Page 34 of The Demon’s Delight (The Demon Princes #3)

Chapter 33

Hailon

M y heart sank, the cold edge of fear skittering down my spine. The way Sal said those words…

I huffed a rough laugh, emotions a muddled mess. “Where else would I go, Sal?” I stared at my aunt, but the woman in front of me was suddenly unfamiliar. “I got back as soon as I could. Did… Didn’t you miss me? Didn’t you wonder why I never came back from the mountains?”

Sal sat in her favorite chair after handing out the tea. There was a small basket next to it with the same collection of yarn and mending inside there had always been. The plants lining both the front windows were perhaps a bit more overgrown but seemed mostly unchanged. The tapestries on the walls, the stacks of books on the floor in front of the full shelves… everything was the same. But it wasn’t.

I could feel it now that the rush of excitement had waned, the feeling that the house had moved on in my absence. I no longer fit in this place, not even in the partial kind of way I had before.

Sal sipped at her tea, then set it aside with a sigh. “There’s nothing for you here, Hailon.” Her eyes met mine, and again I got the impression I didn’t know the woman I’d lived with all my life.

“What?”

“Did you notice the healthy new fields on your way in? The way everyone is smiling in town? How nobody looks hungry?”

“I—”

“ I did that.” Her sudden snap of anger, the way her fist went to her chest, was so unlike her, I flinched from the movement.

“I don’t understand.”

“I did my part,” she said quietly, as though she’d repeated the words to herself several times before. “I cared for you well. Thirty years is enough. More than. I did my duty to your mother, I kept my promise.”

Seir shifted his position, but I was rooted to the floor. Ice flowed through my veins as I absorbed her detached tone.

“You did, Sal. And thank you for that. You always did well by me. You taught me everything I know. I thought it went without saying, but I cared for you too. I stayed in this house because you needed me. Because that was the only way to guarantee you’d stay alive?—”

“But you were what was wrong with me!” she barked. “Me and the whole town. When you would go into the mountains, the springs would start to flow freely, like a clog had released upstream. Every fountain in town would go from a little trickle to a full bubble. Fields were irrigated like no other time. Plants, animals, people—all would perk up when you were away from town. Did you know that?”

“There was always talk about the springs being unpredictable, but?—”

“I tracked it. For years after I first got a hint that there was a pattern. I had to be sure. You were my best friend’s daughter, after all, and I could be signing my own death warrant if I was wrong. But I wasn’t. Something about you is toxic, Hailon. You suck up any magic around you like a black hole.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t be your source any longer. And I needed my own life! I sacrificed my own relationships and youth to tend to you.”

“Sal.” The lump in my throat was hard to swallow over, let alone try to speak over.

“I did everything I could think of to get you to leave on your own, Hailon. Nothing was ever enough to convince you to just go , even with the whole town torn between fearing and despising you. It wasn’t enough that the town thought you were a whore. Not enough that they thought you were responsible for several people dying under your care. You took the abuse they dished out and still helped them.” The sour expression on her face made it seem like such a thing was far from her comprehension. “Despite it all, you kept trying. So I had to find a different way. It was common knowledge you periodically went to collect herbs in the mountains, I just had to make sure the right person found out you’d be out there alone.”

Tears prickled, the words like punches. My breath was loud in my ears, the pain that stabbed at my insides every time I breathed reminiscent of the angry bond but much sharper, like I’d inhaled shards of glass. When I opened my eyes after blinking to clear the tears from my vision, Seir had moved from his post near the door. He was leaning over Sal with his horns out and sharp teeth bared, tail wound around her throat and dagger in his hand.

“Be very careful what your next words are,” he warned, voice low and menacing. Every dish in the kitchen cabinets rattled. “You’re lucky you’re still alive after a confession like that.”

“A demon?” she gasped, eyes and mouth both wide.

I took the few steps separating us and put my hand on Seir’s arm. “It’s alright. Let her go.”

He snarled, the noise aimed at her, not me. He unwound his tail from her throat and took the smallest possible step back from her.

