A Demon's Wrath: Part I (Peachville High Demons) Read Online Free PDF Page B

fully understood why Aerden
wouldn’t let me tell her the truth.
    The truth would have destroyed her.
    The trumpets stopped and an orchestra of strings
began to play. I recognized the music from rehearsals, and I had to
force my feet forward.
    As I passed the council members, I kept my eyes
forward, only stopping briefly to bow to my father out of respect. My
father lowered his head toward me, then set his hand on my shoulder.
The weight of it was heavy, reminding me of my duty to my family and
my kingdom.
    Aerden should have been sitting in the front row,
but I didn’t allow myself to look at his empty seat.
    I had to be strong now for both of us.
    When I got to the center of the room, I stopped at
the bottom of the steps and knelt down before the king and queen. As
I bowed my head, I thought of Aerden. I tried again to reach him
through our connection.
    This time, instead of the vast emptiness I’d
felt earlier, I was overcome by a violent fear. But as soon as it had
come, it was gone again.
    I nearly stumbled as I tried to stand. A few in
the crowd gasped and I felt my father’s eyes bearing down on
me. I lifted my eyes to Lea and her smile faltered. She shook her
head in confusion, but I couldn’t tell her what I’d
experienced. All I could do was push back my fear and ascend the
steps toward her.
    Her chest rose and fell with long breaths as she
placed her smile back on her face.
    My eyes flickered to her hands. She had her fist
clasped around something small, and I knew she was holding onto her
locket with the heart stone inside.
    What would I see when I opened it?
    All I could think about was how much I wished it
were Aerden standing here instead of me. I wished he had been chosen
instead of me.
    When I took my place at Lea’s side, all I
wanted in the whole world was to rewind to a time when it was just
the three of us playing in the fields as friends. I yearned for a
life with no expectations or responsibilities.
    But as her hand reached for mine, I knew that we
couldn’t stop time. We would never be able to hold onto the
days of the past. Life kept moving forward, for better or worse and
the best any of us could do was try to find a way to be happy with
the life fate had handed us.

The Veil
    The ceremony continued in a blur. Some part of me
must have heard the words, because I felt my body going through all
the right motions. I answered at all the right times. I smiled when
Lea smiled, reassuring her even as I myself needed reassurances.
    I felt the eyes of every demon in the room on the
two of us, their hopes and dreams of a prosperous future affixed on
our joined hands.
    I was both there and not there.
    And when it came time for us to exchange truth
stones, I handed her mine with the confidence of a demon in love. My
hands did not tremble. My eyes never wavered from hers for a second.
    But inside a hidden part of myself, I guarded a
dark secret. The most terrible lie a man can tell a woman.
    A part of me changed that day. Even before I knew
the truth about what had happened to Aerden, I knew the course of our
lives had gone severely off track. One wrong decision led to another
and another until I found myself standing in front of a princess,
promising her something that was never mine to give.
    She took the golden locket from my hand, her eyes
shining with hope.
    Lea, the confident girl I’d grown up with,
someone who never showed a single weakness or moment of doubt,
shivered with fear as the priestess summoned the veil that would hide
us from the hopeful eyes of the crowd around us.
    A shimmering light surrounded us, flowing up like
a curtain of stars.
    We stood facing each other in the light. Our
lockets were clasped tight in our hands, but our eyes were locked
together in anticipation.
    In the days leading up to this moment, Lea and I
had rarely spent any time alone. There had always been maidservants
and family around us, preparing us for the ceremony. We hadn’t
had a chance to talk about what