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“You’d be surprised,” Idris said. “Servants hear things. And you’ll have help in at least one place once you leave the palace…”

“Oh.” Was there more to why he wanted to go with her?

Did he want to protect her? So, he wasn’t just going to leave her to die while he frolicked and ate baked apples.

But if he was willing to go with her, she mattered.

To him. Heat prickled her body, and she looked at him in a new light.

What if…what if they could be something to each other?

“What is it?” Idris asked, blinking hard. “That’s a dumb question. I know what it is—this has all been too much. Look, take the day.” Idris inched towards the door. “Rest.”

Nerys shook her head. What had happened to her? She wasn’t thinking clearly. It wasn’t her that mattered to him—it was their mission. “I can’t rest,” she said. “I need to think about some things.”

Idris nodded, as if he expected as much. “Qiana has duties on the estate while she is here, so she won’t have time to talk to you until tonight or even tomorrow. She wanted me to tell you that if you are willing, take some salt, go outside, make a thick circle, and sit in it. ”

“Why?”

“So you can see . You’re going to have to get used to dealing with the creatures. And ignoring them. This is a place to do it safely. I agree with her—the less surprises you have later, the better.”

Nerys laughed without joy. “Seems I get to spend the afternoon watching demons outside in the cold, while you get to tell Fina you’re following me to court.”

He smiled grimly. “Yes, that’s the crux of the matter. And you know what, Nerys? I think I’d rather have your task.”

“Come on, Nerys,” Nerys muttered as she found a clear spot under the trees, “don’t be such a soggy cork. They’re just, you know, every nightmare you’ve ever had made flesh.” Resigned, she sighed. “Nope, not difficult at all.”

It wasn’t until after the midday meal that Nerys finally summoned the courage to take a bag of salt and go to the front yard.

She’d have to face her gift eventually. Nerys had the opinion that she could just never call the sight—problem solved!

—but that seemed to be easier said than done, especially since she’d be sensitive to spirits’ presence from here on out.

Thus, sight mastery, or at least the ability not to scream, was needed.

Crows squawked overhead and rustled in the branches as Nerys drew a large circle of salt as thick as her thumb over the dying grass.

She had passed a dead squirrel on her way outside, and now the birds were plotting to return and finish their meal.

Carefully, she checked the circle over several times, making sure there were no gaps, nothing that a conniving demon could get through.

Provided that the demon wasn’t able to huff and puff the salt away.

Finally, she was satisfied and took her place inside the circle.

She wrapped her dark blue cloak around her, closed her eyes, and steadied her breath.

And then, once she felt brave enough, she looked with her stone eyes.

The world was normal. Normal?

Bare trees, brown foliage, animals making a ruckus just out of sight.

Normal.

Nerys relaxed. She searched the woods for any anomaly, anything odd in the forest that was clinging to the last hints of summer.

And she then grew bored when nothing unusual entered her vision.

Not even a rabbit. This was a waste of time.

There was no point to this, other than to make Nerys doubt her sanity.

Qiana had recommended this for nothing. A waste of—

A light flickered in the branches above her. Then another. Then another. The lights danced around each other, frolicking fireflies coming closer to her. Not flies. People—tiny people, no bigger than a finger, encased in light and dancing in the air. A living embodiment of rainbows.

“Pixies,” she whispered, biting back a giggle.

116 She never expected anything as beautiful, or as fun, as these little creatures, who were seemingly oblivious to her watching.

Nerys smiled. Her gift wasn’t all terror—it let her see wondrous things.

A moment later, the pixies flew out of sight like birds darting into the sky, and then they were gone.

Alone once more, Nerys took a deep breath and found herself looking through the trees for other nature spirits. Maybe a unicorn would come through next, or a puck. She grinned. This wasn’t so bad after all.

“Taking in the view?” A male voice asked, right as the scent of rotten eggs rolled towards her.

It was the voice of the same mangled creature who haunted her in the library.

Nerys slowly turned her head. No matter what she saw, she was not going to scream.

The brutalized “man” sat in front of her, just outside the salt circle, except this time, he had an amused expression—or what passed as amused—on his grisly face.

He leaned back on one hand, apparently oblivious to the mangled flesh hanging off his body.

Blood dripped out of his wounds and onto the grass, coating it in deep red.

With his other hand he tapped the ground with a long nail, tearing the grass as easily as ripping paper.

Tearing the grass? He could affect their world? 117

Nerys’s breath rushed and cold sweat broke out on her back. He couldn’t hurt her. She was in the salt circle.

She wouldn’t scream.

He couldn’t hurt her. Right?

Then the Thing said, “Don’t worry, Sweet. I can’t cross the salt. None of us can.”

“How did you know— ”

“What you’re thinking?” The Thing asked. “Easy—terrified mortals wear their fear on their faces.” Well, that was one way to say she looked scared.

Nerys swallowed. “Why? Why can’t you cross the salt?”

The Thing laughed, a deep rolling rumble that made her hairs stand on end.

“That’s what you have to say? You’re in the presence of one of the most powerful beings on either plane, and you want to know why salt is an effective barrier?