“Do you know where they took me? What they planned to do with me?”

“All I did was casually mention to Gerald when he dropped off the candles that week that you were off on one of your excursions. You went all the time! It’s not like it was a secret. What he did with that information is none of my concern.”

“Did you look for me, Sal?”

“Of course. There was no way to know what happened to you. For all I knew, you ran off or got eaten by a bear in the woods. It was just coincidental timing that a traveling merchant happened to be in town then and had mentioned he was looking for a healer for his town and the neighboring villages down south.”

“But neither of those things happened to me, Sal. I was taken. By that merchant. All because you gossiped with Gerald.”

“None of this was easy for me, Hailon. I felt like I had no other choice.”

“No other choice.” The blood in my veins had frozen solid. “You could have left, Sal. You could have talked to me . Instead, you sold me out.” The words came out of my mouth in my voice, but I was numb. The shape of them felt wrong on my lips. “You knew that information would end up in the tavern. You all but hand delivered me to men you knew nothing about, including their true intentions.”

She scanned me up and down. “You look no worse for wear.”

Those words made something inside me break. Wild energy pulsed behind my right eye, a rage like I’d never known flooded through me. I put out one arm to bar Seir from surging forward, a wild growl rumbling through him. I understood his motivations, but this was my fight. I reached the other hand forward, Sal’s pulse fast against my thumb as I held her by the throat. She didn’t move. There was a slight flinch at the corner of her eye, but she held steady, staring right back at me.

“Three men snatched me from the woods. For weeks I was bound, hooded, and kept in a wagon.” I took a small step closer so I could keep a grip on her and bend down a bit. I held eye contact with her as I spoke, wanting her to feel every word. “After that, I was kept in a small, cold bedroom in only a thin nightgown. I was chained to the bed by my ankles so I couldn’t escape. I was forced to use my gift over and over. My captor was cruel, and he profited while I suffered.”

She flinched again, what might have been a flash of guilt crossing her face, and it was the fuel to the fire inside me.

“Seven men routinely experimented on me. Sampled everything they could think of. Blood. Hair. Nails. Skin. I was cold, hungry, exhausted, and battered. No sunshine. No happiness. And do you know what I thought of?” Her lips parted the tiniest bit. “You.” Tears prickled again, ones born of anger and disappointment. “I was worried about you . About getting back here, so I could heal you. I calculated the weeks I was being tortured in missed treatments.” I scoffed, voice gone rough from how loud I’d been yelling.

“Hailon, listen.” Sal put her hands up as though surrendering.

“I’m not done!” I shouted.

Sal jerked and scooted back, my hand now a claw around her throat, her pulse thrumming against my palm like a hummingbird. The lines in her face suddenly seemed more noticeable, her gray hair more pronounced. The glow I’d admired in her face had faded to sallow gray.

“I was so desperate to escape my situation that I pickpocketed a spell book from one of my captors. If he’d noticed, I could have been killed, but I had no other choice. Those pages held instructions for how to summon a demon. Turns out, that was the best risk I ever took.” I felt Seir’s hand on my shoulder, his tail slowly winding around my leg. “He got me back here as quickly as possible. For you .” I laughed then, the sound wild, unhinged. The inside of my body felt too light, too free. I was worried that I was very much not okay, but the notion was slippery, sliding away from my grasp as quickly as it came.

Finally, I released her throat. Sal coughed, looking as though she’d aged ten years since we arrived. “I guess you were right about one thing, though. We came back here for nothing.” I turned to Seir. “We could have stayed in that lovely little cabin for the rest of our lives. Lingered in the hot springs another day, wandered around those quaint towns in the Valley for a week. It wouldn’t have made any difference.” The concerned frown on his face made my head hurt. I sagged, all the strength I’d gotten from the anger gone.

Sal held her head up, meeting my eye. “For what it’s worth, I’m proud of the strong, capable woman you’ve become. I knew you’d be okay no matter what happened to you.”

For some reason, that hurt worse than anything else she’d said.

