Once Upon a Demon's Heart

The demon army marches into Alzhor as snow begins to fall. Kalel² dismounts, ignoring King Borlin's⁶ proffered hand, and addresses only Alira.¹ He recounts her slaughters, her role at Thornhall, and promises her a suffering far worse than she can imagine. In a private chamber, he orders her to remove her helmet to verify her Venus mark.

When she unmasks, recognition freezes them both: it is the woman from the forest.¹ His harsh demeanor cracks for an instant before he coldly pronounces the mark valid. As they leave the castle, he murmurs over his shoulder that he wishes it was not her. The demigod song of the gods, meant to send her off, is drowned by her dread.

At the demon camp, Kalel² demands a sacred oath to ensure she will not attempt to kill him. Drawing deeply on her soul essence, Alira¹ incants the binding words, and a golden mark sears itself onto both their chests. The magic drain sends her into a day-long unconsciousness. She wakes in a fresh tent, stripped of her armor and washed in Kalel's² scent, his cold hand brushing her inner thigh.

He explains that demigod odor attracts violence and she must carry his mark to survive in Devicit. He then sinks his fangs into her neck and drinks, his venom causing a sharp, spreading paralysis. She realizes he is a Devourer,² a demon who feeds on deity blood to sustain his immortal life.

During a bitterly cold trek, Kalel² leads Alira¹ to an abandoned cottage to warm her. He brews a soup of foxflick and barbosi toadstools, revealing his genuine apothecary skills. As the fire thaws her, her dormant heat cycle flares. She finds herself grinding against his lap, and his body responds despite his loathing.

He bites her neck to divert the crisis, but the shift between them is palpable. He admits that the scenting is causing his own first heat cycle, a painful, unfamiliar condition for him. Though he resists fully claiming her, the boundary between punishment and intimacy has thinned. Before they leave, he drapes a fur blanket over her shoulders and feeds her soup himself.

That night, Kalel's² heat erupts fully. Trembling with pain and barely restrained fury, he shouts at Alira¹ to flee, but she refuses. She touches his sweat-drenched face, telling him she can bear his darkness. He snaps, pinning her to the ground, and ruts into her with brutal, punishing thrusts, his words a litany of hate while golden tears fall from his eyes.

She wraps her arms around him, whispering she would take his suffering if she could. He withdraws abruptly, storms out, and returns at dawn to give her a warding charm embedded in Korin's⁹ necklace, plus proper winter clothes. His apology is stiff, his shame palpable. He admits he has never experienced heat before and blames the scenting.

On the march, four demon knights ambush Alira¹ near a cliffside, pinning her down and attempting to use a devilstone to destroy her reproductive organs so she cannot bear demon heirs. Kalel² watches from the trees, arms crossed. Alira,¹ desperate, unleashes her dormant deity gift: with a surge of essence, she transforms her attackers into blush-colored cherry blossom petals that scatter on the snow.

When she confronts Kalel,² he shrugs, saying he is not her protector. She retorts that his knights would still live if he had intervened. Later, in the tent, he applies ointment to the gash on her back where one attacker cut her, and then holds her through the night, warming her with his purr, calling her a needy little godling.

At the blood-soaked Fallen Ridge, a pack of dire wolves, drawn by spilled deity blood, attacks the caravan. The enormous white spirit wolf seizes Alira¹ in its jaws. Kalel,² desperate, bargains: the wolves may have all other demigods in exchange for her life.

The spirit accepts, releasing her, but dozens of captives are devoured or escape. Alira¹ lies dying from massive wounds. Nikolai³ cannot save her, so Kalel² forces his own blood down her throat.

A demon's blood on a demigod is a one-time miracle; it heals her completely and, unknown to her at the time, severs the time loop curse. When Alira¹ regains consciousness, she is furious over the lost captives, slaps Kalel,² and in retaliation he savagely bites her wrist until she screams his full name in submission.

Outside camp, a will-o'-the-wisp appears, and despite Kalel's² reluctance, Alira¹ follows it into the forest. The vision transports her to a turquoise field where she sees a young Kalel,² scarred and weeping, cursing the demigods for their cruelty. The god Mercury⁸ materializes, radiant and mocking. He warns her that marrying Kalel² will bring only misery, that Kalel² is destined to kill all half-gods.

He also hints that a deity was responsible for her time loop curse. When she demands to know Kalel's² story, Mercury⁸ vanishes with a wink. The vision fades, and Alira¹ returns to the dark forest, shaken but unswayed. Kalel,² who followed, finds her and sees the sorrow in her eyes. He coldly walks away when she mentions what she saw.

The army enters the ruined village of Thornhall. Kalel² pauses at his childhood home, touching the doorframe where his mother marked his height. Then he leads Alira¹ to a hilltop overlooking his troops. He declares that her blood will pay the fare for the innocent souls into the underworld.

Before the assembled demons, he sinks his fangs into her throat and drains her until she is golden and lifeless, sustained only by his venom's stasis. She floats in a near-death void for three days while the army continues its march. When she wakes, she is in his lap on horseback, and Kalel's² face is etched with exhaustion and unspoken guilt. He has not fed in days, as if punishing himself too.

At the gates of Devicit, massive skull-faced dragons ambush the fleet, decimating the ranks. As they close on Alira,¹ Nikolai³ shields her. In a moment of instinct, she cries out for them to stop and to leave. Incredibly, the dragons freeze, then obey, flying away. The stunned army erupts in cheers, and Nikolai³ proclaims her a dragon tamer.

Kalel² regards her with wary awe: this power could make her the most dangerous weapon in Faultore. They pass through the shimmering veil into the hidden kingdom, a lush, beautiful city of crystal streets and lantern-lit avenues. The demons gawk and whisper. Kalel² pulls her close on his horse and whispers that they are home.

The wedding ceremony in the grand Devicit chapel is a hostile affair. The ancient, eight-foot-tall Krinsle,¹⁰ a demon of ancient power, begins the rites. Before the binding can finish, a princess (King Achill's⁵ sister) lunges at Alira¹ with a devilstone, searing her neck.

Kalel² rips the woman's heart from her chest without hesitation. The Krinsle,¹⁰ unfazed, completes the binding, and the couple's lips meet in a kiss that feels both holy and haunted. That night, before the banquet, Kalel² drunkenly pulls Alira¹ into a dark corridor.

He confesses that he is the boy she found in Florum thirty years ago, the one she draped her coat over, the one who was beaten, used as bait, and left for dead until Pluto⁷ resurrected him. He has thought of her ever since.

After the ball dances, Kalel² takes Alira¹ to a marble tower overlooking the palace gardens. He feeds tenderly from her breast, then positions her on his lap, lowering her onto his thick cock. Despite the stretch and the ache, she welcomes him.

He knots her for the first time, the swollen base locking them together as he floods her womb with his seed, a full demon mating. She faints from the overwhelming sensation. As he carries her back, he stops in the garden, staring at the endless peonies.

His thoughts reveal the truth: each peony is a demigod he transformed. He also remembers that he was the one who cursed her with the time loop, petitioning Pluto⁷ for vengeance against the knight who led Thornhall.¹ He loves her but knows she will hate him when she learns.