Chapter 4 Chapter 4

Amara's POV

The demon's laughter echoed through the throne room like broken glass scraping against stone. Every instinct in my body screamed at me to run, to flee before those golden eyes that were no longer the king's consumed me whole.

But I could not move.

My feet felt rooted to the cold floor. Not from bravery, but from the terrible understanding that flooded through me. This demon knew me. Not as Octavia, the fragile she-wolf bought to serve as a surrogate. It knew me as Amara, the witch who should have stayed dead.

The king's body convulsed on the throne. His fingers dug into the iron armrests, veins bulging black beneath his skin. The temperature dropped so suddenly that my breath came out in frozen clouds. Frost crawled across the stone floor toward my feet like reaching fingers.

"How?" I whispered, my voice barely audible over the sound of my own thundering heart. "How do you know who I am?"

The demon tilted Alaric's head at an unnatural angle, studying me with those corrupted golden eyes. When it spoke again, the voice was layered with something ancient and cruel.

"I can smell your soul, little witch. No borrowed flesh can hide what you truly are." The demon leaned forward, and the throne groaned under the pressure. "Did you think you could walk into my domain wearing a wolf's skin and I would not notice?"

My hands clenched into fists at my sides. Fear mixed with something else. Anger. The same burning rage that had consumed me when I died in Michael's arms.

"What do you want with me?" I asked, forcing strength into my voice that I did not feel.

The demon smiled with Alaric's mouth, but the expression was all wrong. Too wide. Too sharp. "I want you dead. Just like I wanted your pathetic coven dead."

The words hit me like a physical blow.

"You killed them," I said, my voice shaking. "You destroyed the Oris Coven."

"I did more than kill them." The demon's laughter returned, cold and mocking. "I made them suffer. I made them scream. And I will do the same to you, witch."

The throne room seemed to pulse with dark energy. Shadows moved along the walls, taking shapes that looked almost like claws reaching for me. The torches flickered wildly, their flames turning from orange to sickly green.

I should have been terrified. I should have been on my knees begging for mercy.

But grief and anger burned hotter than fear.

"If you wanted me dead, you would have killed me already," I said, lifting my chin despite my trembling legs. "You need something from me."

The demon's eyes flashed with something that might have been surprise.

"Clever girl," it hissed. "Perhaps I will keep you alive a little longer. Just to see how long that borrowed body holds before it breaks completely."

Alaric's body shuddered violently. His hands released the throne, pressing against his temples as if trying to contain something inside his skull. For just a moment, the golden eyes flickered. The demon's presence wavered.

"Fight it," I whispered, speaking to the man trapped beneath the curse. "I know you are in there."

The demon snarled, furious that I had dared to speak to its host. Black veins spread across Alaric's neck and face like poison spreading through water.

"You think he can hear you?" the demon mocked. "This body belongs to me now."

"That is a lie," I said firmly, though I had no way of knowing if it was true.

The demon rose from the throne. Alaric's full height was imposing, towering over me by more than a head. Power radiated from him in waves that made the air itself feel heavy.

"You dare call me a liar?" The demon took a step toward me. Then another. "Perhaps I should tear that borrowed flesh from your bones right now."

I stumbled backward, my weak legs nearly giving out. But I refused to fall. Refused to show the full extent of my fear.

"If you were truly in control," I said, my voice steadier than I felt, "you would not need to threaten me. You would simply do it."

The demon stopped walking. For a long moment, it simply stared at me with those corrupted golden eyes. Then, slowly, a different kind of smile spread across Alaric's face. This one was calculating. Dangerous.

"You want to know about me?" the demon asked softly.

I swallowed hard but nodded. "Yes."

"I am eternal," the demon said, spreading Alaric's arms wide. "I am the darkness that existed before your precious Moon Goddess created her first children. Your ancestors locked me away in their foolish rituals, thinking they could contain me forever."

The demon circled me slowly like a predator deciding where to bite first.

"But your coven grew weak," it continued. "They forgot to maintain the seals that kept me imprisoned. And when the barriers finally crumbled, I was free. Free to claim this body. Free to destroy everything your people built."

My breath came faster. "And Michael? Was he part of your plan?"

The demon's laughter echoed through the hall. "The wolf who betrayed you? He was nothing. A useful tool. I whispered promises of power in his dreams, and he destroyed your coven thinking he would gain strength."

Rage flooded through me so intensely that my vision blurred. Michael had not just betrayed me for another woman. He had murdered my family for false promises from a demon.

"Why Alaric?" I demanded. "Why possess the Lycan King?"

"Because this body is perfect," the demon said. "Strong. Powerful. Connected to every pack in the realm. With this body, I can spread my influence like poison through water until the entire realm belongs to me."

Horror crawled up my spine. If the demon succeeded, everyone would suffer.

"I will stop you," I said, the words leaving my mouth before I could think better of them.

The demon stopped circling. It turned to face me fully, and the amusement in those golden eyes vanished, replaced by pure malice.

"You? Stop me?" The demon's voice became a whisper that somehow filled the entire hall. "You can barely stand in that dying body. Your magic is a pathetic flicker. You are nothing, little witch."

The demon took another step forward, and I felt my courage begin to crack. But I held my ground, even as my knees shook and my heart threatened to burst from my chest.

I stood there, scared but determined, staring into the face of the creature that had destroyed everything I loved. And despite the terror coursing through my veins, I opened my mouth and asked the question that burned in my mind.

"What are you really afraid of, demon?"