I Raised the Demon Queen (Now She Won't Leave Me Alone)

"You want us to what?"

Elias blinked at the general, who stood like an armored statue in the corner of their small cottage's kitchen. Behind him, the stove hissed quietly where Rhea's latest attempt at tea had boiled over. Again.

The general's expression was the same as always: grim, unreadable, and vaguely judgmental—as if he'd walked in on Elias folding his underwear wrong and never quite recovered.

"I have secured a temporary corridor," the general said. "It will remain open for ninety-three minutes. After that, it will collapse, possibly catastrophically."

Elias ran a hand through his hair. "You're saying we need to run—through some secret war tunnel you just happen to have—and reach the demon ruins before the church or the town figures out where we've gone?"

"That is correct."

"And if we don't?"

"You are apprehended and possibly dissected."

"Great," Elias muttered. "Just your average Thursday."

Rhea sat at the table, legs swinging. She looked calm—but the kind of calm that could snap like a violin string.

"Will the ruins... call to me?" she asked softly.