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demanded, “Human or demon?”
    “Human.”
    Again with the public outburst, until Jade lifted her hand
to quiet them.
    “Who?”
    Walker shifted uncomfortably on his booted feet. “Jinx.”
    Jade’s heart stammered. She couldn’t speak for several tense
moments. Then, on a sharp breath of air, she whispered, “No.”
    “I’m afraid so,” Walker continued. “We found him in the
south woods. I immediately spoke to King Darien about it.”
    “You said it was an accident,” Jade commented, her voice
shaky as she waded through muddled thoughts and her shocked disbelief. Tears
stung the backs of her eyes. “Why would the king need to know about this?”
    “Because,” Tanner said, a pained look on his face, “it was a
demon who accidentally killed him.”
    This had the entire room up in arms once more.
    Jade’s head spun. Her body quaked. She reached for Michael
and he was suddenly on his feet, his hand on her arm to help steady her.
    Walker and Tanner tried to control the instantly horrified
crowd. Jade barely heard anything over the pounding of her pulse in her ears. And
her heartbreak over losing Jinx. He’d been like a grandfather to her. A funny,
carefree spirit who told zany fortunes when one felt blue and always had a
smile on his face, no matter how grim things seemed.
    Jade fought back her tears and tamped down her emotions, as
she always did when her feelings became unbearable.
    She stepped away from Michael and out into the aisle, and
her voice rose again as she asked the slayers, “What did the Demon King say of
this?” She couldn’t bring herself to utter the word accident . It mocked
the existence of their village.
    The racket tapered off as Tanner said, “He’s deeply
concerned. He is the one, after all, who’s advocated so strongly for peace. He
questioned the vampire who attacked Jinx and, apparently, the two had struck up
an experimental relationship some time ago.”
    “Really?” Jade demanded. “Jinx and a vampire?”
    “He was trying his hand at predicting the future with a
demon, to see if he could do it,” Walker explained.
    “He was bored with us and needed a bigger challenge?” Jade
asked as she crossed her arms over her chest, not believing a word of their
explanation. It had to be a fabrication concocted by the Demon King to pacify
the villagers.
    With a sigh, Tanner said, “We can’t presume to know what
Jinx was thinking, Jade. All we know is that he’d met with the demon several
times before. Last night, he decided to hypnotize the vampire. It had an
opposite effect than what he’d anticipated—not a look into the future, but a
jolt into the past.”
    Walker added, “Tapping into the vamp’s subconscious mind,
Jinx inadvertently triggered memories of the wars. Though in a trance, the
vampire sensed Jinx’s human presence and pounced, because he thought he was
back in time, in the midst of the battles.”
    Jade’s fury simmered. “And the king believed this?”
    “He investigated, yes,” Walker announced. “Obviously, he’s
concerned about the implication. He has no intention of letting something
disrupt the law he laid down and has vowed to uphold—”
    “Let me tell you about the king’s decrees,” Jade
interjected, her voice suddenly much stronger as her agitation mounted. She
turned to address the mass of people gathered and said, “They hold no weight.
They’ve been violated. With Jinx, certainly and undisputedly. But also with me.
Maybe with some of you.” Her gaze slid to Michael.
    “Jade.” Tanner lunged forward and gripped her arm.
    Michael leaped to his feet again.
    He wasn’t the only one to come to her defense. Another man
stood, in the back of the room. He was dressed all in black, his cloak covering
his body, the hood pulled over his head, casting shadows across his face. All
Jade could see of him was that he was a mountain of a man—possibly
six-foot-five or six—broad-shouldered, with amber-colored eyes.
    “Release her,” he said