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Aurora tried to slip a finger beneath her collar to loosen it, but it was too tight. It was almost as if the bad demon knew that Aurora could teleport and chose a tighter collar just for her.
Ember gasped, grasping Aurora’s hand. Rora, my friends say the bad demon is coming!
Aurora didn’t want the bad demon to see they’d cut through their bindings. Hide beneath the hay, she said to her sister. Hurry!
They buried themselves until only their eyes were showing as they peered between the grass stalks while the ugly demon witch came into the room, followed by two fire mages.
A loud clanking of keys, and then the rusty metal door screeched as it was slung open.
Aurora squeezed her sister’s hand, doing her best not to move even as fleas bit her skin.
Fire mages with red, glowing eyes unlocked the chains of one of the hooded figures, dragging him out of the cell before shutting it with a noisy clank.
They sat him on a low wooden stool and tied him up. Then they pulled back his hood, revealing an old man with a scraggly gray beard. Aurora’s stomach churned when she saw the bloody bandage covering his eyes. There was so much blood, she wondered if he had any eyes left at all, or if the bad demon had eaten them.
Em gasped. Rora, it’s him.
Aurora nodded. I know. Thorin. She remembered meeting him when they’d teleported back to their cabin after the giants had attacked them.
He’s a bad mage, Em continued.
The fire mages ripped off the gag from Thorin’s mouth.
“Water!” Thorin cried.
The mages laughed and then grabbed a bucket of water, dumping the whole thing over his head. Thorin sputtered and spit, licking drops off his lips.
The ugly demon witch walked a slow circle around Thorin. “Traitorous old fool. You could still be serving me, but you let your shriveled cock think for you,” she said with a sneer, her wolf’s snout sticking out from beneath her hooded cloak. “The only thing you did that was of any use was leave that brush behind.” She let out a creepy cackle. “I was able to find hairs from all the Avias witches in that brush. Now I have the white witch’s children.”
Thorin’s mouth fell open. “Tarianya’s children! Flora’s grandchildren!” Thorin struggled against his restraints. “What are you doing with them?”
Aurora’s bones turned to jelly when the ugly demon witch turned her glowing gaze on them. She grasped Em and jerked back, but it was too late.
The demon woman pulled back her hood. She was the ugliest thing Auora had ever seen with that wolf’s maw and third eye in the center of her forehead. Though her arms looked like bent twigs, her belly looked full, and Aurora wondered if she was growing a baby. “I’m going to use them to get their mother to surrender. Then I’m going to take their magic and eat them after I have my fill of baby dragon. Their meat is so tender.” She licked her lips with a forked tongue. “I haven’t had a hatchling in centuries.”
No, not Triss! Em gasped, trembling against Aurora while Aurora’s own heart felt like a giant had stomped on it.
Thorin threw back his head with a yowl. “You twisted bitch!”
The ugly demon rubbed her talons together and let out scratchy laughter that made Aurora feel like those fleas biting her had burrowed into her bones.
Leaning over Thorin, the demon hissed in his face. “I think I’ll eat your tongue while you’re still alive. Your eyes made a delicious stew.”
Aurora squeezed her sister’s arm when Thorin went eerily still. “Stay strong, girls,” he called. “Tell your grandmother and mother I love them.” His voice sounded watery and thick with emotion. “That I did it all for them.”
Did what for them? Em asked.
I-I don’t know, Aurora answered.
“Silence, you foolish windbag.” The mages grasped his head, holding him still while the ugly demon unsheathed a claw.
Close your eyes, Em, Aurora whispered to her sister.
Aurora closed her eyes, too, though she would never forget Thorin’s agonized cries, followed by muffled sobs.
She was too terrified to move when they dragged him back to the cell and chained him to the wall, knocking the hood off the other prisoner, revealing a woman from what she could tell. She held her breath a long moment, then released it when the creaky door shut and she heard the clank of keys followed by retreating footsteps. She had to get that collar off, or the bad demons would eat Em’s and her eyes and tongues, too.
Chapter Twenty-Four
