Kingdom of Lies (Imp Series Book 7) by Debra Dunbar Read Free Book Online Page B

I’ll show your half-elf girl around, but I don’t have the time or the magical firepower handy to guard her against all the demons and elves that are going to want her head on a stake. Get one of your household to be her bodyguard.”
    “Do you want crops this year, or a decade from now? She won’t be here until summer. That’s plenty of time to throw some defensive shit together. I’ll send one of my demons over to help, but I need you to ensure her safety. Otherwise you’ll have to wait until I build up some goodwill with the elves and convince one of them to do it, which could be outside the limits of your life expectancy.”
    Kirby rubbed his forehead, nearly slicing himself with the knife. “Okay. But send a decent demon. Hopefully by the time the word gets out that she’s here, she’ll be long gone.”
    I hoped so too. But I still needed to figure out something to keep Amber safe beyond one Low and a mage, even if it involved dragging Dar back to Hel by his balls. Shit, if he couldn’t be away from that angel for a paltry few weeks, what good was he?
    I flew back toward the house at Patchine, craving my nap as I complained to myself about brothers, but it wasn’t really Dar I was mad at, it was me and my shitty situation. And Gregory’s. How come my brother got to take an extended vacation and snuggle with his angel while I didn’t? The most Gregory and I ever seemed to have was a few days here and there. Even our Christmas vacation didn’t exactly pan out as planned. No fair. Life was just not fair at all.
    I was too busy having my little pity party to notice the incoming arrows until they hit their mark. And let me tell you, having an arrow tear through your already injured wing was the most painful thing I’ve experienced since Ahriman’s ‘affections’. My immediate reaction was to hide the things, protecting them from the missiles. Which left me two-hundred feet up without wings.
    Two-hundred feet doesn’t allow for a lot of decision-making time when you’re in free fall. I quickly weighed the pain of sensitive wings punched full of holes versus a bone-crushing landing. It says a lot for the sensitivity of wings that I chose the latter.
    I hit the forest canopy at maximum velocity, crashing through branches and bouncing painfully off the thicker limbs. The trees broke my fall somewhat, so I didn’t splat onto the ground like I would have in the demon areas of Hel. Still, I landed hard on my back, knocking the air completely out of my lungs.
    I’d broken three ribs along with several other bones in my arms and legs on the way down. The arrows that had pierced my body had snapped, twisting the points and tearing even further through my flesh. Before I had a chance to heal myself, several elves raced over to throw a net over me and bash me with blunt objects.
    And there went even more bones. Plus, I could also now add a concussion to the mix. A vision of Gregory’s dead angel flashed before me, broken and bloodied with half his spirit-self ripped away. I could live in a dead body indefinitely, but the idea of spending centuries rotting in an elven net wasn’t appealing. Nor did my particular situation do much for my street cred. It was time to show these elves who the big dog in Hel really was.
    I summoned my Iblis sword, this time as an actual sword, and sliced through the net like it was water. Without taking time to heal myself, I swung the sword in an arc, blindly slashing in the hopes that something would connect.
    It did. I heard a scream, then eerie silence.
    The elves had shouted the second the net had fallen away. They were fast little fuckers, but evidently one hadn’t been fast enough. I kicked the rest of the net aside and healed myself, keeping the sword handy, just in case.
    He was young—like barely two-centuries young. Green eyes stared at nothing, and his mouth hung open. He lay on his side, in a fetal position as he clutched what was left of his stomach. I felt sick as I