The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate (The Twisted Court Book 2), page 1
The Demon Prince’s
Accidental Mate
The Twisted Court (Book Two)
Riley Storm
Copyright
©2023
The Demon Prince’s
Accidental Mate
Riley Storm
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, without written permission from the author. The sole exception is for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.
All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.
Edited by Olivia Kalb – https://www.oliviakalbediting.com/
Cover Designs by Jacqueline Sweet Covers
Contents
The Demon Prince’s
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Other Books by Riley Storm
About the Author
Chapter One
Lily
“Hi there, sweetie.” The short, elderly lady with thin frizzy white hair and a wizened frame came bustling around the corner as I pulled open the creaky door to the used bookshop. “What can I help you find today?”
“Do you have any books that deal with, uh, not loss, but complicated emotions?”
“Complicated?”
I nodded, sighing, unsure how to explain it to the woman so that she wouldn’t look at me like I was crazy like the young woman at the chain bookstore had done.
My father was an abusive asshole piece of shit, and the day a Faerie killed him, I felt two emotions.
Neither was sadness. First was surprise because, until the moment the vindictive bastard was burned alive in one of his bakery’s ovens, I had no idea magical beings were real. The second thing I felt was a grand sense of relief. He was gone, and I was free.
The feeling of loss started to settle in as days turned to one week, then two. Not that I missed my father. Fuck him. Even if we’d had a good relationship, I would have been too busy working like a madwoman to keep the “family” bakery from going under.
Unfortunately for me, he was the only one with any link whatsoever to my mother. I’d secretly held out hope that he might let something slip one day, and I could learn about her. Even her name was a supremely guarded secret I was deemed unworthy of knowing. Now, he was dead, and I had no way of finding out what had happened to her.
Or why she’d abandoned me.
It was a lot to process, and I struggled with it as the days went on.
“Complicated emotions,” the old woman repeated, muttering rapidly under her breath as she turned and shimmied off into the store.
I followed her, wondering the entire time if she wanted me to or if I should stay at the front.
“Have something for everything, I do,” she said, her watery brown eyes focusing on me with a sudden intensity.
Was she trying to reassure me so that I didn’t leave? There was little fear of that. I had never noticed this little bookstore set in the back of an old house, and now that I had, I intended to check it out fully. Maybe I could rescue some hidden gems from the dusty shelves.
Money was tighter than ever, but used bookstores were great for that. This one was so close that I knew I would frequent it regularly.
I followed her down a set of squeaky stairs into a basement and through a heavy-duty door carved with a design I couldn’t fathom into a square, white room.
“I feel like I’m inside a bank vault for used books,” I commented, trying to lighten the mood, wondering what purpose such a room served.
The woman laughed. Cackled, to put it more accurately, a sound that absolutely did not put me at ease. I shifted my weight, wondering if I should leave.
“Don’t worry,” the woman assured me. “You’re safe. You don’t have to worry. Old Andie won’t hurt you. We’re just here so you can tell me everything. Nobody will overhear what you say here. Nor will they judge you. No matter what you have to say.”
I eyed the woman, Andie, wondering if she was reading my mind or if she was just guessing.
“Well, come now,” she said with an impatient gesture when I didn’t immediately begin babbling my tale. “You wouldn’t be here, you wouldn’t be in my shop, if you didn’t need a particular type of help. So, out with it. Let’s go.”
“I … what?”
“Old Andie, she knows, she knows. You have an aura about you, young woman. I can see, indeed. So, tell me what happened. What really happened.”
I hesitated.
“Don’t think I’ll believe it, do you?” she pushed. “Think I’ll call you crazy.”
“You wouldn’t be the first,” I said softly, somehow drawn in by the woman’s warm energy.
“No crazy in here. Old Andie will believe you. Seen things, I have. You can tell me. I’ll believe you.”
I thought it over. What did I have to lose? Being laughed out of another store wouldn’t change things much.
“My father was killed,” I said. “And he was an asshole, but he was the only person who knew anything about my mother. I find myself experiencing loss and grief at his death because of it. But I don’t want to feel that way. I hated the bastard. I just wish he could have told me about her before he died!”
I gasped, covering my mouth as the words came flying out, but Andie just cackled delightfully, clapping her hands together, pleased by my forthrightness.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to put that on you.”
“Nothing to apologize for, dear, nothing at all,” she assured me, waving a hand to dismiss my concerns. “Old Andie understands. Yes, she does.”
