The Demons New Princess, page 22
Seven of Cups
June 9, 2026, 6:10 A.M.
“MJ! MJ wake up,” a high-pitched voice whispers into my ear as small hands shake my shoulder.
“What?” I grumble, looking at a panicked Joey, his eyes wide. Instantly, I’m awake, his emotions drowning me. It’s chilly as I move my arms from my sleeping bag, rubbing the crusties from my eyes.
“I think I heard Artie,” he rushes.
“What?” I gasp, glad I don’t wake anyone else. Joey’s words got my attention quickly. Setting up, I look around the clearing. I spot Kyler, who must have been on duty, slumped against a tree. He must have fallen asleep. What the fuck is he thinking? If he’s that fucking tired, he knows to wake someone else. What if something happens? My attention from Kyler and I also notice Jason’s sleeping bag empty. I wonder where he went.
“I see. You know, like I do every night, and when I went into the woods, I thought I heard him. I couldn’t hold it, but I ran back here as fast as I could to tell you. I’m sorry; I should have woken you up sooner,” he says in a rush.
“No, Joey, you did the right thing taking care of yourself first because you are important, period. Which way did you hear him?” Out of context, I ask, padding has shoulder as I stand up, slipping my shoes on.
Note to self: remind everyone to sleep with their shoes on from now on.
Points to the north, I think. I tell him to go wake Kyler up and have someone else take over for him. Nudging fury, who’s curled up near my sleeping bag, I head for the trees. Fury says he can do something, and since it’s in the right direction, I tell him to follow it.
I trip lightly on a bush, my knee not happy with the movement, but I force myself to keep going. As we continue walking, a deep, gravelly voice slips through the night.
Where have I heard that voice before?
Creeping forward, I move in a silent crouch, not as easily as I’d like with my knee, but I have to. It’s safer; hopefully I won’t draw attention to whoever is ahead of me. As I slide around a large tree, I stop dead in my tracks. There’s both Jason and Artie in front of me, the deep voice coming from Jason, but that’s not what shocks me the most. Jason is standing shirtless in the clearing. Wings spread from his back with a raven prominently tattooed across his ribs. Artie kneels at Jason’s feet, sobbing and begging for another chance.
“Holy fucking shit,” I gasp, not realizing I set it out loud until the two demons, whatever, flip around to face me. Eyes the size of saucers, Jason stares at me in shock, his mouth hanging open, but only for a split second before he strikes.
Striding towards me at an abnormally fast pace, I don’t stand around waiting for him to reach me. I’m flying through the trees, branches slapping my skin, shrubs ripping at my clothes, but none of that matters because I have to get back to camp.
I have to tell everyone Jason is a demon. And already is his minion?
Shit. Artie’s the one who told us about the pickup in Kanab. What if it was all a lie? What if he wanted us to go to the slaughter? What if that’s what Jason wanted … Fucking shit; dammit!
A root grabs my foot, sending me toppling into our makeshift campsite. The air reps for my lungs as I slam into the ground, but I forced myself forward until I make it to the center of the clearing and view of everyone.
“MJ, are you okay?” Joey asks, rushing to my side and helping me up.
I focusing myself how to breathe as a sudden gasp escapes me, the beautiful damp mountain air seeping back into my lungs. Huffing and puffing, I try to bring oxygen back into my body and make my brain function again.
Everyone is awake now, staring down at me as I sit on the ground gasping like a fish out of water. Fury is at my side, nudging me with his nose as he whimpers, worried. His thoughts become garbled in my brain as it focuses its entire energy on getting the air back into my body.
Jason and Artie coming in behind me, Jason shirt back on and Artie’s hair a mess as if he’s been running his fingers through the strands.
Even though I can’t speak yet, I make my intent clear when I scramble away from them, putting as much distance between us as I can. Others look between the two of us, confusion coating them, unsure who to move towards.
“Artie!” Imani says, rushing over to him and squeezing his arm. After looking at me, Joey slowly walks over and pulls her away.
