Read Online Demon Child by Kylie Chan - Free Book Online

wonderful to have the Dark Lord back after so many years alone.’ I raised my arms and swung them, and the armour didn’t pinch anywhere. ‘Good job. Can you put my hair up in the ebony spike for me?’
    ‘I can do your make-up, ma’am,’ she said, pleased, ‘and put ornaments in your hair.’
    ‘No make-up, no ornaments, just the spike.’
    ‘What, like a man?’ she said. ‘You should have a prettier hairstyle than that. Something more decorative. I would be delighted to put your hair into a feminine style, I have practised.’ She studied my hair. ‘Some gold ornaments and a comb would be much more suitable for someone of your rank.’
    I tapped the breastplate. ‘I’m a warrior.’
    ‘But with no make-up, you’ll look like a man. They let you dress as a man?’ she said. ‘I didn’t realise — I mean, I know you wear armour and you’re a warrior, but dressed like this you look like a man.’
    ‘I’m not dressed as a man,’ I said. ‘I’m dressed as me. I’m not here to be decorative, I’m here to do a job. Come on.’ I walked back through the wall and sat at the dressing table. ‘Put it up and put the spike through it.’
    ‘Yes, ma’am,’ she said. She shook her head as she pulled my hair up. ‘You are turning everything upside down. You make the world look so different. I feel like I don’t know anything any more.’
    ‘Then you’re probably ready to begin learning,’ I said.
    I pulled my Doc Martens on, and Smally laced one while I laced the other. When we were done we went back out to the courtyard, where John was waiting for us with a sliced nashi pear and some grapes in front of him. We shared a nod and I went to him.
    He stood with effort, leaning on the stick, and glanced over my shoulder at Smally. ‘Return to your duties.’
    Smally’s voice was soft with disappointment. ‘At the laundry?’
    ‘No,’ John said.
    I turned to her. ‘Smally, you were planning to clean out my closet. We’ll be a while so take your time.’
    Smally lit up and bowed low with a huge grin. ‘My Lady.’ She spun and nearly skipped back into the house.
    I turned back to John. ‘All set?’
    ‘Just arranging a private place to land.’ I waited for a moment, and then he nodded. ‘Fixed.’
    He held his hand out to me and I took it. We stood, hands clasped, gazing into each other’s eyes, then the world spun and I blacked out.
    I came around on a simple coconut-fibre mattress laid on the floor in a bare room. John was sitting cross-legged next to me, and nobody else was present. I sat up, then lowered my head as a moment of dizziness took me. I breathed deeply, aware of his concerned attention, then sat back up and shook out my shoulders.
    ‘How long was I out?’
    ‘Half an hour.’ He took his hair out, leaned forward, tied it into a topknot then tossed it back. ‘I was out for fifteen minutes.’
    ‘Are you okay?’
    He nodded, his dark eyes full of restrained emotion. ‘You aren’t.’
    ‘I’ll get there.’
    I leaned on the wall to pull myself upright, my insides protesting, then bent as another wave of dizziness made the room spin. I carefully levered myself to vertical, then waited for John. He did exactly the same thing, also stopping before he could be completely upright. He concentrated and grew to his mid-forties form wearing his black robe and armour, same as me.
    Yanluo Wang, Lord of the Underworld, opened the door and poked his head around. ‘My Lord.’
    ‘We’re ready,’ John said.
    Wang looked from John to me, his expression carefully controlled, then opened the door wider. ‘This way.’
    When we arrived in his office, Wang leaned on the back of his big leather executive chair and put one hand out towards John.‘Surely you can take True Form or come through the Courts? This must be driving you crazy.’
    ‘The damage is to the Serpent, and it’s infected,’ John said, grimacing with pain as he sat. ‘Even if the Turtle goes through the Courts the damage will