Prince of Demons 3: The Order of the Black Swan Read Free Page A

Brave.
    “Brave. What happened?”
    Litha took hold of the cell door, murmured something and it opened.
    Lana did a double take because she’d just been pulling and pushing with all her might and it hadn’t budged. Rushing forward she took Brave’s face in her hands. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
    Litha apparently worked some magic on the manacles because they fell free. Brave collapsed and Lana went to the floor with him, trying to hold and comfort him.
    “Now’s the time to tell us, Brave. What happened here?”
    “I guess I’ve been distracted with thinking about Lana.” He sounded weak. “We were attacked by the Reinlitegen. They came right into Court. The first thing they did was to grab me. There were so many. Callii didn’t have any choice but to evacuate.”
    “Evacuate?” Lana asked. “You mean run away and just leave you to the mercy of the, uh…”
    “Reinlitegen. It sounds bad when you say it like that, but the Callii aren’t aggressive like the Reinlitegen. Staying would have been suicide.”
    “So they took over your world and put you in here?”
    He tried to smile. “Kind of ironic? That they’d imprison me in the prison I built as an amusement park for you?”
    “Yeah. Ironic.”
    Litha had been listening to the exchange carefully. “So why did they want you in particular, Brave? From what you’ve said it almost sounds like you were their real reason for being here.”
    He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
    “Well, I’m not interested in getting involved in a war between Callii and Reinlitegen. Not what I signed on for, but I can see that you’re falling victim to demon ignorance, Brave. They took you, but they don’t know what to do with you. They really have no concept about the care and feeding of humans. So I’m going to make sure your strength and health are returned to you and then after that, what happens is your fate. Not mine.”
    Brave looked at Litha and tried to focus on her features. “Who are you?”
    “I’m just here to help out your girlfriend.”
    “My girlfriend?”
    “She means me,” Lana said.
    Brave’s eyes cut to Lana with such an adoring look that it provided Litha with a feel-good kind of payoff.
    “Lana, we can take him back to The Order long enough to get him healthy. And maybe return him to the Callii he belongs to. Wherever they are. But that’s as much interference as I can offer.”
    Brave focused on Litha and tried to clear his throat. “I understand. I’d be grateful.”
    “We’ll be grateful,” Lana corrected and Brave gave her that look again that said she had to be the goddess that hung the moon. “How are we going to do that? He doesn’t have any of the magic juice in his system.”
    “Magic juice?” Litha chuckled. “I love that. Well, I guess I need to go back to the source and get some more.”
    “Your, uh, dad? Something tells me you’ll have a fight on your hands.”
    Litha just pressed her lips together. “We’ll see. Let’s go.”
    “What do you mean? I’m not leaving him.”
    “I get why your first impulse is to want to stay with him, but I don’t think that’s smart. If you come with me now, then at least we’ll have you out of harm’s way.”
    “No. If the Rein-whatever come back and find him out of the chains, we don’t know what they’ll do. Take us somewhere in this world where he’ll be safe until you can come back.”
    Litha chewed on her top lip. “Where would that be?”
    Lana looked at Brave. “There’s an outpost where he could stay for a little while. A ramshackle sort of hunters’ cabin.”
    “I still have to take you first so you can show me where it is.”
    Lana had no choice but to concede to that logic. “All right. Can we hurry?”
    “A rush order. My specialty.”
     
     
    It seemed that demons, and half demons, had the ability to see through the murk of the passes, whereas unenhanced humans did not. For that reason, returning to the shelter was a tricky process,