“MJ? What’s wrong?” Kimmy asks looking back and forth between the two and me.
“De-demon,” I wheeze, pointing at Jason. A round of gasps circle the camp reminding me of a dorky theater play.
Jason does it. All he does is lift his hands, showing us he’s not a threat. Collectively, everyone takes a step back except for Olivia.
“Where is my brother?” She demands. My breaths are coming easier now, and the pain in my chest from the exertion ebbs away. Fury moves between Jason and me, growling every time he tries to move but trying to look harmless to everyone else, since some people backed away from him when he growled.
“One needs to explain what is going on. Now!” Dick bellows, looking between us. His voice echoes off the surrounding rocks, and we all freeze, terrified he’s summoned all the demons in the area.
My brain flips into survival mode, flashing through the memories of Nick, his large muscular frame towering above me. Yelling at me for breaking a window with one of my arrows when mom had me out practicing. My hands blocked my face, not wanting to be hit again, the echo of his fist firm against my cheekbone.
“Boss?” a small voice calls out to me. “MJ, can you hear me? It’s okay. Open your eyes. Look. We are in the woods. You aren’t with whoever that guy is.”
I open my eyes a slit, noticing the foliage first, which gives me a grip on reality. I look around me, everyone’s gazes trained on me, horror lighting their faces. I blink, looking past the people standing above me, focusing on the sky. The shades of pink and orange bleeding across the expanse as the sun rises. Imani has tears streaming down her face as she kneels by me, her hand outstretched but not touching me.
“S-s-s-sorry g-g-guys,” I stutter through the tears that snuck out through my fear. “Joey w-woke me u-up t-to tell me he th-thought he heard Artie in the woods, and Kyler had fallen asleep a-and Ja-Jason’s bag was empty. I w-went off to look for Artie,” I mumble, trying to explain what just happened.
“MJ,” Artie growls in warning.
“Shut up. Let her finish,” Dick growls back, the mixture of the two causing me to flinch away from them both.
My throat, twisting my fingers and my lap. “A-after a while of following Fury, who was following a scent he’d found. I heard a deep voice that sounded demonic and oddly f-familiar. I crept close to the clearing where the voices were coming from and I saw Jason towering over a begging Artie. Both mostly turned away from me. They were talking, Artie was begging for another chance.”
“And? You say Jason’s a demon because of a voice you thought you heard?” Kyler asks skeptically.
“Not just that,” I blurt. “His tattoo. The raven on his ribs is the same one as the demon that flew off back into town when you hurt your leg.” I look towards him and Kimmy, their eyes widening for a moment before squinting at Jason.
“Lift your shirt,” Kyler demands.
“What? No.” Jason takes a step back, his hands still in front of him.
“Lift your shirt, Jason, or I’ll do it for you,” Kyler steps towards him, hands at the ready.
“Fine,” Jason huff, his voice slipping into a deep baritone before he pulls his shirt over his head. His body surprises me with its toned and delicious lines I hadn’t noticed before.
Fuck MJ, stop that; this is definitely not the time to be checking him out. This is serious. Plus, he’s a demon. A demon that is a fantastic kisser. Fuck MJ, stop talking.
Shaking my head, I look over his ribs where the unmistakable raven spreads over them. Kimmy gasps, grabbing Kyler’s arms as she steps forward.
“Wait! He was at the school when we went to that fight,” Kyler says. He’s right. Jason had taken the other three back to the school when we ran to help Kyler. How could he be in two places at once?
“All just a distraction. The others are some of my followers. I had to reprimand Missy, though. She knew better than to attack the target.” Jason says with a smirk.
“So, Phillip?” the question slips from my mouth before I can think.
“Oh, he was human. Missy took a liking to him for some reason. He got int the way of higher up’s job trying to stop him from killing another set of humans. Well, then you know the rest.” Jason says, sounds irritated. My heart drops for a second time. I had let myself hope. “However, MJ, since we are sharing secrets, isn’t there one you should share with the class?” His tone accusing.
“Wh-what?” I stutter out, his deep voice sending a chill down my spine.
