Read Online The Devil You Need by Sam Cheever - Free Book Online Page B

After a moment he turned to me. “You
need to get out of here. If one of the council sees you you’ll be dead before
you can blink.”
    “Not until I find Dialle.”
    He grabbed my arms and looked down at me, his uninjured
black eye swirling with irritated color. I’d never seen Gerch’s eyes swirl
before and was surprised by it. Though I knew he was just about one of the
highest level non-royal devils I knew. “I can’t protect you both, Astra.” It
was a measure of his distress that he called me by my name instead of his
usual, snark-infused address of “my queen”.
    “Where is he, Gerch? Is he safe?”
    He swore, looking past the hanging again. “No one is safe in
the court anymore, my queen .” And he was back. “But you and the king are
especially vulnerable given the current situation.”
    “What exactly is the current situation?”
    “I don’t have time to talk about this now. You need to shift
out of here and I’ll bring the king to you as soon as I can.”
    I shook my head. “I’m not leaving without him so you might
as well take me to him, Gerch.”
    He swore again but crossed his massive arms stubbornly over
his broad chest.
    We indulged in dueling gazes for several beats and then I
sighed in defeat. “All right, you’re not giving me much choice.”
    The muscles in his jaw relaxed and his shoulders came just a
fraction of an inch off square. “That is the point, my queen.”
    I nodded. “Fine.” He turned away to look back out at the
action and I lifted my hands, grabbing the heavy wall hanging in both hands and
jerking it loose from the wall. As it dropped I ran forward, shoving the dense
hanging before me like a shield. The hanging gathered dark worlders as I ran
and I used my power to smack them hard into the wall.
    I spun, swinging the heavy material around me like a
bludgeon. The power-infused swing took the legs out from under two demons and a
royal who were coming at me with blade and claw. As they hit the ground I shot
them in the chest with a jolt of magic, killing them. “To Hades with you fool,
for God hath tired of you.”
    I ran toward the end of the hall. If Dialle wasn’t in his
rooms he’d be in his throne room.
    I wasn’t sure how I heard him coming over the rest of the
noise, but my senses seemed especially alert since the adrenalin had kicked in.
I spun just as a tall, skeletal royal lunged. If I hadn’t turned he’d have
buried his blade in my heart and I’d have died before I even knew he was there.
    I shoved the hanging in front of the blood-covered blade as
it swung back, and arched away as it sliced clean through. Fire seared my ribs
where the blade grazed me. I yanked the hanging sideways, pulling the sword
from the royal’s long fingers, and flung it against the wall. With a scream of
pure rage, I flung myself at him, smacking him hard on the forehead and sending
energy in a thin stream of bright light into his brain.
    He was still twitching on the floor as I leapt back to my
feet and took off running.
    The battle thinned as I neared the throne room and I had
high hopes that Dialle was safe there, locked behind the double doors made of
gold. When I spotted Gerch’s guards standing in front of the doors, swords
drawn and already covered in blood, I felt even better. Several bodies littered
the floor before them, evidence of their work.
    I ran toward the guards. “Let me in!”
    The soldier in charge stepped forward, his sword lifting. “I
cannot open these doors. The king is in danger.”
    “Open the doors you steaming pile of gargoyle shit, or I’ll
blast you and open them myself!”
    The man started to shake his head and I lost all patience.
But instead of striking out at one of the apparent few who were willing to
protect Dialle, I finally took Gerch’s advice. I pictured the space on the
other side of the golden doors and shifted.
    The world dropped away and fell silent. A moment later I
felt it slide over me again like a shroud, my feet hitting