The Demon Lord (A Demon Outlaws Novella) (Entangled Edge) by Paula Altenburg Read Free Book Online

trembling from relief. She held the blanket-wrapped bundle up for its reluctant mother to see. “She is beautiful. Not a monster at all.”
    The goddess twisted away. “Destroy it,” she said. “It is demon spawn. An abomination to the universe. It belongs to no world.”
    Something deep inside Desire twisted. She had wanted so much to hold a baby of her own in her arms and three times had been denied the opportunity, yet here was a mother with a beautiful, healthy child and she would not so much as take one look?
    This small creature radiated nothing but innocence, and had come into the mortal world by natural means. It was no abomination.
    Far from it.
    “She is a girl!” Desire insisted. “See? Spawn are male. And she is beautiful. She is no spawn, nor is she a monster. If anything, she is a goddess.” The baby in her arms puckered a tiny, rosebud mouth, then opened dark, astonishing eyes rimmed with thick black lashes. Love shot through her with all the fierceness of a bolt of lightning, and she knew she could never destroy something so wonderful. “Let me keep her.”
    “I cannot,” the goddess said, but Desire sensed her hesitation. She was, after all, a goddess—and now, a mother. Both nurtured life. They did not destroy it.
    Desire pressed her small advantage. “No one need ever know. I can raise her as mine. I feel nothing but goodness in her. I can teach her the ways of the goddesses.”
    The goddess bit her lip, her face alarmingly pale. “You forget that she has two birthrights, not one.”
    “But she is a female,” Desire insisted. “Not a demon. If you would only touch her, or look at her, you would see for yourself.”
    Before the goddess could protest, Desire placed the baby on its mother’s chest.
    Instinctively, the goddess’s arms came up to keep the child from falling. She cradled her daughter for long moments while Desire held her breath, until a single golden tear slid down the goddess’s cheek.
    “Keep her, then,” she finally said, and Desire reclaimed the precious bundle. “But she remains my responsibility. I cannot leave the world unprotected if you are mistaken about her.” She lifted a finger. “Bring me that coffer.”
    Desire took the small silver box from the shelf and lifted the lid for the goddess. Inside were two amulets. One, round and flat and carved from a red soil hardened with several layers of natural desert varnish, bore the symbol of a lightning bolt. The other, more delicate in structure, was crafted from a common mountain stone that glimmered with all the colors of the rainbow.
    Desire recognized the rainbow. It was a favorite stone the goddess had once worn often, but now that Desire thought about it, she had not seen it on her in recent months.
    The other amulet, however, was ugly and unfamiliar to her. It was not goddess made.
    “The rainbow,” the goddess said, “is for the baby.” A second golden tear chased the first. “I would like for her to have something of mine in case she should ever want it or need it. Let her know she was born of love, not hate. No child should ever have to live with such a burden. Not even a monster. The other amulet,” she added, indicating the lightning bolt, “has been invoked by the Demon Lord himself to protect its owner against others of his kind. Keep it until you are certain you no longer need protection from her. Then, it is to be sealed in a container and dropped in the river so my Chosen may find it. He’s to be her protector, if she ever has need of one.” She ran the tips of her fingers over its surface. A flash of gold light suffused it, and she murmured a few words in a language the priestess did not know. “There. It has been invoked by a goddess now, too, so that only the two of you may wear it.”
    Desire did not like the lightning bolt amulet or the energy that pulsed from it. She slipped it into a small leather pouch she carried, not wanting it next to her skin.
    The goddess looked at the baby