Read Online The Demon Duke and I by Marian Tee - Free Book Online Page A

every creature in the entire kingdom of Chalys would have quailed at the look that the duke dealt Mihail, but he did not even flinch. He had made a vow to the angel Magdalene, and he would not shirk from it – even if it meant needing to come to blows with his best friend.
              “Nearly a thousand years you had searched the world for a heartkeeper and you did not find her,” Mihail bit out. “Just when you are ready to die for the kingdom, she appears out of the blue? Doesn’t that feel a little too convenient?”
              “While I do not want this to be a habit,” Ilie drawled, “I must agree with Le Marquis di Sangre.” Back in his human form, Ilie was dressed in black and white, his rich burgundy coat tossed carelessly over the back of the gilded armrest where he lounged. His posture might be one of lazy indolence, but as the people around him knew him well, none of them were fooled by it.
              Ilie was a ruthless killer, a predator to the very core, as was typical of the Lunare’s shapeshifting bloodlines.
    Gentling his tone for the sake of Maricha, whom all of them looked upon as a little sister, Ilie asked, “Tell us, Maricha. Is there a way we may ascertain that the human girl is indeed the duke’s intended heartkeeper?”
    Maricha bit her lip, her gaze snaking to Adrijan. She knew she shouldn’t do so, knew that he would be angry with her for doing so, but she could not help it.
    Adrijan’s face remained unreadable, but for just the smallest moment, fury sparked in his eyes as he gazed at her.
    Maricha looked away. Clearing her throat and hoping that her pain wouldn’t color her voice, she said awkwardly, “I have done my best to seek the answer to this myself. But as far as I can tell, it is only the duke himself who would know.”
    Silviu said levelly, “And as I have said earlier, I am certain she is my heartkeeper.”
    Ilie raised a brow. “There is no possibility of witchcraft being involved?”
    Silviu shook his head sharply. “None.”
    Mihail did not appear convinced but for now, it was clear he had decided to hold his tongue.
    “The consummation then,” Adrijan said after a while. “What of it?”
    And here came the hard part , Maricha thought. She said with the utmost care, “As you know, when His Grace’s mother…escaped, the demon lords sent imps to raze the libraries in their own domains to ensure that no one would ever learn the secrets to heartkeeping. The texts I’ve managed to find were all stolen from Sulphur’s own libraries but they do not say much, only that your powers as a demon will remain weak until the union has been consummated.”
    “For the purpose of clarity,” Ilie inserted dryly, “by consummation you do mean sex, right?”
    Maricha colored.
    A wicked grin curved on the wolf-demon’s lips. “That she blushes at such a word means you have guarded her well, Mihail.”
              “I only told her to avoid men who remind her of even the slightest bit of you. Obviously it’s enough,” Mihail replied smoothly.
              Maricha glared at the two. “Just because I blush does not mean I don’t…you know…” Her voice trailed off. Drat it, she could not make herself say what she wanted to say.
    It was so unfair! She was almost as old as they were, having been born only a few years after her brother, but because of a stupid curse, she had slept for nearly a thousand years.
    When Maricha was brought out of her cursed slumber, the world had completely changed but she still felt seventeen while everyone else had become legends.
              Ilie and Mihail grinned at her outburst and even Silviu’s lips twitched. Only Adrijan appeared indifferent, so much so that Maricha was torn between crying tears of frustration and sinking her fangs into his neck.
              Seeing how Mihail’s younger sister was doing her best not to show how upset she was, Silviu took pity and drew her