A Demon's Wrath: Part I (Peachville High Demons) (2 page)

He cut his eyes toward me, his lip curled up in a
grimace. “That’s not how it works and you know it.”

I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms in front
of me. “So I was right. You are upset about this,” I
said.

He turned away again, but this time, I grabbed his
shoulder and spun him toward me.

Aerden pushed my hand off of his arm and stood,
taking two angry steps toward me.

“Get off me,” he said. His breath was
heavy, his chest rising and falling rapidly with each inhale and
exhale.

“Hey, don’t put this on me,” I
said. “If you’re jealous, you’re going to have to
either talk about it or learn to deal with it. You might have
centuries before I take over as king, but you only have a few hours
until it’s too late for me to say no.”

His head snapped toward me. “You think I’m
upset about you becoming king someday?”

I stepped backward. “What else would you be
so mad about?”

His face softened and he looked away from me,
avoiding my eyes.

I shook my head, trying to make sense of his
anger. What was really going on here?

I walked toward him and rested my hand on his arm.
“Listen, I don’t want to fight with you. You’re my
twin brother,” I said. “You’re the most important
person in the world to me. I don’t want this to come between
us, but if you don’t tell me what’s eating you up, how
can I understand?”

Aerden’s mouth fell open and he sucked in a
nervous breath.

But just when I thought he might finally open up
to me, small arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me backward.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before
turning to Lazalea.

“Hey Lea,” I said.

She giggled and lifted her face to me, her green
eyes bright and shining with happiness. “Hi,” she said.
“I thought I might find you two out here playing around.”

I cleared my throat and pulled her arms away from
me, but when I turned back to Aerden, I saw his eyes lingering on her
soft hands.

And then I knew.

The realization of it took my breath away, leaving
a heavy feeling in my chest.

I stared at him and when his eyes flicked up
toward mine, I saw what I’d been missing all this time. All
these years. How could I have been so blind?

Aerden wasn’t upset I was going to be king.

He was upset I was going to marry the woman he
loved.

“Come on,” Lea said. She grabbed my
hand and squeezed, but when I saw jealousy flash in my brother’s
eyes, I realized he saw every touch as a betrayal.

I released her hand as if it were on fire.

“Aerden and I were just finishing up a game.
Can I meet you later?” I asked.

Lea’s shoulders fell and worry wrinkled her
forehead. “Is everything okay?”

I glanced toward my brother, who had turned his
back on us.

“Everything’s fine,” I said.
“There’s just been a lot going on lately, and I wanted to
spend some time with Aerden today since it might be our last chance
to do this kind of thing for a while.”

She shook her head. “Denaer, there’s
no time, your mother said she needs to see you right away,” she
said, then bit her lower lip and smiled. “She needs to give you
something.”

Aerden’s head turned toward us and I
swallowed hard.

“Hold on,” I told her.

I walked over to my brother. “I need to talk
to you,” I said. “Can we meet up later?”

“I have a lot going on right now, too,”
he said with a shrug. “Let’s just wait and see what
happens.”

I wished we had more time. Why didn’t he
tell me he loved her? If he’d said something years ago, or even
months ago, maybe we could have done something about it. Maybe we
could have switched places.

Lea’s eyes met mine and she sucked in a
breath. “Are you coming?”

A strange twinge tugged at my heart.

What choice did I have?

I took her hand, suddenly torn between duty and
loyalty.

When I got home, my mother was waiting for me in
my room.

“Where have you been?” she asked. She
wore long red robes with ribbons of silver embedded in the fabric. On
her head, she wore a crown of silver adorned with red and yellow
stones. It was a mark of nobility, earned through my father’s
position on the king’s council. “There’s still so
much that needs to get done before tomorrow.”

“I was sparring with Aerden outside the
city,” I said.

“You know you don’t have time for
things like that anymore,” she said with a frown. “You’re
going to have a lot of responsibilities coming up.”

I sighed. “That’s exactly why I wanted
to spend some extra time with him,” I said. “He hasn’t
been himself lately.”

I didn’t say anything about his feelings for
Lea. I wanted to talk to him about it first.

Worry flashed in my mother’s eyes for a
moment, but it disappeared just as quickly. A smile spread across her
face and her shoulders straightened. “You know your brother,”
she said. “He’s very strong. He’ll be fine.
Besides, Aerden should be the least of your concerns right now.”

I sat down in a chair beside the window, suddenly
feeling so tired.

“I’m glad you’re here now,”
she said. She placed her hand on my shoulder. “There’s
something very important we need to talk about.”

She reached inside her robes to retrieve a small
golden case.

My stomach twisted and I cleared my throat.
“What’s that?”

Mother smiled and held the locket out to me. “Open
it,” she said.

I took it in my hand, expecting the metal to be
cool to the touch. Instead, it was warm and smooth. I turned it over
in my hands, searching for some kind of clasp, but it was smooth like
a stone. “How?”

“Set it in the palm of your hand, then wave
your other hand over the top of it like this.” She showed me
the motion.

I imitated her and the case opened slowly, like
the petals of a growing flower. I studied the clear, colorless stone
inside. I’d never seen anything like it before. In our world,
we had stones of almost every color imaginable, but I’d never
seen one with no color at all.

“Diamonds are one of the rarest stones,”
she said. “Rare, but pure and very powerful.”

“What is it for?”

She sat down in the chair across from me and put
her hand on mine.

“The exchanging of heart stones is one of
the most honored and secret traditions in the engagement ceremony,”
she said. “The stone has been cleansed and blessed with a
special spell. As soon as you hold it in your hand and think of your
chosen mate, the stone will pull the truth of your feelings for her
straight from your heart. ”

I stared down at the diamond. It was small, but I
could feel the power radiating from it. The air around us buzzed with
it.

