Page 14 of Drawn to the Demon Duke (Sombra Demons)

IN THE GARDEN

SUSANNA

S o, as it turns out, the chains were for me.

Are you kidding?

I guess I should just be grateful that Haures didn’t go ahead and execute Dagon in front of me.

I tell you, I would’ve been way off when it comes to judging someone’s character if he got that pissy green-eyed soldier guy to swing the sword.

Haures is intimidating, a powerful rule, but if he’s my true love, he can’t be a bloodthirsty monster, right?

No. He’s supposed to be my goblin king. Or, rather, my demon duke. He can be cocky. So damn sure of himself. Tempting, too, in a way that I never would’ve expected before I manifested him. Enigmatic, too, and definitely manipulative.

But a monster? Haures might look like one, and I can’t forget that he’s tossed me to the dungeons twice now, but he… he can’t be a monster. He’s supposed to be my mate.

I mean, hey. He actually called me that before he… oh, yeah, tossed me to the dungeon.

I was really beginning to second-guess throwing the ashbalm flower at that bear thing.

That arkoda. Whatever it was. All I can say for sure is that it would’ve gobbled Dagon up and I…

I couldn’t let that happen. Just like I couldn’t let Haures pull a Queen of Hearts on the guy just because he had the bad luck to be in that dark forest the same time I was.

Then again, if I hadn’t been there, he would’ve been lunch so maybe I kind of get why he’s so insistent on this whole ‘life debt thing’ after all.

When Haures announced that Dagon was being sent to the dungeon, I felt bad, but at least he got to keep his head. And then Haures gestured for Sammael to put the chains on me . Because I was being returned to the dungeon, and that was that.

There was no need to put Dagon in chains, too.

He’s already taking his vow—to me, and to Haures—super seriously.

Wherever I go, he’ll be right there if the demon duke couldn’t, and since Haures only came down to retrieve me from the dungeons earlier today to feed me dinner, then send me out to get that flower, it’s not like he’s hanging with us.

To be fair, I should’ve expected this. A pity dinner and the offer to find the flower that would break our bond didn’t change anything; not even him referring to me as his mate did, either, I guess. I’m still destined for the dungeon until he can figure out what to do with me.

Unless it’s an oubliette, like in Labyrinth .

An oubliette… how did Hoggle describe it? A place to put people to forget about them? That sounds about right.

Sammael removed the chains once I was back in my cell again. Not so surprisingly, Dagon wasn’t allowed to join me, though Glaine did say that Haures gave the demon permission to watch over me for now.

I didn’t argue. Honestly? I didn’t have it in me to.

I went from thinking ‘what-if’... what if Haures really is my true love…

what if I get to stay in a world of demons, living in a palace instead of the dungeon…

what if he’s my Dan, and I get a family of my own like Mindy…

but that all got dashed to pieces when I came back without the flower.

In a way, I thought that, without it, he’d have to finally admit that he’s as drawn to me as I am him.

And maybe I’m unlike any of the demons in this world, and that probably means I’m not like their demon women, either, but if I could look past his strange appearance, maybe he could look past mine.

Or maybe I have to realize that this isn’t a fantasy movie where an immortal fae king falls for a silly human girl, willing to give up everything for her love.

Maybe happy-ever-afters aren’t real, and I’m stuck in Sombra, trapped in a jail cell, and I’ll never hear Mindy’s ‘I told you so’ when she finds out just how much trouble that damn book got me into.

And that’s not even touching on how I had to promise that bodiless demon king my firstborn and something meaningful to me.

At the time, I figured he couldn’t take anything other than my scrunchie or my legwarmers since everything else was back on Earth—and with Haures acting like he was too good to want to bang it out with a human woman—I didn’t have a firstborn in the cards.

But who said something meaningful meant an actual thing ? What if it was the mate bond that Yelios decided to take captive until he got what he wanted?

Haures told me he was a bondmaster. What if all rulers of Sombra are?

Could that creepy voice be powerful enough to take it from me?

He nearly suffocated Dagon… I bet he could.

It would be a calculated error, of course.

