Runes of Truth (A Demon's Fall #1)(8)

“Fuck,” Connor mutters, holding his hands in the air.

“Don’t move, you wouldn’t want me to slip,” I say sweetly next to his ear, holding the dagger close. The room is deadly silent as I look around, ignoring Trex as he glares at me. There are three thrones in the middle of the room, the floor is made of red glass by the looks of it. I glance around at the five gold statues in the room, four of them are men, and there is one woman. She has long hair, and a smile on her face as she reaches up in the air for something, and for some reason, she looks familiar to me. She has runes etched on her face and a crown right in the middle. It makes me freeze, but not enough to forget where I am. I pull my eyes away from the statue to the four hooded people in the room.

“Kill him if you must,” the man in the middle says, pulling his hood down. The man has dark skin, brown eyes, and his hair is shaved off, so I can see the tattoos on his head. They look like symbols, maybe even runes, but I’m not close enough to see. He has a flame symbol on his forehead, and when the other three men lower their hoods, I see they all wear the symbol. It’s still clear to me who the leader is as they let him speak.

“Let me go, they won’t care if you kill me. You should have held the dagger to Trex’s throat if you wanted a useful hostage,” Connor bites out. I look over at Trex, who watches me carefully, and I know he is waiting for a chance to attack me. I grin, moving my dagger away as I jump off Connor’s back and hold my hands up. They aren’t going to attack me, I can see it in the way they stand. Everything points to Connor telling me the truth earlier, they need me for something, and I might as well find out what. Connor steps away from me, rubbing his neck.

“Okay, okay. I’ll play nice, what do you want?” I turn away from looking at Connor to ask the men who are in charge.

“My name is Keeper Cadean, and quite simply, we need your help,” he tells me with a dead serious expression.

“Why would I help your kind? You’ve hardly welcomed me with open arms,” I say, with a sarcastic laugh, and he nods in agreement.

“We will never welcome you into the protectors, because of our knowledge of who you are. We still must make a deal with you for your help,” he states, folding his hands together.

“And what am I?” I ask, wanting to know what they think.

“A killer, an assassin, and a thief. You could never be trusted in the royal Protector’s city,” he states simply.

“Explain what you want, I’m getting bored with all this,” I say, waving my hand.

“Two nights ago, our three princesses were taken. Our princesses were five days away from a ceremony that would make one of them our queen, and we have no other royal heirs,” Cadean says tightly.

“Do you think I took them? Are you kidding?” I say, with wide eyes, trying not to laugh.

“No, we do not think you took them. The princesses are the most powerful of our kind, they would not be taken by a simple assassin,” Trex laughs, and I narrow my eyes at him.

“I could have, if I knew they existed that is,” I mutter.

“Our royal family is the best kept secret of the Protectors,” Trex tells me.

“Then why haven’t you gone after them yourselves, you all have runes like me,” I say.

“On the same night, our runes’ powers were stolen. We believe the kidnapper placed demon power into our water supply and food somehow. We won’t be able to use our rune powers until it is out of our system, which will be around two weeks,” Connor explains to me.

“Right, so let me get this straight. Your princesses are taken, you have no powers, and you want me to what exactly?” I ask.

“We have information that suggests the princesses are on the bottom layer of hell. We believe a couple of overlord demons took them for their power. We want you to rescue them,” Cadean says, and all I can do is laugh. They have to be kidding.

“I told you she wouldn’t help, she only helps herself,” Trex snaps, giving me a disgusted look, and I have to resist the urge to stick my tongue out at the moody fucker.

“We have something Evie wants, and she will help us,” Cadean states, his voice confident enough to make me pause and look back at him. He stands still, his brown eyes watching me carefully, like he knows I’m close to flipping out and escaping this hell hole of shiny crap.

“Like what?” I ask.

“I know why you are hunted, I know what your rune name is. I can tell you your past, I can tell you who you are, and make sure you are never hunted again. You help us, and you will have all the answers you have searched for, and you won’t have hide,” he tells me, and I pause for a second, running his answer over in my mind. I don’t know anything about my life, and he could tell me everything. I know my parents had to be Protectors, it’s the only way I could have my marks.

“And you let Hali walk free, and pretend you never saw her?” I ask, because she has to come with the deal.

“We will never speak of the death-marked witch, nor tell her kind she is alive,” Cadean nods. I slide my dagger back into the holder and cross my arms.

“Getting into hell is easy, but surviving there is hard. I’ve only been to the top layer, but I know the two layers below it are impossible to survive alone. I will need some people you don’t mind dying to come with me,” I say, and Cadean nods his head at Trex.