Rival Demons by Sarra Cannon

very polite way, no one really saying anything important or
deep. Mostly, Andros wanted to know about Peachville and how life
was different in the human world. We avoided topics like demon
slavery and the fact that almost every demon down here hated
humans.
    More than once, I caught Jackson's eyes on me,
but I quickly looked away.
    A waitress in a silky blue dress entered the
room and poured glasses of wine for everyone. I hesitated as Andros
raised his glass in a toast. The only wine I'd ever had was with
Jackson that day in the pecan orchard and it had made my head swim.
I didn't think now was the right time for me to be clouding my own
judgment. Still, it would be rude to refuse when these demons were
obviously going out of their way to serve us.
    I raised my glass.
    "To old friends," Andros said. "And new
ones."
    Everyone leaned in to the center of the round
table to knock our silver cups together. At first, I drank only a
sip, not intending to have much of the wine. But it was
surprisingly sweet and bubbly, and I was so thirsty.
    The wine seemed to loosen everyone up. By the
time the food arrived, Jackson and Andros were sharing funny
stories of their childhood.
    "Remember the time you and Aerden slipped past
the castle's guards and set off those homemade fireworks from the
east tower?" Andros said, laughing so hard there were tears in his
eyes. "I will never forget the look on your father's face when he
caught up with you two."
    "Oh man, that was such a long time ago," Jackson
said.
    I watched as they talked, an outsider gazing in.
Their childhood didn't seem all that different from a normal human
experience except for their stories of magic and castles and kings.
And the fact that their childhoods lasted for about a hundred
years.
    I think I would have laughed with them and
enjoyed their stories except for the way that Lea kept smiling and
talking about how much time she used to spend with Jackson and his
brother. I knew they had a past together, but I never realized that
it was a hang-out-everyday-best-friends kind of past. I willed
myself not to care, but it didn't work.
    Thankfully, once the dessert came – a beautiful
pie with some kind of sweet blue fruit inside – Andros turned the
conversation back to the present.
    "You wouldn't believe the changes in the Kingdom
since you left, my friends," he said, shaking his head. "The
laughter has been replaced by fear."
    Ourelia sighed, a dark sadness in her eyes.
"Especially after what happened in Genestra. Nothing was every the
same after that."
    "Genestra?" Jackson asked, sitting up
straighter. "The king's northernmost city?"
    "A few years after you left, a group of citizens
in Genestra decided to set up watch against the hunters," Andros
said. "They patrolled the city streets, waiting. One night, a demon
on watch set off the alarms. One of the hunters had come for an
innocent girl, the new mate of the city's head guard. Many rose up
against the hunter, and even though they weren't strong enough to
kill her, they did manage to wound her and banish her from the
city. At first, they considered it a great victory, sure they had
scared the Order away from their city."
    "What happened?" Lea said. The earlier smiles
had been wiped from her face and replaced with worry.
    "It was horrible," Ourelia said, her voice
shaking. "The Order of Shadows brought an army into Genestra about
a week later. Human witches and hunters both. In a matter of hours,
every single demon in the town was either dead or captured and sent
to the human world to be a slave."
    Jackson's eyes grew wide. "How could that happen
to such a large city?" he asked. "I mean, Genestra had what? Three
thousand demons living there? There's no way the Order was strong
enough to take them all."
    "Never underestimate their power," Andros said.
"Their darkest magic is enough to kill us all, especially when
their attack is a surprise. The city was helpless against the power
of the Order of Shadows."
    "Who did this