This time, she didn’t smile at me, but she did reach her clawed hand out to touch the human’s soft hair.
Aris and the shadow demon kept bickering until Yien confidently said, “A soul sphere… of a realm ruler.”
Silence fell across the room.
Even Oros and I turned to look at her.
If the court hears about this…
“Proof,” Madam demanded. The human on the stage was starting to shake. I could smell the fear coming from her now too. But my eyes moved from her to watch Yien.
Her shadows moved toward the body of the demon Aris had killed to get her human. They covered him fully, but the power of what was happening rippled across the space.
When she pulled her shadows back, there was only a single, black orb with a red core floating where the body had been.
Aris yanked the human out of her shadows faster than I’d ever seen her move before.
“That hurts me,” Yien said. “I thought we were friends.”
“I didn’t know you could?—“
“Sold!”
The shadow demon was quick to take her prize and disappear without a moment of hesitation.
Fair.I looked at Oros with a smile.
“Ready to take our prize home?”
7
EVE
What the actual fuck?
One second I was in the auction house where a pink-haired demon got all up in my personal space; the next I was waking up inthe mostextravagant-looking sitting room I had ever seen in my life.
Did she transport me here?They. There were two. Another one had handled the bidding.
Light streamed in from the floor-to-ceiling window. The ceiling literallyglitteredwith gold flakes. The furniture in the room looked like something out of a royal palace, and the couch I was lying on was so comfy and soft and warm and—oh.
It wasn’t just a couch I was lying on.
I blinked rapidly as the demon I was resting my head on came into view. It was the same one from the auction house. Pink hair, small red horns, a wicked smile that told me she was ready to play, and bright red eyes…
Another one shifted near my legs. My eyes followed the movement to see the same exact demon sitting there with my legs across her lap. She looked at me with an almost bored expression.