Putting up a wall between me and the guy who is supposed to be my true love…

not so sure how I’m supposed to get that firstborn he seems to want so badly if that’s the case, but I have no idea how to make sense of any of this.

In the beginning, I decided to go along with this because, well, it’s not like I had any other choice.

Being chained up and dragged into another realm through a mystical portal after I read a true love spell…

yup. For my own sanity, I decided to treat this like I was a heroine in one of my favorite portal fantasy films. That way, I was all but guaranteed my happy ending.

Only this isn’t a movie. It’s real life. I have a family who has no idea what happened to me on the other side of that portal, and a true love whose first act was to use his power as ruler of this demon world to friggin’ arrest me.

Some true love, huh?

Curling up on the bed, giving my back to the bars, I rub the heel of my hand against my chest. Is the bond there?

It was. I know it was. True, Haures is so locked-down, I’ve only felt slivers of it here and there, but it was enough for me to know that he was right.

That spell brought us together, and I only wish I wasn’t the only one to see that.

Dagon had a muttered argument with Glaine before the guard left us together down here.

I tried to drown it out, but voices carry down here in the dungeon.

Unless I clapped my hands over my ears, it would be impossible for me to miss the grumpy guard telling Dagon that the duke insists on the bars to keep his mate protected.

Protected?

I’m a prisoner .

I’m pretty sure Dagon agrees. After Glaine stormed toward the stairs, my new shadow moved toward the bars.

I could sense him hovering, though I didn’t look at him.

He’s had a way worse day than me, only in this mess because of his sense of duty and because Haures has decided that maybe I am his mate, but I can’t help but be a little bitter that, if it wasn’t or him, I might have been able to wash my hands of this whole thing and gone back home to Connecticut.

Is that where I want to be? No. Not really.

My obsession with the Grimoire du Sombra has been such a huge part of my life.

It’s like I’m supposed to be here, and though I’d miss Amy and Mindy terribly, from the moment I first started translating the Sombra language printed on the pages, it just seemed right.

Now it’s all wrong…

Dagon agrees with that, too. Mumbling softly from right outside my cell, he told me that he’ll get me out of here.

I can’t see how, though I appreciate the sentiment.

At least someone sees how ridiculous it is to keep the five-foot-six mortal woman in a jail cell, as though she could ever be a danger or a threat to these seven-feet-tall immortal shadow demons.

Dagon has figured out that I’m not going to be great company tonight. Or maybe he’s a taciturn, quiet sort of hunter who appreciates the silence. Either way, he braces his bulk against the wall opposite of my cell, watching me closely without trying to engage in conversation.

Me? As bad as it sounds, I’m doing my best to pretend he’s not there.

I really don’t know how this is going to work. Will the guards feed him? How will he use that weirdo toilet in the corner of my cell? I have a cot, at least. Is he going to sleep on the floor?

How far will he go to be my own personal guard? What if I want privacy? I don’t have to pee yet, but I will, and I just don’t think I want to peel off my leggings in front of Dagon.

Would Haures care?

Do I want him to?

Ugh!

He’s not your Jareth, Su. He’s a demon, and he’ll leave you here in the oubliette?—

“My lord.” That’s Dagon’s rough voice.

“I’m releasing you for the rest of the eve, Dagon.” Crud. That’s… that’s Haures . “You watch the duchess when I cannot be with her. Tonight, I shall tend to my mate.”

He will what ?

Even more surprising than his unexpected appearance down in the dungeon, it’s how it seems like he’s really doubling down on this ‘mate’ business. Calling me ‘duchess’? A Correct me if I’m wrong, but a duchess is a duke’s wife. Like Fergie, the new Duchess of York over in England.

I’m his human prisoner. I broke the first law by reading the verus amor spell, and I’ve paid for it these last few days by staying in a cell.

And now he’s calling me ‘duchess’?

He did earlier today. During lunch, right before he told me that I needed to go on a quick quest to find the ashbalm flower.

A duchess doesn’t apologize…

How much do I want a bet that a duke doesn’t, either?

I’d brushed him off then, too annoyed that he treated me like a toy that he could put away, then take off the shelf to play with at his pleasure. I wasn’t a duchess. I wasn’t anything. Sure, there was a bond, but there didn’t need to be.