“I don’t understand,” I said.
“What’s the purpose of it?”

“Promising yourself to another is more than
an act of obedience,” she said. “Even though this match
was arranged for you, the engagement itself must be a choice you both
make. The heart stones help you make that final decision to commit
your lives to each other.”

I shook my head, still not understanding.

My mother smiled. “The princess has been
given a matching stone,” she said. “You will each pour
your true feelings for each other into the heart stones. Your love.
Your doubt. Your adoration. Whatever the stone feels is most
important. Then, during the ceremony, you and Princess Lazalea will
exchange these stones under a veil of privacy. You will open them in
front of each other, each seeing what the other placed inside. She
will know your true heart and you, my son, will know hers.”

The truth of what she was saying hit me like the
crushing weight of a mountain on my chest. I couldn’t speak or
breath.

If Lea saw my true feelings, she would know that I
didn’t love her.

“I can’t do this,” I said. I
handed the golden locket back to my mother and stood up. I wanted to
get as far away from that glimmering stone as I could.

My mother followed me toward the other side of the
room. “You must,” she said, handing it out to me. “It’s
part of the tradition.”

I shook my head and pressed my palm against the
cool black wall.

“Darling, there’s nothing to be
nervous about,” she said, patting my back. “What secrets
could you possibly have from one another? The two of you have been
inseparable since you were shadowlings. She already knows how you
feel about her.”

I closed my eyes, my heart beating so fast it made
my head spin. Yes, Lea and I had been inseparable, but she had no
idea what my true feelings were. Of course, I cared for her as a
friend, but I knew I didn’t love her the way she wanted to be
loved.

I had watched her affection for me growing over
the years and I had truly done everything in my power to make myself
feel the same way. We’d been promised to each other at birth
and because of it, I resigned myself to a life without love a long
time ago.

But I never wanted her to know that. I wanted her
to feel loved. She deserved that.

Knowing what I now knew about Aerden’s
feelings only made this more complicated.

There had to be a way to make this right.

“Why?” I asked, turning to my mother.
“Why are you just now giving me the stone? Why didn’t
someone tell me about this sooner?”

“Denaer, I don’t understand why you’re
so upset about this.” Her face twisted with worry. “The
stone must be presented at the last minute like this so that there
can be no chance to alter the stone’s truth. It’s
tradition for the couple to pour their hearts into the stone on the
day before the engagement. It remains secret so that it remains
pure.”

I forced myself to breathe, but my heart ached
inside its cage.

“Does anyone ever open the locket and change
their mind?” I asked. “What if someone found out the
person they were matched with didn’t love them? What then?”

She grabbed my hand from my side and pressed the
golden locket into my palm. “What you see inside the heart
stone can be your greatest joy or your darkest secret,” she
said, her gaze piercing through me. “But rejecting a match this
important would bring shame to everyone.”

I closed my fist around the case and nodded.

I understood her completely. Lea would never
reject this match and shame her family. Instead, she would see the
truth inside the heart stone. She would have to live the rest of her
life knowing I didn’t love her.

I would become her darkest secret.

I couldn’t let that happen when I knew that
there was someone else who truly loved her.

I needed to find Aerden.

I found him by the water at the edge of the Black
Cliffs.

Some days, the surface of the water looked like
glass, black and shining and so smooth it looked as if you could walk
across it.

But today, the waves were wild and stormy. Any
demon who went into the water today would be dragged under, never to
be seen again. He would spend an eternity being tossed around at the
bottom of the sea, every second a struggle.

I have known since I was a small child that I was
meant to marry Princess Lazalea. Back then, I didn’t care one
way or another. I knew nothing of love or hope or freedom. All I knew
was loyalty and obligation.

Marrying her was my duty, and I was ready to do as
I was told.

But now, as the day of our engagement ceremony
approached, I felt as restless as the sea.

Seeing my brother there beside the stormy shore,
his face shrouded in dark hurt, I suddenly wondered if going through
with the engagement would condemn us both to a life fighting the
waves. A life of darkness and struggle under a sea of glass.

I made my way to him slowly, unsure what I should
say.

The solution was complicated, because there was
more than just my feelings or Aerden’s to consider.

Lea was my friend, but where I didn’t feel a
passionate love for her, I knew she felt something much deeper for
me. I could feel it in the soft touch of her hand against mine. It
was there every time she looked into my eyes. She loved me. She
wanted to spend eternity by my side.

Even if I didn’t feel the same way for her,
I thought I could make a life with her. I could be a good mate for
her, never revealing to her that my feelings weren’t as strong.
But now?

Now she would know.

The truth would bring her a pain I wasn’t
prepared to inflict.

Seeing the love and sorrow in my brother’s
eyes only made things worse for all of us.

If he loved her, how would he ever forgive me for
marrying her? My engagement to Lea would create an impossible
distance between us. Our relationship would never be the same, and I
wasn’t sure I could survive that. My brother was a part of me
in a way no one else could understand.

I couldn’t live the rest of my life knowing
I’d brought so much pain to them both.

I approached Aerden with a heavy heart.

He tensed at my presence, not even bothering to
turn around and meet my eyes. Instead, he continued to look out over
the rough seas.

“Leave me alone,” he said.

I sat down next to him on the edge of the cliff.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I
asked.

He closed his eyes briefly, then sighed and ran a
hand through his hair. “I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

‘Bullshit,” I said. “This is it,
Aerden. We’re out of time. You either start being honest with
me—with yourself—or you’re going to regret this for
the rest of your life.”

He let his head fall into his hands and I placed
my palm flat and sure against his shoulder.

“You have to tell her how you feel before
it’s too late,” I said.

“It’s already too late, can’t
you see that?” he said. “I’m not the one she
loves.”