Inside she stiffened her breath catching.

“Why would she do that?” she asked softly. Maybe it helped that she wasn’t looking straight at him and focused on her task of creating fire, but she wanted to jump up and down cheering because he was opening up to her.

“I don’t know exactly. She hated me, maybe. She was always a bitter, unhappy woman. After my father died, I became king since Telal abandoned us to live above the rift.” He made a derisive snort that told her just how he felt about his brother.

A burning sensation tingled along her fingertips like holding your hand too close to fire. Her breaths came faster and she reached closer to the wood imagining and feeling all the power inside her thrust up and out to the wood, burning it.

A spark caught—just a small explosion like a firework popping. Abby let out a happy squeal at her little victory while Alrik simply nodded once at her.

“Keep trying.”

Well, she supposed it was better than “that’s not good enough.”

She tried again.

“So you don’t get along with your brother I take it?” She remembered Telal from news reports. Governments across the world bought his weapons. He made things from knives to automatic rifles. Of course, his golden skin and blue hair made him stick out just a little in the human world.

He made a strangled sound, almost like a laugh and choke mixing. “No! He betrayed us to the vampires, to that bastard Tobius en Kulev. They brought war on us and shut us inside this rift like a bunch of caged animals. He had to create an entire army to do it. They called themselves the Atal Warriors. It took nearly a hundred years for them to break us, but they finally did. Nothing’s been the same since... Telal should have been king. He is the eldest. It was his duty.” His lip curled with disgust. “But he betrayed us to Tobius, and let his own people get slaughtered.”

Abby had to look at him. A haunted look shadowed his eyes. “Why would he do that?” she asked gently. She wanted to know it all, everything about him and his people.

“Tobius en Kulev started it. He wanted war with us so he could cage us down here like animals. He used excuses to rally people. He preached how dangerous we were to all…to humans, vampires, and shapeshifters. Finally, he instilled enough fear that though only a few demons had ever hurt anyone in such a way, enough people rallied against us. The shapeshifters stayed out of it and the humans didn’t have the skill required to war with us, so that left the vampires. He created the Atal Warriors—a vampire organization trained to kill us.” He shook his head solemnly. “My father died in the battle. It lasted a long time. We would not give up, but always being besieged such as we were—it was only a matter of time before we fell.

One hundred years we fought but they kept coming. Father fell, Telal betrayed us and went to the surface, and we were left locked inside the rift. The Atal Warriors killed any who dared to leave instantly. That was their new job, you see, to guard the rift from us,” he hissed.

“So all that happened because of your brother?”

He nodded his jaw clenching. “And Tobius’ grudge against us. Rumors spread that his hate for demons came because of a woman. Some woman he loved ran off with a demon.” He shook his head. “Not that I could blame her. A demon would make a much better mate than a vampire.” Suddenly a grin flashed across his face. “No matter, the vampire got what he deserved. I started training a special team of warriors. We planned it carefully. I spent years on the plan. Then one night we set it in motion. My team ported to the earthen-realm, destroyed the Atal Warriors there, and then tracked down Tobius all in a night. They were the best trackers, the best fighters. They slaughtered him and brought me back his head as proof.

I kept the head on a pike out front of the castle for nearly five years after that. It wasn’t just for me but for everyone who remembered his cruelty.” A strange look flickered over his eyes. He held his hand out and stared at it as if seeing something weird. “It was after that I started to change. I never realized it though. I’d look in the mirror and knew my skin had changed, but I never questioned it.” That hand curled into a fist. “Such was the curse that gripped me.”

Still, the thing with his mother rubbed her the wrong way. “But why did your mom curse you? I mean, what could she get out it?”

He was silent for a moment, his head cast down over the futhorc he skinned. She got the impression that he was thinking about it as if he hadn’t yet. “Power.”

“But she was a queen. I assume that means you come from a big fancy castle, get to rule over people, and the usual aristocratic deal, yeah?”

His hands stilled on the animal with knife in hand. “Power over a person is much stronger than ruling a kingdom. It was more than that. She had every bit of control over me, my feelings, even my actions. She would give me this potion. Stupidly, I’d drink the nasty liquid. She said it’d calm me down and it always did, but little did I know that it also kept me ensnared under her toxic spell.” He stabbed the knife into the animal and cut in a jabbing motion as he tore the skin off it.

Abby flinched and looked away. Maybe talking to him while he had a knife in his hand wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“But why did your brother betray you like that?”

Pain flashed in his eyes. He must have loved his brother very much. “Before he ripped the kingdom from my hands and banished me, he told me. I spent so long blaming him that it’s been hard not to even if it was his fault the war started. He claims that Tobius made a pact with him. Telal wanted to start a group of trained warriors to protect our kingdom from idummi and other demonic attacks. They did happen frequently back then. He wanted the vampires and us to form an alliance and work together…or so he told me. However he was blinded by Tobius’ hatred for us and Tobius didn’t waste the opportunity to destroy us.”

Abby froze at the sound of his voice. He sounded so sad talking about it. It broke another piece inside her.

 “Keep practicing on the fire.”

Abby faced the makeshift pit again and called for the power inside her. She could feel her magical abilities growing. It was like learning a new instrument. It took time and practice but she was getting better at it. Already she could call the magic forth much quicker and the time between casting a new spell was faster. Soon she’d have enough power to summon a portal to earth.

Oh God. Abby looked over at Alrik. His shoulders were hunched and his eyes downcast in thought. Could she really leave him? He said he couldn’t defeat his mother and she knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t just walk away from this. Obviously, the curse had become his life. He had a dispute to end and there’d be no stopping until he finished it.

The first thought that popped in her mind was no. She couldn’t do it. No way could she leave him down here with rogue demons, idummi creatures, and a queen bitch who wanted to kill him. A wild thought sprung making her stomach flutter. Maybe he could come with her. Maybe she could convince him to let this all go and come home with her.

Her lip curled as logic set in. Just what would he do up there, become a banker? Yeah, right. The man was a king, a fighter, a magician. Not exactly the kind of guy you put behind a desk for eight hours a day. Nothing about Alrik fit in with her normal-day world.

“You’re not focusing.” He came to her and settled behind her on the rock. Warmth and muscle pressed into her back as he surrounded her, wrapping his arms around hers. Strong fingers clasped her wrists, holding them out towards the round circle of twigs. His voice was deep, low, and near her ear. “Feel the fire inside you, deep in your soul. Call on it and shoot it out from your body. Let it warm you, guide you. I know you can do it.”