Even if I wanted there to be.

Referring to me as a ‘duchess’ in front of other demons…

that’s not all he does, either. I didn’t know what to expect when he said he was going to ‘tend’ to me—and I would be lying if I said that that large silver sword that Glain wielded earlier didn’t pop into my overimaginative brain—but I figured that dinner, at least, was on the table.

Literally.

No. Guiding me to rest my hand on his massive elbow after he opened the cell door and invited me out, the big demon shivered at the contact before leading me up the stairs. Once we hit the hall, he didn’t bring me to the dining area. Instead, we returned to the throne room. The empty throne room.

I glance around. Every time I’ve been in here since my arrival in Sombra, Haures has had guards and mages and visitors. Not now. It’s like they’ve all gone home for the night.

Shining down from the strange holes cut into the ceiling, a sliver of golden light mingles with the shade of blue overlaying everything in this space.

You’d think it would create green. I mean, any kindergartner knows that’s what you get when you put shades of blue and yellow together.

Not in Sombra. Not in Haures’s palace. The blue—the same color as his bright, glowing eyes—is so powerful that it takes over everything.

I thought it was because of the shimmering orbs dancing over crystal sconces that provide all of the light in the room. Nope. Because once Haures leads me across the room, tugging open a door I only just noticed with his free hand, I take one step outside and see that the blue light inside?

It’s out here, too.

And that’s not all…

Until Haures sent me into the shadow forest, I had no idea what Sombra looked like.

I saw the fires in the distance, the ash made up of shades of black, white, and grey under my sneakers, and the way everything seemed to have a red tinge to it.

Plus the heat. Can’t forget the heat. I broke into a slight sweat immediately, and not even the cooler temp of the inky-black woods did much to help.

My first impression of his demon world seemed to fit every preconceived notion I had about where true demons lived. Like, this is totally Hell, right? From the horns and the red skin to the fires glowing in the distance… that part, at least, made sense.

If he had let me out into the courtyard of his palace first? I would’ve been way more confused.

The sky is a deep navy color. Overhead, one moon is gold.

The other glows bright blue, just like Haures.

And if you think I’m weirded out by the fact that I’m looking up at two moons?

You haven’t been paying attention. To me, that’s just another reminder that I’m in a demon realm, one I need desperately when I walk outside and a chilled breeze—maybe seventy degrees instead of, like, ninety —blows past me.

The air is sweet. Fragrant. A mix of something floral, but more perfume-y—which definitely makes sense when I let go of Haures, drifting forward, taking in the beautiful garden in front of me.

There are flowers everywhere. In a world of fire and ash, I believed that the ashbalm flower with its flame for petals was the only sort of flower that grew in Sombra. Wrong. White flowers. Soft purple. Pale pink.

And blue.

So many beautiful blue flowers.

There’s a fountain, too, with a trickle of water that tinkles as it hits the stone.

I knew there had to be water somewhere. The strange sink on my cell provided drinking water, even if the weirdo toilet didn’t seem to flush at all.

I get the feeling that rain isn’t really a thing in such a fiery realm, but water…

all living creatures need water, even immortal ones.

I tiptoe toward the fountain, running my fingers beneath the gentle flow.

It’s warm, like cranking up the temperature on the faucet when you’re about to wash dishes, but not uncomfortable.

In fact, if Haures wasn’t standing right there, watching me take in the garden with a guarded expression on his rugged features, I might’ve stripped down and used the fountain to have my first bath in days.

But he is there, and when I glance over my shoulder at him, I notice that he’s gone still.

Is he holding his breath? I don’t really get why immortal demons have to breathe in the first place, but since ‘immortal’ doesn’t quite mean that they can’t die—since I’ve gotten obvious proof that demons dying is a thing—that must be why he does.

Only he isn’t, and when I reach deep inside of my chest, searching for our bond again, I actually find it. Maybe because Haures is right there, or because he’s not keeping me out, I don’t know… but I can sense how much he wants me to like the scene in front of me.

Luckily, I do.

“It’s beautiful,” I whisper into the quiet garden.

“It’s yours.”