118 Not, what can I do for you? Not, nice to meet you? Rather, why salt repels us?”

Every nerve in Nerys’s body jolted. Powerful? What was this Thing? She gripped the grass between her fingers, searching for a way to escape. Where was Idris? Could he save her from…this?

No—the circle was safety. If she left, who knew what would happen?

“Why have you been following me?” Nerys asked, her voice creaking. “I saw you before.” She gasped. “Before last night.”

The Thing grinned and nodded. “Amusement.” His tone indicated that the two of them did not share the same idea of “amusing.” “A Sight Bearer gaining their sight is distinctive, it’s…a treat. You’re different to us when you have and use your magic.”

Nerys nodded out of habit. “How long have you been following me?”

“Since shortly after you were betrayed. By your soldier.”

Nerys’s mind flew back to every eerie sensation she had on the journey to the army, to the uneasy chills that arrived inexplicably. 119 She was his “amusement,” and anger steadily replaced fear. “Why? Why me ?”

The Thing—demon, he said he was a demon—smiled, revealing pointed teeth stained with blood. 120 “You needed help.”

“No shit.”

“I helped.”

Nerys paused. “How?”

“You were attracting more than me. I thought I’d do you a favor and make sure you were left alone.”

“I thought most things couldn’t do a thing to us.”

“Ah, yes. I heard that little speech. The noble was trying to make you feel better. The thing is, you unfortunately have more than just a physical body to worry about. And as a Sight Bearer” ?the demon smacked his cracked lips? “you’re an ideal first course.

Not to mention the other reasons you seem delectable. ”

“…What are you saying?”

“Anger and grief are delicious.” His predator eyes focused on her. “And you’d be a meal worth savoring.”

“Then why haven’t you eaten me?” Nerys asked, faking bravery. “Why leave me alone?”

The demon scoffed. “I have restraint, when it suits me. You’re right.

I initially had no intention of leaving you alone.

I had planned to start nibbling at you shortly before you arrived at the army—by the way, what were you thinking?

—but then I heard your bargain with that Cerdorani prince” ?the demon said prince like it was a curse? “and then decided that you and I have common goals.” 121

“Which are?”

“I don’t want the R?ll’s summoning completed any more than you.”

“I don’t believe you. Demons like chaos and pain. A ritual to summon a demon to slaughter dozens of people sounds like both.”

“Yes.” The demon smiled. “But I prefer them without the demon the R?ll has in mind.”

“Speak plainly,” Nerys said, crossing her arms. “I don’t claim to know much about your kind, but I know you’re avoiding something.”

“Fine.” Even though the demon’s strange orange eyes focused on her, she refused to waver.

“I don’t want the R?ll’s demon to come here, to the mortal plane.

Most demons don’t have my ‘complication.’” He waved his flayed arm for emphasis.

“So most of them are happy to sit back and watch this play out. I’m not. ” 122

“So, you want to help me kill the R?ll. ”

The demon nodded, like she was a child who discovered sugar. “‘Help’ may be too strong a word…but I do want to stop this ritual. What that may look like has yet to be determined.”

Nerys thought for a moment. The demon’s chest didn’t move, and his eyes didn’t blink. Did demons breathe? Did they eat? She’d be mad to accept help from something so unnatural. Something born to lie. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “No deal.”

The demon raised what would’ve been an eyebrow if he had any. “You’re turning me down? Me ?”

“That’s right. Whatever you are, I don’t want anything to do with you, or your kind.

” What would be his cost? She’d heard fanciful stories in the villages, nighttime tales of demons turning on their masters, consuming their souls…

Nerys didn’t know how much truth there was in those stories, but she had to assume they were real.

She had to assume every warning she heard about spirits was real.

The cost could be far too high otherwise.

Sure, this demon claimed to want to help her—though how was she to know what he really wanted? 123

“Are you sure, Nerys?” the demon asked, accentuating her name.

“You won’t be able to hide your gift at court—not entirely.

The others, others like me , will smell you.

Odds are, they will talk. How do you plan on keeping them from saying something to the wrong person?

Or” ?the demon tilted his head to the side? “keep them from snacking on you ?”

Nerys’s stomach twirled. She was counting on Qiana to protect her. Though, could she really count on the lady? Nerys having the sight was a new complication. Did Qiana really care about her enough to interfere with a demon?

“You need me,” the demon said, his lips curling, revealing unnaturally long fangs…and that mouth full of sharp teeth.

“I don’t…I don’t…”

“They’ll eat your soul. Face it, Nerys. You need me. You’ve already needed me for quite some time.”

No. He was lying. He had to be.

The demon smiled once more. “You’re overwhelmed. An understandable reaction to me. Think on it, and you’ll realize I’m the best thing to happen to you since you left your village—we’ll talk again soon.”

Suddenly the demon was gone, leaving her alone in the woods. Nerys panted and looked around her—nothing. She was alone. She sent her eyes of stone away and caught her breath and laid back in the salt circle.

Whatever happened next, the only thing for sure was that Nerys would be seeing the demon again.