Page 16

Iris

T his time, instead of playing with the souls, I wandered the grounds.

It didn’t take me long to realize there were many more demons here than I had originally thought. All of them must have been hiding away during my first few days. But as I roamed the halls, I caught quite a few either cleaning up or down in the kitchen preparing food.

There were so many I couldn’t believe I had overlooked them. Many of them ignored me, focusing on their work. But there were a few who turned. A few whose veins turned dark. But when I noticed, I merely nodded at them, and they returned to their work.

Simple as that.

They clearly weren’t like those at the auction. Maybe those were just the bad of the bunch.

But if so, why was Yien there?

I shook the line of questioning out of my mind. Yien wasn’t like the others, and neither were the demons she employed. That had become obvious over the short time I had been there.

I don’t know how long I spent exploring, but somehow I ended up right outside the kitchen, my stomach clenching painfully. I peered in, unable to help myself.

Two demons were inside, hard at work, tearing apart demon flesh and bashing it with what looked like a hammer. They were too busy chatting to notice me.

Just go in, I told myself. This is your house too.

Well… I was sort of a captive here, but I’d much rather think of myself as a guest than as someone who came here unwillingly. No one treated me awfully. They left me alone. I had a comfortable bed. Food every day. Baths.

I am free.

And it could have been worse. I could still be stuck with my father and the men back in… whatever realm mine was. I bet they had a name for it. Yien did say this was the Shadow Realm.

How pitiful is that? I am actually relieved to have been swept up by a demon and sold to Yien.

Of course the arrangement could have gone so much worse in a number of ways, but I had gotten lucky with her. Beyond lucky.

I could still feel the way her shadows moved across my skin, sending a wave of heat through me.

“So this is the little plaything Yien brought home,” a teasing voice said from behind me.

I jumped and turned around, coming face to face with a demon with deep red hair, the same grayed skin as Yien, and almost all-black eyes save for two white pupils, a bit like her too. As always, my first instinct was to run, but I tried my best to clamp down on it.

They won’t hurt you. Not here. Though there was a twinge of worry running through me when I realized just how alone I was with Yien off helping her friend.

But this demon… She wouldn’t hurt me. Her aura was clear as day.

There was a slight smirk on her face, but behind her sprouted dark blue wisps of smoke that spread out into space. It was a painful, melancholy picture painting the walls behind her with such sadness it caused my chest to clench.

Whoever this demon was, she was grieving.

“Iris,” I corrected her. “And you are…?”

A light red played at the edges of her aura before disappearing completely.

“Xira,” she said, her smirk dropping. “I came from the same shadows as Yien.”

Is that some roundabout way of saying they are siblings?

She paused, her eyes taking me in. I expected her to say something else, but whatever emotions she was fighting with seemed to be overtaking her at that moment.

My hand reached forward, grabbing hers, and pulling her into the kitchen with me. The two demons chattering stopped when we crossed the threshold.

“You’re just in time to have lunch with me,” I said, giving her a smile.

* * *

“It would be best if Yien was here for this,” Xira grumbled as she pushed a piece of demon meat into her mouth.

I had finished my lunch long ago, all but inhaling the cooked meat and yellowish vegetables, the cooks proving once again that the food was actually not half bad.

Though that didn’t mean I enjoyed watching demons eat bloodied, raw meat with their claws.

“Fine,” I said and sat back with my arms crossed. “I won't push, but I can see something's bothering you.”

“I know. In fact, by now, all the realms know that Yien has picked up an empath.”

I sat up at the mention of the other realms. Maybe this would be my chance to learn something about my demon.

“Other realms, you say? Do they often gossip about Yien?”

She frowned, her eyes looking down at the bloody meat between her claws before she popped it into her mouth. The sadness in her aura was overwhelming. I could feel it starting to seep into mine. A painful, heavy sadness that was too much to bear for one person alone.

“People gossip about her because she is an enigma,” she replied. “ Our realm is an enigma. I'm sure you've seen the souls around our property.”

I gave her a nod. I’d done more than see them.

“No one really knows why they're here or why they showed up. It’s not the only place where the souls exist in that form, but they seem to gather here.”

“And they just stay like that?” I asked. “For all eternity?”

She gave me a shrug. “The souls come and go. Move on when their time is done. I'm not privy to the secrets of the shadows. The souls picked her .” There was a heaviness to her words, a bitterness to them that didn’t go unnoticed.

“Is that something honorable?” I pried, leaning forward. “To be picked by the souls?”

Her eyes shot to mine, as if the question I asked was offensive in itself.

“To be picked by the souls is to be leader and protector of this realm,” she explained. “Yien has a responsibility to protect them until her last moment in this plane of existence.”

“And they just chose her like that?” She nodded, so I continued. “Why her?”

“I asked the same question many times,” she said with a sigh, giving me a forced smile. “Out of all the demons that spawned from their depths, they chose her . They gave her the powers, while myself and—” She stopped short, clearing her throat. “While I was just left as an ordinary demon.”

Her aura told me not to go on. The blue had spread out around us, engulfing the small dining space. But she did give me an in, one I would gladly take.

“Powers?”

“She controls the shadows,” she clarified. “All of them are at her whim. She can move them, order them, protect people with them. As soon as the shadows touch you, she knows everything she needs to know about you.” She shuddered. Does Yien… scare her? “The shadows are the only thing protecting those souls from being taken by other beings. Those shadows you see around her? They're an extension of her.”

Shadows. She called them that before, but I didn't realize that she controlled all the fog around the property.

“It’s a protective barrier. She lets them stay there until their time comes or until one of us is spawned. She knows everything that happens in there. How many souls, who tried to breach and when. All of it. Regardless, the barrier was there before her and will be there after her. But only the keeper of this realm can connect to the shadows like she can.”

Spawned. She said she came from the same shadows as Yien. Did that mean…

“Did Yien spawn you?”

A laugh burst from her.

“ Yien ?” she managed to say through bouts of laughter. “No, Yien hates interaction. If she had any way to control the process, I wouldn’t be here.”

I hummed and gave her a stiff smile. I wasn’t sure what to make of all this information.

“Have you seen them?” I asked. “The souls’ memories?”

“The souls?” Her expression turned serious. “Yien never let me near them, and even when I tried when she wasn’t here, the shadows pushed me back. She lets you?”

“Not really,” I said, feeling heat spread up my neck. “I kinda just do it. But each time, I’m only hit with memories of them doing the nasty. Yien has a different reaction when she sees them.”

Xira was silent for a long while.

“What?” I asked, a panicked laugh spilling from my lips. “Is that bad or something?”

Xira opened her mouth to speak but stopped abruptly, her eyes fixed behind me.

“What are you doing?”