“Would you rather me share it for you?” he asks, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against a tree.
I stare at him, not sure what he wants me to say. The only thing I haven’t told them about is my mom and no way he could know about that. Right?
“Fine. I’ll tell ‘em.” You guys all remember the company that caused this whole mess? The demonic world apocalypse? We’ll Nadia, the owner and founder of that company, is none other than MJ’s mother.”
Another round of award-winning gasps fills the air as everyone turns to look at me, and both men get a smug look on his face.
I clamp my jaw shut, my molars pressing in on each other so hard it’s painful, but it’s keeping me from spurting out a line of curse words that would make a sailor blush. I glance around the group, seeing different shades of hurt, disappointment, and anger swirling inside everyone’s eyes. My body becomes hot, the anger radiating from me, not only from Jason’s words, but from my stupidity. I should have told them before this happened. I stand tense without taking my eyes from Jason, refusing to let him know how much he’s affecting me.
What should I do? Should I deny it? No; I want these people to trust me, and lying isn’t a good way to do that.
“MJ… is that true?” Joey asks.
“Sadly,” I sigh, turning to look at him. I watch as he moves to put his body between not only Imani and Jason and Artie, but me as well, my heart crumbling in my chest. Imani can’t take her eyes off me, her eyes the size of plates. “However, I disowned her years ago. Ever since I was eighteen, I haven’t seen or spoken to her since.”
“Then why didn’t you share that bit of information?” Dick growls.
“I thought about it, but I didn’t see the point.”
“You didn’t see the point?” Elizabeth howls.
“Yes, I didn’t see the point. I will not be going to the so-called haven with the rest of you, so I didn’t see it needing to be shared. In case you forgot, I’m not required to tell any of you anything.” I glare straight at Elizabeth, who actually takes a step away from me. The action hurting me, focus on my breathing to calm down. I don’t want anyone scared of me.
“None of this fucking matters!” Olivia shouts, her voice shaking. We all turn to look at her in Artie’s face. “Where. Is. My. brother?”
Fuck. How could I have forgotten? All this worrying about myself, and I didn’t even think about Oliver being taken by Jason and his goons. Double fuck.
“We… moved him,” Artie says, carefully choosing each word.
“Where?” Olivia growls.
“The haven,” Artie says with a smug smile. A smile that makes me want to hit him, but Olivia beats me to it, slapping him across the face while calling him every name in the book for kidnapping her brother.
“As much fun as this is, we need to figure some things out,” Kimmy says as she gestures for Kyler to pull a crying Olivia from Artie before pointing at him. “What are we going to do with him?
I can see everyone around me becoming uncomfortable as they fidget in place or taking a step or two away from the demon. Oddly enough, I notice everyone looks to me as time goes on, as if they expect me to know exactly what the right thing to do is. The St. Johns refuses to meet my eyes as I look over the group, their faces pink in the dim lighting. Rolling my eyes, I focus my attention on the demons, who are snickering to themselves.
What should we do with him? I can’t just ask him questions, can I? No; we wouldn’t be able to tell if he’s telling us the truth or just pulling our strings. But what if he tells us the truth? We could use that information-
“MJ.” Fury says, interrupts my spiraling thoughts.
“Yes.”
“I can smell deception. I can use that to help you question him,” he says, nudging my leg. I must have been projecting my thoughts. I look back at Artie, who is watching Fury with a spark of anger in his eyes, making them appear red.
Can he hear Fury too? No; Fury said it’s just me since he chose me or whatever. So why is Artie glaring at him? Maybe he knows Fury can smell deception? Which would make sense; Fury is a hellhound and Artie is a demon who used to have hellhounds. A smug smile lifts my lips. Before I killed them.
“Okay, you two, why are you pretending to be human? All your buddies seem keen on killing every human they see,” I ask.
“It’s my job.” Jason responds.
I wait, expecting him to say more, but when he doesn’t, I grow frustrated. “What do you mean, ‘it’s your job?”