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “I just wish I could ask him about her and get some answers. But that chance is gone, I guess.”
Old Andie stilled, her eyes bright and alive as she leaned forward.
“What if it’s not?”
Chapter Two
Lily
I stared.
Was she suggesting what I thought she was? It didn’t seem likely. She was probably just going to try to sell me on some sort of spiritual book or journey. That had to be it.
But what if she wasn’t?
“What are you saying?” I scoffed, deciding to probe just in case. “That we should use magic to contact him?”
Old Andie’s eyes lit up. “Yes.”
My eyebrows came together. “Magic isn’t real.”
The old lady cackled, a burst of energy that had me shuffling back a step as if lightning might suddenly burst forth from her fingertips or something. Nothing like that happened, of course.
“I should go,” I said, turning toward the door.
It swung shut in my face, its carved line glowing. I spun back to look at Andie.
“You have the taint of it on you,” she said softly.
My chest tightened.
“Yes. You know of what I mean. It’s there, around you. I can see it. Feel it. You act like you don’t believe, but you’ve seen it. Haven’t you?”
“I …” The instant denial died on my lips as I looked at Andie.
She could just as easily have a button that closed the door remotely. It wasn’t necessarily magic.
“You’re not crazy, dearie, not crazy at all. You can trust Old Andie. She’s seen it all before.”
“Not this,” I said dismissively, though as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I cursed myself. I had effectively confirmed what she was saying with the slip of my tongue.
Andie laughed again. “Old Andie can surprise you, yes.”
“Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “But it doesn’t make me eager to try. Besides, I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Her watery brown eyes were unflinching as she looked at me.
“And I suppose you know someone who could contact my dead father?” I asked.
She nodded vigorously, the movement bouncing her frizzy white hair all over the place, only to settle back down perfectly in the same spots.
That had to be magic. No hair could be that well-behaved. Not even old-lady hair.
“Who?” I asked.
Andie’s face wrinkled further as she smiled. “You’re looking at her, dearie. You’re looking at her.”
“Oh.” I hesitated, unsure. “I don’t know.”
Use magic to contact my father? That didn’t seem overly wise. The first time I’d been exposed to magic, a rogue Faerie had turned my father into a puff pastry in his very own oven. The second exposure was when the same creature came back for me. Only the intervention of another magical creature saved me.
Since then, my life was even and calm and full of absolutely no magic. Did I really want to jeopardize that tranquility by reaching out to talk with dead people? It seemed like a bad, bad idea.
But he might be able to tell me about my mother. Who she was. Where to find her. Or even just her name …
“How do we do it?” I found myself asking. The chance to learn more about my mother outweighed any of the negatives. I would do anything to learn more about her. To talk to her, just once.
Andie nodded like she’d known all along that I would say yes. “Good choice, sweetie, good choice. Come, let’s go.”
“Good choice,” I repeated softly as Andie went to the far wall and swung it open to reveal shelves stocked with various items. “Good choice. Why do I feel like I never had a choice?”
Andie laughed. “Always a choice.”
“Right.”
I fell quiet at a sharp look from the old woman, then stood still while she bustled about, setting items on the floor around me. Some I recognized, such as the clump of lavender, three cloves of garlic, some sort of hoof—though I wasn’t sure what animal it belonged to—and seven candles, six arranged in a hexagon around me. I was instructed to hold the final one in my right hand, palm upward.
There were several objects I didn’t recognize. One was a thick, stinky yellow substance, thankfully kept in a jar. The other was a long, pale yellow-white object that looked kind of like a bone.
My heart leaped. It was a bone. But from what?
“Calm,” Andie snapped as she moved back and forth, positioning things just right. “You must remain calm. Still your heart and tame your mind. Take deep breaths.”
“I thought you were the one doing the summoning? Why do I have to stay calm?”
Andie looked at me like a teacher does her worst student.
“Not summoning my father, now, are we?” she said. “No, this is for you. Okay, first step is ready.”
“First?”
Andie nodded, taking a line of chalk and drawing a circle around me before stepping back and drawing a line from that circle about three feet away, where she drew another circle. Then a larger circle went all the way around that design and the items she’d arranged.
Moving carefully, she stepped into the other circle, being very careful not to smudge the chalk.
“What now?” I asked, still holding the candle in the palm of my right hand.
