Red Phoenix

the table, held out one arm, bowed slightly, and gestured towards it.
    John moved forward, bowed slightly, and gestured as well.
    The Demon King nodded to John, flicked his robes under his armour, and sat gracefully at the table. John did the same thing. They sat on opposite sides of the table with their hands on it and studied each other calmly. Jade and Gold moved back and to one side to give them space to talk.
    The Demon King turned his head to look me straight in the eye. A charming smile lit up his face and he nodded to me.
    John stiffened very slightly.
    The Demon King turned his attention back to John and said something. John replied. They spoke to each other calmly.
    ‘They’re just exchanging pleasantries right now, Emma,’ Meredith said. ‘Families, what they’ve been doing, meaningless conversation. It will take them a while to come to the point.’
    The Demon King said something and John went still.
    ‘He is here to make an offer,’ Meredith said. ‘He knows about the activities of one of his sons.’
    John said something in reply, his voice rumbling.
    ‘Lord Xuan said that this particular son has been—to use his own words, Emma—a right royal pain in the ass, and he would like to see the back of him any way possible,’ Meredith said with a touch of amusement.
    The Demon King smiled as he said something and all of the Immortals stiffened. ‘No,’ Meredith whispered.
    John remained unmoving. The King turned and smiled straight into my eyes again.
    Another Immortal in Celestial Form appeared behind John. This one was white with gold trim on his armour. His hair was a huge mane of gold-streaked white that flowed wildly down his back and was tied loosely with a gold ribbon. White and gold. Bai Hu.
    He stiffly saluted John and the Demon King, who both nodded formally in return. He sat next to John.
    ‘The Dark Lord has summoned the White Tiger to witness,’ Meredith said softly, her voice full of awe.
    ‘Holy shit,’ Michael said very softly under his breath.
    ‘What was the offer, Meredith?’ I whispered with frustration as I clutched Simone at my waist. ‘Tell me!’
    ‘I have been strictly ordered not to tell you, dear,’ Meredith said. ‘It wouldn’t be worth my job. All of us have been ordered most severely not to tell you.’
    Then the offer must have been about me. Oh my God, I knew what it was. I saw the way the King looked at me.
    I gently pushed Simone away, then gathered myself and made a huge leap from behind the protective pair of Immortals to land beside John at the parleying table. I could barely see over the table, it was so huge.
    ‘Please go back to the others, Emma,’ John said without looking at me. His voice sounded exactly as it always did.
    ‘No, no, the Lady is most welcome,’ the DemonKing said, smiling broadly. ‘Would you like tea, my Lady?’
    ‘No, thank you.’ He was too high; I couldn’t see him properly. I climbed to sit cross-legged on the table, feeling like a leprechaun at a giants’ tea party. ‘I’d like an answer instead. Did you just offer a trade? Me for your one hundred and twenty-second son?’
    John stiffened beside me. ‘Whoever told you that is out of a job and off my Mountain,’ he said, his voice a low rumble.
    ‘Nobody told me, old man,’ I retorted. ‘Nobody needed to. It was absolutely obvious.’
    ‘I must have her,’ the King said with a wide grin. He thumped the table with his fist. ‘Anything you want, Turtle. Anything at all. Just name it. I must have her.’
    ‘She. Is. Mine,’ John said very slowly and calmly.
    ‘No. I’m. Not,’ I said, matching his tone. ‘Right now, I belong to me. And if I decide to go with him, to keep Simone safe, then it has absolutely nothing to do with you.’
    ‘Anything,’ the King said softly.
    ‘If I go with you, and stay with you, and don’t attempt to escape,’ I said to the King, ‘will you promise to keep Simone safe for the rest of her life?’
    The King shot to his feet. ‘If you come with me and stay with me, I vow that Princess Simone, daughter of Xuan Wu Shang Di, will be perfectly safe for the rest of her natural life.’
    ‘How long is that vow good for?’ I said.
    ‘Forever,’ he said matter-of-factly as he sat again.
    ‘Is his word good, John?’ I said without looking at John by my side.
    He didn’t reply.
    ‘Answer me!’ I still didn’t turn to him. ‘ Is his word good ?’
    ‘Yes, it is, my Lady,’ Bai Hu said from the other side of John,