“Well, to answer that, I have to go into a lot more details,” he sighs, sliding to a seated position at the base of the tree, Artie following like a lost puppy. “I’m not sure you want to sit here and listen to it.”
“We’ve got time,” I say, sitting myself and folding my arms across my chest. Fury climbs into my lap, nosing my hand to rub through his fur.
“Oh, you do? What about Oliver?” he asks, turning towards Olivia, trying to get a rise out of her.
“We need to know what we are walking into before we can decide how to best help him.” I say, slowly petting Fury.
“If you’re sure.”
His cocky attitude pokes at my nerves, but I continue to pet Fury as if I couldn’t care less. Everyone eventually sits, except the St. Johns, but they nod as if saying they want him to hurry on with the story.
“It started a few years ago. The boss kept getting summon requests from the same pesky human every other week. Eventually, beyond fed up, he went up to kill this human. However, he came back humming a different tune. He was excited. He called in a group of his right-hand men, myself included obviously, and I brought this sorry excuse of a brother along with me, and explained the fun plan this human had concocted.”
“Hey!” Artie groans, punching Jason’s arm.
“Shut up Artie.” This has a chuckle escaping me, causing the others to glare at me. “Anyway, the lady that called him was a scientist, and she had planned to create her own apocalypse. Told him about how the world had become so corrupt by those in power it needed to be purged. This woman explained how she was going to start by working on the ice caps, triggering the oceans to rise. While a group was working on that, she got with her pals in different states to set up dams and stuff that would trigger earthquakes. Then, in places that wouldn’t work, they’d use shock waves to separate different tectonic plates.”
Looking around the group, I notice Dick is glaring at me. He likely remembers that I pretty much called exactly how my mom did it back at the school. Which does not make me happy one fucking bit. Everyone else is still starting at the duo across from me, some with scowls, some with curiosity.
“This got my boss the most intrigued. If Nadia could do it just right, she would open a portal between the realms. Which she realized, which was why she was so damn determined to get his attention. She wanted to rid the world of corruption. She was willing to give us free rein, but there were a few stipulations. This didn’t sit well with me personally.”
All my luck lately making so much sense now… My mom had forced demons to look for me. It’s all come from these two. Fuck me.
“What stipulations?” Joey barks, but Jason ignores him, continuing with the story.
“I don’t like humans. Or didn’t. I thought you all were the same disgusting, self-centered creatures we’d witnessed and tortured for a year. Worse than demons, if you ask me. This little group is different somehow, which is part of why I’m following you. However, they also assigned me the job of finding you, MJ. Your mother is determined to have you come to her haven. So, in the deal she added you were to make it there mostly unharmed, otherwise… Well, actually, I don’t know, the boss refused to tell us that part, which likely means it’s not fun for us.
“That’s why I told you guys about the haven.” Artie chimes in, earning a glare from Jason.
“When I ran into the kids, Joey kept mumbling about how ‘MJ abandoned them like everyone else’. I couldn’t be sure it was the MJ I was looking for, but didn’t have any other leads. I brought them to the school, and I recognized you instantly. In the fight, I wanted to get you away so I could be done with this mission, which is why I grabbed you at first, but then you attacked me, so I let you go. You were unaware… I flew into the sky and followed you guys back to the school. My dipshit of a brother was nearby, so I told him to join me in human form and come help me get you to your mother. It was a good thing he got there when I did, though, since he almost missed us. We were already leaving the school. I just had to convince you guys to go to a meetup spot.
“You especially, MJ, seeing as you’re always so skeptical of everything.” He spits the last part directly at me.
My eyes unfocused, staring at the ground in front of him as I try to take in all the information he’s given us.
My mother literally made a deal with the devil. All so she can take over the world? What is she trying to be? Some super villain? Why? What the fuck is going through her fucked up brain?
“Why take Oliver?” Olivia asks.
“I had planned to take all of you and save myself a trip, but she’s trained you guys too well. I had to settle for him; some insurance to keep MJ moving where I want her to,” he says with a shrug like that’s not insane.