Andie muttered a word, and the candle burst into flame, drawing in the light from the rest of the room. I hissed in surprise, starting to step backward.
“Freeze!” the old woman barked in a powerful tone. “Do not step outside the chalk. Not until it’s over. Do you understand?”
I glanced at my back foot, less than an inch away from the chalk. I brought it forward with a gulp, planting my feet firmly. “Don’t move. Got it.”
“Now, we will summon the creature to which we will bind the soul of your father while you interrogate—”
“What?” I yelped. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I just … I …”
Andie’s glare drove me to silence. For a tiny old lady, she really did have quite the steely gaze.
“I will guide you. You simply must take the mind you feel and control it. Make it yours. Now, are you ready? Let’s go.”
My mouth opened to protest, to tell her that I most definitely wasn’t ready, that I wanted to stop, but she wasn’t listening. The room was already filling with an invisible weight as Andie spoke words I couldn’t understand, invoking magic.
The candle’s flame fluttered and lengthened.
Close your eyes.
I heard the words in Andie’s voice in my head. Licking my lips and glancing around one last time, I did as she said.
The flickering length of flame was still visible to my eye. Surprised, I sucked in a breath before remembering Andie’s orders to remain calm. Slowly, I let the air out, watching the flame questing out into the dark of my mind’s eye. The blackness resolved into twinkling stars, and as I watched, the flame latched on one.
Figuring that to be the mind of the creature she intended, I let myself go along for the ride. We reached out into the darkness, the flame and I, with it guiding me. I saw the star it was aimed for, and I reached with my mind. It would have sounded impossible to me before, but at that moment, I simply knew what I was supposed to do. I reached it and touched a mind.
Then I tried to pull it with me. It resisted, and for a moment, I grasped a fleeting sense of alive that left me reeling. I lost my grip, mentally tumbling backward at the shock of touching another being's mind.
Mom!
Focusing on my desperate need for answers, I reached out with my mind, finding the nearest presence and latching onto it.
Nearby, Andie hissed in alarm.
“Gotcha,” I muttered, sinking my mental fingers in deep and pulling.
“Let go,” Andie cried, alarmed instead of approving. “Let go now!”
“I can do this,” I told her, hunkering against the expected feedback. “I was just surprised the first time.”
“No. Let go now. It’s not—”
In my head, the star, the mind of the other being, noticed my touch. Only it wasn’t weak at all. It turned, aware of my intrusion, and the immensity of it sank into me like the oppressive weight of gravity doubling itself.
With a cry, I sank to the floor, trying to untangle my mind from it and release its control.
“You must break the connection!” Andie cried. “Do it. Do it now!”
But the other mind had me firmly in its grasp. It reached out for me, following the tendrils of my mind back from it to me. I fought against its touch, but the sheer power of the being brushed aside my meager defenses as if they weren’t there. It pried into my mind, looking into my deepest, darkest secrets.
It learned who I was.
I slapped it across the mental “face” with all I could muster, every ounce of mental strength.
The thing recoiled, more in surprise, I thought, than anger, but it didn’t matter. I snatched my mind away.
“I’m free!” I shouted, trying to run into the darkness as the other being worked to ensnare me again.
There was a whoosh of breath, and suddenly, everything faded. My eyes popped open to see Andie in front of me, the candle having been blown out.
I stared at her.
“What the hell was that?”
Chapter Three
Belial
“I will see you burn in the depths of the Underworld for your insolence!” I roared as the connection was abruptly broken, the fleeting touches of the human escaping from my mind.
The speed with which she’d recovered to fight back had caught me by surprise, and I was angry for letting her get away as easily as she did. I’d already entered her mind. A few more seconds of concerted effort and I would have broken her completely. Now, instead, she was free to live another day without the consequences of her actions.
Or so she thought.
A slow, wicked grin spread across my face, twisting the reddish skin into a caricature of a smile so terrifying it sent my servants fleeing from my presence.
“But you aren’t free,” I hissed to nobody in particular, flexing one taloned hand. “No, no, you aren’t, Lilith Rowe. For I have seen you. I know you.”
Rising from my specially made chair, I headed for the door, tail swishing behind me. A plan of action was already forming in my mind. A plan that would show Lilith what happened when humans meddled in business that wasn’t theirs.
My boots rang off the stone floor as my strides carried me down a winding series of hallways to my destination. The warm bubble of delight sat low in my stomach as images of what I would do to Lilith ran through my head.