I roared, a feral sound of rage and agony that originated from somewhere beyond my physical body. Seir stood at my back, every muscle tensed, waiting for the slightest signal that I wanted him to act.

“Where are my things?” I asked when I could coherently form words again.

“Your room.”

“Do. Not. Move.”

I met Seir’s eye and communicated with a slight nod that I wanted him to guard her before moving through the house to the small room that used to be mine.

Dust motes filtered through the slant of orange afternoon light coming through the tattered curtain. The walls were bare. My bed was right where it had always been, but it was covered in a plain white cloth. There were no pillows, no blankets. It had been dressed for long-term storage, to keep the dust off, not for use. I supposed I should be grateful that she hadn’t moved in someone else yet. In the far corner of the room was a trunk and a couple of crates. It seemed a pitiful collection to represent someone’s whole life.

I went over to the pile of things, pulling out a book, a dress. My eyes were wet again, and my heart squeezed so hard I could hardly breathe.

After having survived out of a pack for so long, I was surprised and disappointed that none of it brought me any sentimental feelings at all. It was mostly useless garbage.

I dug around in the trunk for the few items of clothing I knew I’d regret leaving. My old boots had been taken from me by my kidnappers, and the knife I always used for plants had ended up somewhere in the woods, which still made me sad.

I went through the crates, taking out my books, a small jewelry box. I looked through the piles once more before deciding I had everything of value. It was a sad little collection, but all the other things could be replaced. I wrapped everything in my wall tapestry and looked around one last time.

“I owe you no kindness,” Seir snarled at Aunt Sal as I came back into the room. “You’re lucky to still be breathing.”

“I took everything I want,” I said, putting the bundle inside my pack. “Burn the rest or sell it. Makes no difference to me.” I turned to Seir. “What did she ask you?”

“The secret to demon summoning,” he answered, crossing his arms. “If we happened to still have that little spell book.”

“I’ve just been trying for so many years,” she lamented, appealing to my pity. Unfortunately for her, I no longer had any. “I made myself crazy trying any method I could find. None of the books or pamphlets had it right. Nothing worked. But you managed it! You!” She scoffed, as though I were some inept fool for whom such a thing should have been impossible. “If I’d been able to do that, been able to bring your mother back, I wouldn’t have been so desperate. Things could have been different! I wouldn’t have been driven to do such a thing?—”

“Are you saying my mother”—my vision narrowed, the overwhelming emotions of the visit rising again from where they’d finally settled—“was a demon?”

“Not full-blooded, no. Her mother was a demon, or that’s what she was told. But I always hoped it would work, if I could have managed to figure out the right way.”

Sal rose and retrieved a small notebook from her bookcase. “This is what she left for me, when I took Hailon in,” she said, showing us both a worn piece of parchment. “For all the good it did me.” The whole page was written in a language I couldn’t read, signed with what looked like a sigil. Seir reached out and took the paper, scanning it with a frown before putting it in his pocket. He just stared Sal down when she opened her mouth to protest. Sal accepted the loss. “Her name was Wyn. I loved her. And I did my best to honor the promise I made her.” She nodded, convincing herself that there was truth in those words.

I turned for the door.

“Moonflower?” Seir asked, a perplexed look on his face.

“I traveled all this way, terrified I’d get here to find her gravely ill or already dead. The reality is honestly so much worse.” I laughed again, the sound humorless and edged with anger. “This kind of betrayal… I don’t even have words for it. But I won’t do to her what she did to me. I’m better than that.”

“I’m not,” my demon was quick to respond.

“I need you to be. For now. She lives. For now.”

He huffed a breath, showing her his teeth one more time before turning to grab our packs. “I will honor this command because you gave it. And because it is only for now .”

Sal flinched but didn’t apologize.

I turned back one last time, Sal’s bitter face burning into my mind along with all the words she’d flung at me. Then I bestowed the best curse I could think of on her and turned to leave the place that had been my home my whole life for the last time.

“I hope you have the life you deserve, Sal.”